replace floor? Should I or ?

[Mgicm]

So I got this 51 and the previous owner did some hack job to put floors in. Seems he fitted sheetmetal to the floor/toeboard and welded it in. Im so tempted to rip it all out but then a can of worms opens. part of me cant stand it..part of me wants to leave it as is since im not restoring it and driving as a rod...no painting it. Looking for opinions.... attached is a pic.

[youngrodder]

Ask yourself "is the floor structural sound?" (as far as you can tell). If it is, by the time you cover it with some type of coating (spray/roll on bed liner) and cover it with carpet and pad you will not notice the difference. Money can add up on these projects in a hurry so see if it is a must have before you commit to the time and labor involved.

Good luck
Marc

[mr48chev]

It appears that he had good intentions and a pretty good plan for what "he" wanted in the truck but that big console may not fit your plans for it.

The workmanship doesn't look that bad but it does look unfinished with the spot welds and not having the welds finished or seam sealed. It just looks more unfinished than anything. As in the idea that he got that far with welding it together and either quit on the truck or decided to sell it for what ever reason. He may even be one of those guys who puts trucks and cars together to the point where potential buyers look at them with the idea that "I can finish that the way I want" and not have to pay for finish work that they can do the way they want to make it their truck.

I'd be rolling under it and spending some time examining what they did when they put the new floor in. Did they cut out all of the old floor and start over and is the new floor reinforced or did they lay the new floor right over the old floor after cutting out the area under the trans hump.g


Youngrodder made some good points while I was typing my post. His point on is it structurally sound is probably the most important thing to look at. Then you can figure out how to seal it up better or modify it to fit your wants and needs if you want.

[Mgicm]

Good points indeed and I thank you for them. Not to sound silly, but when you say 'structurally sound' what would you look for specifically? They are thick sheets I can see and some work went into them but what would you look for underneath? How/Where should they be attached? What if there is some of the original metal underneath but these sheets go over it? Im just concerned with safety of course but also if I ever decide to move on from the truck how it would be received. And of course there is the argument of doing it how I want but money always comes into play with that. I see the panels are not cheap probably at least $750 total plus all the other costs.

One other side point is I dont like his body mounts so I thought this to be a good time to remove and redo. Thought I could lift off cab, redo floor and mounts and know it is as I wanted.

Thanks

[VTX-Black]

If your building a shop truck type build, I'd be tempted to just hide it under carpet that you make out of burlap or horse hair.

[oldcouple]

I think it also depends on what it looks like from the bottom. Mine had a sheet metal patch on the inside, but underneath it had a pocket where the rusted out hole was, it trapped water and dirt and continued to rust and enlarge the hole.

[OrrieG]

Ditto, crawl underneath with a screwdriver. Rust never sleeps, if the PO did not at least cut out the bad and just covered from the top and tried to hide the bottom you have a problem. If he cut out the bad, and seal up the joints between the new and old then not so bad. Finishing it is your preference; leave it alone, smooth and paint, shag carpet??? If they replaced the whole floor and nothing else moved (window or door openings) its a bonus.