With the front third of the floor done and the angle iron supports and final set of body mounts taken care of, its time to start coming around the bend to the finish line with the completion of the Mustang's floor. Just as was done with the angle iron for support with the sheet metal, I decided to add some supports in the form of old conduits that will aid in supporting the sheet metal when its added. The first thing I did before this though was close in the narrow middle section of floor between the two angle iron supports. This section is a 7" gap between the two angle iron supports, easily filled in with pieces of scrap sheet metal.
With the smaller pieces of sheet metal completely welded in, fully closing in the angle iron supports, I dug out some conduits and mapped out the spots where I want to weld them in place. I prepped the metal with the grind down to bare metal then cut the lengths of conduit I needed. I started off with the first set of conduits, about a foot back from the angle iron supports, welding them in place just in front of one of the crossmembers of the Ranger frame. The placement of these conduits will allow the sheet metal to rest just above the Ranger frame rails and crossmembers. With the two pieces of conduit welded in place, I moved on to the last set of conduits to go across the rear section of floor space. Because of how the driveshaft hump is cut pretty small in the rear area, I decided to just make the conduit support extend across and under the hump to the other side. To make this happen easily, I took a piece of 1/2" conduit and 3/4" conduit and slid the smaller into the larger and welded the set of pipes in place between the tire wells. I welded the center of the pipes to the driveshaft hump then finished up with a weld where the pipes slide into one another to complete the whole set. With the conduits all in place, I did some final grinding of the surfaces where I'll be welding the sheet metal for the flooring. Going around the tire wells and the edges of the old flooring I got the old paint and rust ground away. I just need to cut some pieces of sheet metal scrap to fit into these sections so I can start welding metal in place. It'll be easier to split the flooring into smaller sections, much like a sidewalk being split into slabs so the floor won't flex and make noise in the cab, plus the extra welds on the conduits will add to the overall support of the floors. I did bring the two interior panels that go in the back seat area and size them up to see what modifications I'd have to make. I did find that I'll only have to trim the bottom 6 inches of the panels off to fit them in place after the new floors are done, which isn't too bad. As for the back seat, it's not really looking too good but then again who knows, things sometimes have a weird way of working themselves out in the end....
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