1967 Plymouth Barracuda Floor Restoration - Floor It

Instead of butt-welding the new panel in place, we chose to overlap the panels slightly and weld them on both the top and bottom. The resulting double-welded seam (shown here) will be stronger and more appropriate for a race application.

After welding the new floors from the top, we also weld the seam at the bottom, and then weld the new floors to the framerails in the areas of the original spot welds. The factory spot welded these panels in for ease of construction and economic reasons. We are liberal with the welding wire, giving the new floors more rigidity than the originals.

With our welding complete, we treat all of the floors, old and new, with rust inhibitor (OSPHO). This will convert any surface rust to an inert chemical that is resistant to further rusting. A brush may be used for this operation, but we used a spray bottle. Be sure to let the OSPHO cure for a minimum of two hours; twenty-four is preferred.

After an hour or so you can tell the OSPHO is doing its job. Rusted areas will turn black, then white and powdery as the chemical reaction occurs. Once finished with this step, rinse the remaining chemical from the floors with water, and they are ready for final body work.

When the metal has been treated with rust inhibitor, cleaned, and dried, we use Duraglass body filler to seal all of the welded seams. This will prevent moisture from seeping into any areas of porosity in our welds, keeping our floors solid and rust-free for years to come.

Once our body filler is fully cured, we apply a coat of primer to our floors to give them protection from the humid Florida air. As you can see, our new floors look great and are a big improvement over the Fred Flintstone-style floors we had before. You'll notice in this photo that we've already started our next project-installing our rollcage. Once this is complete, we'll paint the new floors and cage together to protect them from the elements and make our interior look great!