At 07:36 PM 3/21/03 -0500, Ken wrote:
>Does anyone have any info on how to take the floors out? The body is off and
>I've taken out most of the pop rivets. I tried to heat the glue with a heat
>gun, but it didn't seem to do anything.
Ken,
Yes, I've removed the floors from my car. Do you plan on taking out the
trunk deck when you pull your floor pans? I opted to remove them seperately.
Based on the floor pan loosing strength (if you are inside working:
1. Remove the dash if it hasn't been pulled yet.
2. Remove the emergency brake handle.
3. Remove both the reel and clasp parts of the the seatbelts. Depending on
the state of your car, you may have to cut the nuts off from under the
car. I had to. I think it took me over 1 hour each to remove the nuts
and bolts from the floor pan.
4. Remove the lift rams and their mounting brackets
5. Drill out all the pop rivets:
a. at the trunk/floor seam - located where the lift rams are.
b. at the side panels, both the top (where the panels meet the sill
plate), the bottom where the panels meet the floor pan, and where
these panels meet the firewall. Then remove these side panels.
c. finally remove the rivets from the firewall.
To remove the front floor pan, you will need to Drill out all the pop rivets
along the firewall and the rivets along the seam of the front floor pan
and the trunk deck.
At this point, depending on how high your body is off the floor, you may want
to place something under the floor pan so that it doesn't break as it
seperates
from the body - a floor jack with a piece of 2x4 or a couple of boxes or
buckets - anything.
Be very careful on this next step as you can break the fiberglass, and you
will at least chip it in some places.
As you removed the rivets from the various joints, the glue will still be
holding the panels together. To seperate the glued joints, I used a putty
knife, that I sharpened, as a chissel and hammered it into the joints. Then
I carefully hammered it down the length of the joints. You may want to try
and use a heat gun (be careful as these can generat a lot of heat and burn
the fiberglass - or a hair dryer) to try and weaken the glue as you go.
Once the floor pan is totally free, you will probably need a helping hand
to twist or jiggle it some to get it out from under the body.
Once the panels are removed, I cleaned them with something like Simple Green
and warm water. After they dry, I cleaned up all the edges by sanding. I
reinforced any areas that were cracked, I reinforced by adding a couple of
layers of fiberglass cloth and resin. There is also a thickening powder
that you can add to the resin to fill hole, etc. After the panels were
repaired, I lightly sanded the entire panel and brushed on two coats of
resin - sanding between each coat.
Hope this helps.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 (#0887) 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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