My Duster Adventures

Well, I planned on welding up a few more bolt holes and putting some cable lube in my heater controls this evening but, when I walked into the garage, I saw a nice, flat, square box from jegs. My new passenger front floor pan came in! I’d debated about just replacing the rusted corner and jb welding the pits but @moparmat2000 and a few others pointed out that eventually I’d probably have to redo that. And I don’t wanna do that!
Anyway, I figured I’d fiddle around with that some and then move on to something else, but I’ll be dipped if I didn’t just go ahead and cut down the new pan to how I wanted it, marked off the old floor and then went ahead and cut that out as well! Enough chit chat. Here’s some pics.

Here’s what the old pans looked like. Really not that bad but I’m glad I’m changing it.
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After I marked off the floor, I cut the perimeter, then cut out where the wasn’t and frame rails.
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Then I drilled the spot welds and busted them loose with a chisel and hammer and cleaned up all the rails with a wire wheel.
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Then I test fit the piece and was pleasantly surprised at the fit the first time around. There’s a shadow along the right side edge that’s makes it look like a big gap there. The right side does have a bigger gap than I’d prefer, but it’s nowhere near as big as it looks.
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I wasn’t feeling very well (probably not enough ventilation) so I can back into the house. Think I’ll get the heater cables lubed up yet, then call it a night.
Tomorrow I want to clean out the frame rails, paint inside them and put a piece of rubber fuel line over the steel fuel line that can seen in the 4th pic. Then weld in the pan as well as patch a few other holes.