[Ray]

Hey Cat I put an article up on the disscussion board about garage floors and how to hide them.I think its under 1/4 repair or floor repair.I can offer advise if you need it Ray/Pacificatz

 

[CougarAOD]

garage floor

It sure is a beaut' ! Looks almost as good as the road going by under the floor of my 69. I drive it with no carpe with the holes in the floor. It is my next project after I finish my current project---the 70 with the 460.

 

[Ray]

Catz The road going by or the garage floor staring up at you is a thing I call "The self vacuuming" trunk or car or whatever.When repairing a convertable floor often the inner rockers will need work where the floor pan joins to it underneath.The original thickness of the rocker inner and the center stiffener was/is .090".The outer rocker is .065" and the center stiffener on hardtops is also .065.I believe the floor itself is .040.If the floor was joined to the side of the rocker the rotting wouldn't be so bad but alas this was not to be.Be sure to paint any of the insides that you can reach when you open up the floor and rockers.By using "satin" material that is coated with zinc you will not have the rot again at least in our lifetimes .There is more to this repair .Let me know if you need more .Hope this helps Ray

 

[Cougrrcj]

Inner rocker panels

Ray is absolutely correct about the inner rocker panels. You had better replace them as well while you're putting in the new floors. They alone are the longitudinal structural members in a convertible.

I helped a buddy restore/rebuild a 73 Mustang convt. What a chore that was! The only exterior panels reused from the original car were the outer rocker panels and the rear deck panel (between the top and the deck lid. This particular car needed front and rear inner fender aprons, radiator support, both quarter panels, inner and outer rear wheel houses and the tail light panel in addition to full floors and the inner rocker panels. Bolt-ons like the doors and front fenders were also replaced.

Was all this effort worth it? I don't know. I've junked better conv'ts than the one he fixed. The restoration took us the better part of two years. But he now has a 'twin' of his '73 Mach 1, but in drop-top form. Both are 351C-4V 4-speeds. When I said twins, I wasn't kidding -- right down to the paint color, wheels and stripe (although the convt stripe doesn't say 'Mach 1').

I have driven this car on occasion, and believe me, you don't want to put your finger in the door/quarter gap while driving down the road. The body has enough flex it is scary. If we were to do this restoration again we'd probably use cr/mo rectangular tubing in place of the inner rockers and also tie the front and back halves of the car with subframe connectors.

I don't mean to discourage you, just giving a note of precaution.

 

[Paul G.]

rusty floor

If you think that is bad, follow this link to my Project Cougar 2001 website. There is a link to a page that shows the the floor repair I did on my convertible.

http://home.sprynet.com/~pamar/cougar.html

It looks as though we started in about the same place. I repaced all four pans and used 1/8 steel plate to reinforce the rockers.
Good Luck,
Paul G.

 

[Ray]

flex

Catz I could literraly grab the rad support on my 390 XR7 convertable and twist the car front to rear.One of the big problems was the the rear torque boxes had come unattached from the rocker rails.My 1/4s and doors and fenders,well everything is off mine but now is totally rigid since the repairs to inner rockers.Total time was about 14 hours for both sides and the floor repairs needed when opening up for the rocker repairs.I don't believe you need frame connectors or tubing installed if you follow the way the car was originally built and repair rockers and torque boxes back to original.I'd also like to point out that my frt torque boxes are immaculate and the rears gave way from the stress of 320 HP pushing and pulling constantly.I did add a few more welds than original but my job is barely detectable from original