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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Driver's Side Floors In Place

While the sheet metal details may not duplicate the original pattern, their replacements have been fitted and tacked/screwed in place. One  benefit of having to replace the seat mount area, I was able to dimension it to fit late model Sebring buckets, and to reinforce the entire floor area to better support the seat in the event of an accident. The Sebring buckets have integrated shoulder belts, so the inertia of a crash places the entire weight of the seat and occupant on the floor sheet metal.



I'm now ready to move over to the other side and figure out how much needs to be replaced there.

The rear seat chassis mount area is in decent shape and only needs a tiny patch, versus a complete replacement on the driver's side, but metal behind the seat back support bracket will have to be replaced...win some, lose some.

The bottom support for the middle chassis mount is in much worse shape than the other side, so I might have to build a replacement, or at least do major repairs to the existing part.

Though there is severe rust damage, the front floor should be easier than the driver's side, mainly because I finally figured out how to properly mate it to the rocker panels, and because there is no access panel on this side that has to be match-fitted to the old frame and the ill-fitting patch panel.


I've also figured out what modifications must be done to the outer rocker panel. The only ones available from the aftermarket are designed to be a cap that fits over the old panel, but I modified them to offer structural support the full length of the passenger area, just as the originals are designed to do. There are slight dimensional differences from the OEM, but it shouldn't be noticeable when they fit that low on the car, especially since they will be mostly covered by stainless steel trim. Ill try to remember to take pictures of the passenger side inner and outer rocker panels before they are mounted.

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