I’m reminded about writing in an earlier post how the frame & cross-member cutting, notching and re-plating for the bag job wasn’t necessary (or even usable) but that I never got into “why”. I’d like to help you see how some wasted effort might’ve been avoided with just a little forethought, but I’ve been told on this job that it takes me a-page-and-half to convey what someone else can communicate in a only few words (i.e. thinking ahead through over a months worth of work, prerequesite mounts, supports, etc when all you really need to do is “put in a floor“) so I’ll try to be as succinct as possible.

I’ve already covered some of the safety concerns of the work involved so I won’t be getting into that in this post. All we’ll be discussing here are the mechanics.  The angle of the first photo may be a little skewed since I’m holding the straight edge & tape and taking the photo  but rest assured I’m holding the edge level and secure between the top of the fabricated crossmember hump and the rear pinon.  Since the top of the tape is at the top of the u-joint saddle and the square is ~ 1-3/8″ down into it; the propshaft, obviously, can’t go in with the car sitting as it is.

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I still needed to get the trunk floor in when I stopped last night. Today after I got started again, I took this shot of a body mount before covering everything with the sheet metal. There’s plenty of room to get an 11/16″ wrench up there from the underside if need be, but it was much easier and a better photo op to put them in before the last of the floor.

The rear seat sits higher than the trunk floor and the upward bend behind the seat is 4″. IIRC the back bend in the trunk is ~6″ tall to keep the center hump level and to allow for a flat trunk floor. I overlapped the center lateral seam 1″ at the underlying end flange to add extra stiffening and ran the floor straight back to a slight bend about 7″ forward of the roll pan.  I was going to locate the holes for the airbag supply lines directly over the bag stems, but thought better of it and left this to the person finishing that job in case they wanted them elsewhere.

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Here’s a quick shot I snapped through the windshield opening on my way out and while not quite ready to go for a ride, there is space to put your passengers, stuff, or whatever is going to go onto the former back seat.

With the four-link suspension coming up through the floor, there was talk about not needing the back seat, but I got to thinking things through and came up with a best-case scenario allowing for maximum clearance below and still leaving a conventional looking – and usable – interior. All that’s needed is a little padding and a back to separate the passengers from the trunk and you’re good to go.  

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Getting the rear of the body to where it needed to be took quite a bit of effort over the last few days since anything that might’ve been holding it in its original shape had been hacked out for frame modifications and for the bagged suspension. You can see the results of expecting an already ill-repaired roll pan to act as a structural member – a job for which it isn’t designed.

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It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted about the ’40 Chevy, but nowhere near that long since I’ve worked on it. As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on it quite regularly and have re-written this post 3+ times in an attempt to keep a positive spin on things.

I looked back at the previous posts to find out where I left off after finishing the chop and remember I was originally asked if I’d be willing to weld in some sheet metal over the existing floor. The answer was, “No.” I don’t work that way. So I was then asked if I’d be willing to cut the rusty floor out of an even older sedan and modify it to fit into the ’40 because that was supposed to be easier on me and therefore cheaper by someones estimation. Again the answer was an emphatic ”No.” And so began the replacement of the front floor, firewall and body mounts, now being followed by the rear passenger compartment, trunk floor, mid- and rear-body mounts.

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