I need some thoughts as how to proceed

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mark studley

mark studley

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Hi if your reading this thank you. I just joined this site because I just got a 1967 dart gt convertible it needs floors and the frame rails under the car need replacing. my question is should I replace the frame sections then remove the floor or should I remove the floor to get better access to the needed work. I do not want to the car to scrap metal by doing the wrong thing. I am looking forward to what you have to say. thanks take care.
 
Welcome to FABO... :welcome:

I am no body man, but I would think that you want to get the solid frame rails in first, then the new floorboards...

You may need to remove the floor boards first to be able to access the frame rail sections that you need to replace... Sometimes there are spot welds on the frame to hold the floor board... You have to break those free so you can remove the frame section that you are working on..

Also keep in mind how you are going to support the car while replacing the frame, you don't want it to sag before getting the new frame sections in and then the body geometry will be off...
 
krazykuda said:
Welcome to FABO... :welcome:

I am no body man, but I would think that you want to get the solid frame rails in first, then the new floorboards...

You may need to remove the floor boards first to be able to access the frame rail sections that you need to replace... Sometimes there are spot welds on the frame to hold the floor board... You have to break those free so you can remove the frame section that you are working on..

Also keep in mind how you are going to support the car while replacing the frame, you don't want it to sag before getting the new frame sections in and then the body geometry will be off...
Click to expand...
 
Hi my plan was to weld square tubing across the door openings to keep it from sagging. the area under the sill plates from the front fender to the rear of the door is very solid on both sides that should also help i am hoping. I am going to take inventory as to what i need once it goes up on the lift then I will take a bunch of pictures to share with everyone.
 
hi, looking forward to your progress,,,my 68 convertible gts is in the same situation,,needs floors, trunk and frame,,its almost stripped to a bare shell,,I'm getting it dipped so that any welding that needs to be done, will be to clean bare metal,,plus i think having it dipped will make it easier cut away bad and re-fit good metal
 
A vert has twice as much metal in the rocker rails as the hardtop has. If all of that is still solid you're ahead of the game. Others have found major rust hidden inside there too. Good luck with it.
 
I just finished doing the rear frame rails on my challenger and a decent chunk of the trunk pan. Not a full rail or trunk pan replacement, but some pretty big sections. Anyway, I used a spot weld cutter to separate the rails from the floor and then replaced the rails, leaving the old sections of floor I was going to replace separated from the new rails.

I did it that way so that the original floors could help locate the new rails. The holes from the spot welds, the height of the floor, undercoating and paint lines, even rust marks, etc all give cues to the rail location. Obviously you need to take a lot of measurements still, but leaving the floors in place helps to constrain the installation so you're not just locating the rails in space. Then with the rails attached to the crossmembers I removed the sections of floor and replaced them. If your floors are totally shot that may not help you, but if they're even partially there it will make locating the new rails a little easier.
 
thank you for the reply the floors are there from firewall to rear bumper I think that I will follow your lead and cut the spot welds after taking careful measurements. I am going to start this car late October I am doing floors (patching not replaceing) on my 58 ford ranchero.I want to focus on one car at a time.
 
You will need to support the car carefully, remove the driveline and complete interior, and remove the K frame and torsion bars. You'll have to brace the unibody front to back and side to side. The floors are in 4 pieces from the factory - there are hundreds of spot welds, and the frame rail has other juntion points with various bits and main support members. I would remove the floor(s) first so you can see the extent of the rust. Generally the floors are not the only parts, and if the frame rail(s) went bad, there's other stuff that conncts to them that is bad too. It's not a small job, and the "might as wells" will have you doing a complete resto unless you toss all the old stuff back on it.
 
I am planning a total gut and rebuild I can not see any other way. I just got to be carteful and take my time to do it right.
 
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