Full Floor Pan Write Up?

[Davedacarpainter]

I believe I'm going to put in an entire floor pan in my '83. I've been searching for a good write up on it. Anyone know of one? Pictures are important for me.

I'm going full pan since i'm changing out the drivetrain and going to use a T5 instead of an auto.

[wraithracing]

I don't believe there is one here on FEP. I might be wrong.

I believe a couple of members have considered it and maybe even pulled the trigger, but I don't recall anyone documenting the process. Sorry!

[Davedacarpainter]

That's alright. I imagine it can't be much more than what I've done in the faraway past when I worked at a custom shop. Lots of bracing and leveling. I just want to make sure the t-top survives the carnage.

[Haystack]

Here's a YouTube video link to a guy that does a 1986 t top gt
https://youtu.be/SbtSmqmaSSA

[Davedacarpainter]

Thanks Haystack, I've watched that one before. I'm thinking of a full floor pan that includes the transmission tunnel and both floor pans like this piece from LMR https://lmr.com/item/LRS-11135MP/197...l-Transmission

[zak]

Somewhere on here I have seen pictures of a floor being replaced on a non-Mustang fox body, it was very neat how he made bracing that attached to the lower door hinges to keep the car square for the replacement. Check out the Other Fox Tech and Discussion forums. Think he used an SN95 as the donar which was especially interesting.

[plumkrazy]

You most likely will need the floor extension that is used for the T-5 it was added to the floor and spot welded on. LMK I maybe able to help with the part. Will see if I can get you a picture or two off a OE floor pan I have sitting in the barn

[Davedacarpainter]

You most likely will need the floor extension that is used for the T-5 it was added to the floor and spot welded on. LMK I maybe able to help with the part. Will see if I can get you a picture or two off a OE floor pan I have sitting in the barn

When you say floor extension, do you mean this?

[Davedacarpainter]

Somewhere on here I have seen pictures of a floor being replaced on a non-Mustang fox body, it was very neat how he made bracing that attached to the lower door hinges to keep the car square for the replacement. Check out the Other Fox Tech and Discussion forums. Think he used an SN95 as the donar which was especially interesting.

To get the new pan in I will need to have the door opening completely unblocked, that's the only way to cram it into the inside. It'll still be a little bit yet before i can do this. Work has been too slow for me to buy all the parts i'm going to need.

Meaning at at least i have time to research this more.

[plumkrazy]

When you say floor extension, do you mean this?

Yep that looks like it.

[84StangSVT]

I almost opened my mouth before I thought about it.

I was going to say you should be able to finagle it through the hatch area and not have to remove the doors.........then I remembered this is a notch. It ain't going to go through the trunk.

I'm of no help here, but I can imagine this is going to be a royal PITA when the time comes.

[wraithracing]

First there is no need to put an entire floor in just because of swapping to the T5.

Honestly if its easier to swap the entire floor than patch what is there, I completely understand. Otherwise, use the T5 tunnel hump and you are good to go. There isn't really any difference than that between the floors. You will already have some differences in the replacement pans than OEM due to the stampings being modeled off the later model 87-93 cars where there were some ribbing changes.

As for installing the full pan, I think you might be able to fit it thru the rear window opening, but I am not 100% on that. I don't have a coupe so I can't guarantee! Might be worth taking a tape measure and verifying the dimensions.

The other point I would make is install SFC on the car before you begin cutting the floor out as that will give you better structural rigidity and ultimately its a great idea with any Fox, especially T-top and Verts. Good Luck!

[JTurbo]

There was a member here that did a full floor pan on an 82 GT, but the pics are gone:

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...W-PICS-1-22-06

edit - looks like some of his pics still exist on Car Domain:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/762521/1992-ford-mustang/

Edit #2 - look at the lower right corner for "all photos" you will see an 82 red GT T-top in the thumb nail pics.

Use the right arrow to scroll through the progress pics.....

[Haystack]

I really dont get why people are so stuck on using that hump. Its just basically a 1/2" spacer for the floor. Without one my boot was plenty long and looked factory. I just screwed the lower floor seal straight to the transmissions tunnel. Id shorten the shifter by 1/2" before i cut the whole floor out.

[Davedacarpainter]

First there is no need to put an entire floor in just because of swapping to the T5.

Honestly if its easier to swap the entire floor than patch what is there, I completely understand. Otherwise, use the T5 tunnel hump and you are good to go. There isn't really any difference than that between the floors. You will already have some differences in the replacement pans than OEM due to the stampings being modeled off the later model 87-93 cars where there were some ribbing changes.

The other point I would make is install SFC on the car before you begin cutting the floor out as that will give you better structural rigidity and ultimately its a great idea with any Fox, especially T-top and Verts. Good Luck!

SFC's will be the first modification done to the body before anything else. I was thinking along the same route though, they'll greatly enhance the rigidity of the body.

