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Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:22 am

I'm in the process of restoring a 54 sc. I plan to replace my cargo floors. How do I remove the old? I have been told that I just need to drill out the welds, but my floors are rusted, and I can't clearly see where the welds are. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Fri Dec 06, 2002 1:23 pm

I can tell you why nobody posted a reply to this one. This is one hell of a job and nobody wanted to be the bearer of the bad news. You better plan on many, many, many hours for this job.

There are going to be hundreds if not thousands of spot welds. Some us an air hammer chisel (sharpend) when the rust is hiding the spot welds. You can try a stiff wire wheel on your 4.5" angle grinder to shine up the metal enough to see the tell tale signs of the welds. Some times you can peel back as you go and where it hangs up next is your next weld. Big vicegrips works good for this chore. It will take some time but you can do it. You can also slice sections with a reciprocating saw with metal cuttin blade to separate the floor into sections to aid in the peeling back method described above. Be careful what is underneath, you don't want to cut into good, sound crossmembers, frame sections, wiring, cables, etc.

I would tell you to have fun but I don't think thats gonna happen. You will derive a great sense of accomplishment once it has been lovingly replaced though.

Doug

Fri Dec 06, 2002 3:00 pm

Doug,
Thanks for the reply. Yeah...I knew it wasn't going to be fun. My concern in drilling out the spot welds is messing up the crossmembers for the cargo floor. I take it that I need to be careful in not drilling through the cargo floor crossmembers, because I would imagine thousands of holes in it wouldn't be great for structural support?
Then when it is out, how do people typically weld it to the cargo crossmembers? I'm not getting a pretty picture of myself welding underneath the floor to the crossmember (welding via my back). Or do people typically spot weld in the replacement floor?

Fri Dec 06, 2002 6:18 pm

Go to www.dropgates.com. There is a link to a site where the owner of a SC did this job. Lots of pictures, and as close to a tour of Hell as you're likely to see.
Are you sure you can't clean up enough of the current floor to be able to patch in the rest?

Fri Dec 06, 2002 10:30 pm

There are two spot welds per floor support in every rigdge of the floor. The jack supports have spot welds as well as @ 1 inch long gas welds, there are also spot welds on the inner support rails along the rocker and long pannel. The rear floor is spot welded under the body and the front of the floor is spot welded to the font wall. I cut around the whole floor first, If your inner floor supports are not rust get a long angled pry bar, hammer it between the floor and rails till you hit the spot welds and pop them up one at a time till you get the center of the floor out. Then removed the outside strips with a ginder, wire wheel and spot weld remover. You will need to grind the welds out by the jack points ant the heater tubes in back. You will mess up the inner rocker supports, they are made out of sheel metal the same gauge as you bus, these run front to back on the outside of the floor supports.

Fri Dec 06, 2002 10:32 pm

An update.....I worked on the cargo floor tonight for 1 1/2 hours and I only have less than 25% of the cargo floor left to remove. How can that be? Part of the floor had already rotted away (probably almost 25%) and as I was working on it with a chisel, I started to see how much I could get off. One thing led to another and I had the bulk of it done with no drilling. The cross members for the cargo floor look to be in good shape. I might use an angle grinder to smooth the spot welds, but I almost don't think it will be necessary. Now, if I had to drill out every spot weld, then it would be a journey through hell, but using a chisel and hammer, it wan't too bad at all. I will probably use a drill on the portion attached to the cab bottom, but all other areans appear to be able to get a chisel to do most of the work.

Fri Dec 06, 2002 10:34 pm

odjennings - thanks for the link to dropgates.com. From there I found a link to http://www.metwiz.com./ and that guy has the sheetmetal I need to fix my cargo doors. I was thinking I was going to have to get a new door.

Thanks,

Ryan

Sat Dec 07, 2002 8:59 am

a huge flat head screw driver or carpet chisle works good I used a cut off leaf sprng about 16"the curve in it popped up almost all the spot welds, I rolled it back like carpet I cut around the edges too then plugg welded it back

Sat Dec 07, 2002 10:18 am

has anyone had the pleasure of replacing cross members? mine look as if water has gotten in from the top edge and swollen apart.