Dumb question about wood 'burb floor...

[classicfins]

Hey, I'm new to these old 'burbs and was sitting here thinking about the wood floor in my '72. How do you go about replacing this? It's going to be a couple of days before I can get back to the shop to really get down and take a look at mine so I wanted to ask here. From my understanding the inner wheel well unbolts from the floor, but not from the main body, so I'm thinking the body has to come off the frame and then replace the floor?
Doug

[olblue60@aol.com]

Yes,you will need to remove the floor by raising the rear of the body. I would try to loosen and leave the two front mounts together and raise just the rear of the body.
Its not to hard to do. The plywood is 5/8 inch marine plywood. Its kinda pricy. Good luck!! Welcome to the board!!

[classicfins]

Thanks Olblue... That's pretty much what I was thinking.
Doug

[vectorit]

I am pretty sure it's possible to replace the wood without lifting the body.

But, with all the grime under the wood the job will be really frustrating.

This is how I would do it, since I removed mine while the body was off but installed it when the body was back on the frame.

This job will be a lot easier if you don't care about the existing wood.

1. Remove all of the carriage bolts. They will be all rusted, but they are soft enough to break or grind off. In my case I used a pair of vise grips to snap them off from the bottom. (Doing this job will take a while in it's self).

2. Remove the spare tire tub.

3. the section in front of the passenger side rear fender tub is tongue and grooved in to the main sheet of wood, and you need to pry it back so that it "slides" into the rear fender well. I say "slides" sarcastically since you will most likely really have to work at it to get it to separate.

4. Once that small section is removed as described in task 3, the main sheet of wood needs to "slide" horizontally towards the passenger side. Once you get the sheet out from under the driver side rear wheel well, you can now lift it up from the driver side while standing next to tail light.

5. Pull the sheet out from the rear cargo area opening.

To install your new floor, just repeat the steps in reverse.

I found in my case the wood fused itself to the body, and in your case I am sure it has done that as well to your burb. So the above process is going to be a really challenge!

Of course it's easier to do this with the body off, but if you don't want to or do not have the resources to do so. This will be your only choice in my opinion.

Good luck!

Be sure to take lots of pictures as well, since when I did mine I didn't have a camera (Back when I did mine, digital cameras were not around).

[classicfins]

Thanks for the info vectorit. I will probably pull the body off of mine during the rebuild so I guess I will be changing out the wood. The wood I have seems ok, but has had some extra holes drilled in it and while it's all apart I kind of hate not to put new wood in. I'll be sure to take pics as I go.
Doug

[C20-67_N_MO]

Not trying to hijack your post classicfins but need to ask a question to to masses here.

So if one would want to keep the existing wood floor they would have to lift the body to remove the old wood, correct?

My plan would be to get a new peice of wood and stain it in a way that looks like the back of a truck bed with multiple color striping that brings out the beauty of the wood itself.

Just thinking here.....

Thanks!

[olblue60@aol.com]

Technicaly, I believe what member "Vectorit" posted would work!.Perhaps loosen some of the body mounts and maybe shim the body up ever so slightly so that things would slide easier. Be careful though. I would do this only with the front doors open, or else they might bind up with the front fenders and cause damage. Getting the small piece of floor out and then back in will be tricky. Making some cuts to take the old out seems like a good idea but you will need to make templates with the pieces, so take care with your cuts.

[C20-67_N_MO]

Originally Posted by olblue60@aol.com

Technicaly, I believe what member "Vectorit" posted would work!.Perhaps loosen some of the body mounts and maybe shim the body up ever so slightly so that things would slide easier. Be careful though. I would do this only with the front doors open, or else they might bind up with the front fenders and cause damage. Getting the small piece of floor out and then back in will be tricky. Making some cuts to take the old out seems like a good idea but you will need to make templates with the pieces, so take care with your cuts.

Cool.

Will have to keep this one on the back burner for future reference.