Fittin Boot Floor

A picture of the new boot floor being fitted prior to welding in place.

The skeletons are in pretty good shape rust wise. Only the portion from the center of the wheel arch forward is actually connected to anything (wing/rear deck flange) and considering the amount of rust in the wing seam the skeletons are pretty clean although the right side one was kind of misshapen.

As it turned out, the frame extension had to be cut (at the red arrow) and the rear section of it removed to facilitate the reshaping of the inner wing and the straightening of the frame extension. This picture shows it being refitted in conjunction with the new boot floor prior to welding it back in place.

The right side skeleton in the above pictures has already been straightened and reattached to the remaining portion of the inner wing.

A picture of the new boot floor being fitted prior to welding in place.

The floor is a perfect fit with no modification and it looks like the rear deck is going to mate up with the car and the new floor.

The hardest part is cutting the old floor at the axle hump in exactly the right place to insure that the new floor and the old floor meet. You need just the slightest gap (.04") for the weld to penetrate.

Somewhere in my distant past when I got stupid, I flared the wings on this car. There was a piece of 1 1/4" x 3/16" flat stock welded around the edge of the wing.

When this was removed the outer portion of the inner wing was destroyed.

The inner wing on these cars is in two sections. The red arrows point to where the new piece will be added.