The Floor (part 2)

This post is a second concerning the floor of the Centerdoor Sedan I am rebuilding. Although we talk about rockers, pillars and seat boxes, it's all connected to the floor. We will discover a few things here that are surprises and some things we will need to overcome.

Our first photo will show the entire floor area before anything is screwed permanently together.

Centerdoor floor

We can see the removable floorboards, the permanent cross members, the gas shutoff access board and the battery access door. Also in this photo, the rear seat box is located in its position...but we will discover a problem with that later.

On the floor when I got the body, the middle permanent cross member was notched for a board that runs parallel to the frame from the center of the rear seat heel board. It was only notched to meet this board and go no further. It appears to be the same way on my friend's 1923 sedan. However, on earlier cars, this board runs from the the center of the rear heel board to just shy of where the front floorboard is located.

You can see that board here...

Gas shutoff board with floor support

This floor support board is only 5/8ths of an inch thick and that would necessitate notching the remaining front cross member. This was not done on my friend's car and is not done that way on an original condition 1923 I found for reference on ClassicCars.com . The only difference in the body from that car and mine is the ClassicCars Centerdoor has a metal firewall.

Here, we see the temporary placement of the driver's side PILLAR COUPE and HINGE PILLAR.

When the floor sills were remade by a previous owner, the PILLAR COUPE notch was one inch too long. That was the first thing that had to be corrected. Secondly, the front body mounts were not located in the correct position on the sills. That was corrected. Third, the middle frame mounting bolt holes for the steel plate attachment bars were not drilled according to the original holes in the remaining original sill pieces. However, any attempt to move them throws something else out of kilter.

This photo shows the angle of the floor sill between the two uprights on the driver's side.

You can see how much the uprights are proud of the sill. This means that a board of some description goes between the uprights, held on by screws into the bottom edge of the sill. It is visible in the body parts book. I have been told there was nothing there, but there has to be or the quarter panel could not be nailed on. Evidence of the board having been screwed to the sill is visible on my original pieces.

The ROCKER PANEL comes next after the HINGE PILLAR.

The fixed placement of the rockers is determined by the location of the HINGE PILLAR and the LOCK PILLAR. The rocker is attached to the rear of the pillars as well as the front. The lock pillar is not located here yet, and this is where the problem arises. It should fit between the rear rocker face and the rear seat heel panel. It does...but it then forces the seat box towards the rear of the car and causes the metal floor tray to obscure the frame mounting bolts in the rear that should be visible via holes in the flooring, shown below.

That silver bolt is in the EXACT location it needs to be as it goes through a permanent mounting hole on the frame. It cannot be moved. Once we add the LOCK PILLAR into the mix between the rocker and heel board, this bolt becomes inaccessible. This bolt is visible in the photos of the ClassicCars Centerdoor as well. The two other bolts (one of which is hidden at the moment), could be tweaked, but that would not solve our problem. Maybe the panel is the wrong one, but it's what came with the body.

In the above two photos, it does appear that the floor sections are in their correct locations, based on photographs and measurements of other cars, and of measurements taken from remaining original sill sections. I am going to have to revisit my measurements and see if I can get this to work.

More to come...