Rear floor questions

[medicman775]

Getting ready to start the interior rebuild of my 71, what is the benefit or reason for keeping rear wood floor? Why not replace with metal or diamond plate or.......?

[vectorit]

I'd keep it in there, since I think it provides good sound deadening.
If you are concerned about the wood being damaged by the types of loads you will carry back there, I would think about just screwing down some sheet metal of some kind. Whether that be aluminum diamond plate, or something more substantial. At least you could remove it later if you wanted.

[medicman775]

Besides the sound deadenind aspect of the floor any other reason to keep? Seems like you could spray or lay down something over a metal floor plus carpet to keep noise down.

[jmmm229]

The plywood floor, though hardwood, flexes and moves with the body and chassis. Not sure if thats its purpose, but in my thinking as a structural repair tech, replacing it with more rigid material may or may not cause damage elsewhere on the body when the vehicle flexes and twists. 70's Camaros were notorious for this where the 1/4 panel was brazed into the roof skin from Fisher Body when you add a big powerplant and/or a roll cage or subframe connectors.