Lowered floor fitting.

[bobt]

Hi peebs,

 

Just eyeing up the job and would like confirmation if the outboard edge of the floor goes between the chassis and the internal cockpit panel or inside it so that the internal panel is sandwiched between the floor edge and the chassis?

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[paul richards]

I fitted mine with the floor sandwiched between the chassis and the interior panel. I also trimmed about an inch off the original floor and sandwiched that between the chassis and sides in (I.e. In the same place it was originally. This hopefully enables the skin to fit as previously without the risk of distortion. I put a good coating of rustproofing in the sandwich as well.

[bobt]

Thanks Paul

[Paul Formston]

Hi bobt, yeah the Lowered floor is sandwiched between the chassis and the inner panels and I did as Paul did when I did Nick Chans for him it saves the outer Panel distorting when you rivet it back up Regards Paul

[jamiegb]

Hi Rob

 

Other tips from my experience:

 

Jack car as high as possible to get good access for re-rivetting the new floor

Use old chisel to remove rivets from old floor - much quicker than drilling the rivets

Mark the old floor from underneath before removing to give guide to remove the strip which then fits back under the sideskin to stop deformity when replacing rivets. I used a jigsaw to trim this strip off but some use a scoring with Stanley knife and bend to fatigue technique.

Squirt waxoyl through the rivet holes before fixing the new floor to stop rivet heads rattling

Use a punch to push the rivet heads into the chassis rail after removing the old floor

trial fit the new floor and adjust as necessary - different templates are available and some foul at the rear end and may need fettling

Get another pair of hands to help when offering up the new floor so that you can drill the lateral edge between the inner sideskin and the chassis rail using the existing holes in the inner sideskin

apply silicon sealant as sandwich at front and propshaft sides of new floor prior to rivetting

You may be able to use the old floor as a template for the seat mounting positions in the new floor but you should also have some strengthening bars between the seat and the lowered floor - not present in every case but worth fitting

Get number 1 son to help with fitting the stainless steel rivets (NOT your ordinary rivets) unless you have a compressed air rivetter or else your wrists and forearms will tell you all about it the next day!!

 

Have fun

 

Jamie

[bobt]

Thanks Jamie. Hopefully the job will be considerably easier for me since I'm staring at a completely bare, freshly powdercoated chassis :-)

[SLR No.77]

If you're planning to squirt a load of Waxoyl in the chassis tubes, before you fit the lowered floor insert rivets into the underside of the chassis cross member directly below your knee position. IIRC there are 5 holes where the standard floor was rivetted to this cross member ....... if you don't seal the holes the Waxoyl will leak (pour!) out! Also worth seaking out a suppier of closed end rivets to seal the chassis tubes better against water ingress.

 

Stu.

[Windy Corner]

When Bruce at Arch did mine, it was exactly as Paul described

 

Rik

[sopris]

Am in the process of fitted a lowered floor to my 96 DeDion chassis. This model year requires a small welded box section to clear the front A frame mount.

 

The old panel was mounted entirely with vertically fastened rivets.

 

The right side and rear of the floor section are fastened using horizontal rivets and the floor panel is sandwiched between the cockpit panels and the chassis rails. So no worries there; I just drill the holes in the lowered floor panel using the cockpit panels as the template.

 

However, the left side and front are fastened using vertical rivets. Any clever ideas how to reuse the existing holes in the chassis? Because the old and new panels aren't fastened in the same way I can't just overlay the old on the new for use as a template. I suppose I can trim the right and rear edges of the old panel to remove the sections that were under the chassis tubes and use what's left as a template. Any other ideas welcome.

[Sheds Moderator]

One other tip - when sealing use automotive panel sealant rather than silicone. Silicone contains acetic acid which is rather fond of initiating corrosion. We used to use it to seal electrical things in dairies (horribly wet, corrosive environments and really nasty for electrical gear) but it created more problems than it solved. Acrylic is less aggressive even if it's not quite as resistant to water.

[bobt]

Finished fitting mine today. Sopris, I trimmed the edge from the old panel to make a template.

 

Another question tho. The bracket that fixes the floor to the chassis cross member (chassis tube that run across the footwell floor), which side of the floor do you have the rivet head? ie rivet through bracket into floor or vise-versa?

[paul richards]

Bobt

Through bracket into floor. Rivet head inside cab.