I've noticed the need to adjust the eb brackets on the new pans. Nbd there.

i want to replace the full pan just because of how bad everything is. The transmission tunnel is something I haven't been able to take a good look at yet. It will cost a little extra, but I'll have a nice new complete pan with all the brackets new.

[2nd chance cobra]

I mentioned this before and didn't get much response, I'm thinking about putting the rocker braces from one of my verts onto my cobra. They are pretty heavy and wouldn't hang down like the sfc seems to. And as a plus, they would protect the fragile pinch weld from wayward jack's. Thoughts??

[Davedacarpainter]

I really dont get why people are so stuck on using that hump. Its just basically a 1/2" spacer for the floor. Without one my boot was plenty long and looked factory. I just screwed the lower floor seal straight to the transmissions tunnel. Id shorten the shifter by 1/2" before i cut the whole floor out.

I guess I want the it just because the pan with it isn't any more than the one without and it's already welded in.

[Davedacarpainter]

I mentioned this before and didn't get much response, I'm thinking about putting the rocker braces from one of my verts onto my cobra. They are pretty heavy and wouldn't hang down like the sfc seems to. And as a plus, they would protect the fragile pinch weld from wayward jack's. Thoughts??

I've got a lot of thoughts about that pinch weld area.

First, the probable thing I will do is weld in a jacking rail right after the floor pans. I think that would work out in that order. SFCs, pan, jacking rail.

My other thought is to see if the pinch weld can be removed safely altogether. I haven't really looked at that one yet so I'm not sure if I can do it.

But a jacking rail for sure that has cross bracing to the SFCs would be a good thing I think.

[Davedacarpainter]

There was a member here that did a full floor pan on an 82 GT, but the pics are gone:

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...W-PICS-1-22-06

edit - looks like some of his pics still exist on Car Domain:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/762521/1992-ford-mustang/

Edit #2 - look at the lower right corner for "all photos" you will see an 82 red GT T-top in the thumb nail pics.

Use the right arrow to scroll through the progress pics.....

Thanks for the help with the pictures, I had read through his pan replacement, but like you said, no pictures there.

[dagenham]

The pinch welds are where the floor assembly and the rocker panels are welded together so Im not sure how you could eliminate them.
I often thought that running a piece of 1" square tube with a slice down the length of just one side to slip over the pinch weld would be a good idea. It could be attached to sfc's and could be used as a jacking point too if the tubing was heavy enough.

[wraithracing]

I mentioned this before and didn't get much response, I'm thinking about putting the rocker braces from one of my verts onto my cobra. They are pretty heavy and wouldn't hang down like the sfc seems to. And as a plus, they would protect the fragile pinch weld from wayward jack's. Thoughts??

Better than nothing IMHO, but no where the same strength and improvement that a set of SFC will make. A quality set of SFC such as the full length Maximum Motorsports unit will make the car so much stiffer and solid than the vert pieces will and they don't hang down much at all. They definitely are not the lowest piece on the car, so I wouldn't worry about it myself.

[wraithracing]

This is what I did on my 82 GT.



MM full length SFC with one off made 1" square tubing jacking rails and tie pieces. I have determined that unless I am making several sets the MM SFC are cheaper to make than make my own. The jacking rail pieces can be purchased from Kenny Brown, Stifflers, and others but I didn't have the budget for it and I could fab those up quickly and easily. Besides my rear seat plates would have probably caused clearance issues anyway with the prefabbed units.

Jacking rails were welded up and then I ground and smoothed everything down somewhat to clean the pinchwelds up. I didn't go full Show Car, because I knew I was spraying the bedliner material over them anyway. Much cleaner looking than stock, much stronger than stock, and not too complicated or expensive to do. Good Luck!

[erratic50]

When it comes time to do this work on mine, Trey you're hired! Very nice - love it.

[Davedacarpainter]

This is what I did on my 82 GT.



MM full length SFC with one off made 1" square tubing jacking rails and tie pieces. I have determined that unless I am making several sets the MM SFC are cheaper to make than make my own. The jacking rail pieces can be purchased from Kenny Brown, Stifflers, and others but I didn't have the budget for it and I could fab those up quickly and easily. Besides my rear seat plates would have probably caused clearance issues anyway with the prefabbed units.

Jacking rails were welded up and then I ground and smoothed everything down somewhat to clean the pinchwelds up. I didn't go full Show Car, because I knew I was spraying the bedliner material over them anyway. Much cleaner looking than stock, much stronger than stock, and not too complicated or expensive to do. Good Luck!

Yeah Trey, something like that or what Mike1157 did with his monster. Both of mine will eventually have a rendition of that.

[dagenham]

Trey, that is some pretty ingenius rotisserie you built. I like that a lot. How well does it actually work?