Project Blazilla

[Mr Banshee]

Made a first attempt to fit the floor pan in along with the rear step up plate. Very impressed with the initial fit and the overall fit and finish of reproduction pickup cab floor. Definitely will need some additional attention for final fit before burning it in however considering the K5 structure was heavily compromised along with modifying a sheet metal part not intended for this application I am very impressed with the overall fit and progress.

[04sshd]

Nice work, keep the pics coming!

[Chulisohombre]

Looks like it sits pretty good. You're gettin there.

[Mr Banshee]

Long way to go still. Next up rework the firewall seam to floor. Good portion of the seam is rotted. Need to dial in the rear attachment to step-up plate but I'm about 85% there. I'll post some detailed pictures as I move along. I'm slow going at it. Many projects around the house to do but Sunday's I dedicate to the truck!

[Chulisohombre]

I had to shape my front floor Pans as well. They are close but not perfect. With that passenger side you have to figure out the holes for the rear mount as well if you plan on using the stock seats.

[Mr Banshee]

I noticed that as well with the new pan. I figured between the floor stamping and the sagging of the structure on the truck these tolerances stacked up where it would not meet correctly. Most of the gaps will be easily fixed this I have to cut out the seam and fab some new metal to the firewall. For the seat mounting, my pan was setup for a bench seat so the holes will need to be moved. I removed the center support brace from my old pan to install on the new one. The passenger side seat bracket on the bottom of the cab floor for the rear was badly compromised with rust. I will need to fab a new support plate for this. Figured once I get the cab floor mounting dialed in. There will be a lot of hole filling and relocating, support plates added before I burn the pan into the chassis.

[Chulisohombre]

It's definitely a process.

[72K5CSTDarkOlive]

Meanwhile got my headers installed on my mockup engine. These hooker headers fit well. Only area that I ran into was the passenger side spring hanger. Clearanced the collector today. Have about 5/8 clearance between the shackle bolt and the header collector. You really can't see from the picture but the hangers are badly twisted. Going to order some ORD heavy duty hangers and recheck the header clearance then send them off for coating.[/QUOTE]

I'm running a set of Doug Thorley's and a set of ORD shackles. The pass side shackle hanger (lower bolt) rubbed directly up against my collector.. It was too late to send them back so I cut about 1 an 1/2" of the end of the collector and then rotated the collector about 45 degrees to make sure the point that sticks out the furthest away from the collector.

Keep in mind the ORD shackles are much thcker than stock so with 5/8 clearance you might be cutting it close. Hopefully you don't run into the same issue as I.

Will be following along. Nice build so far

[Mr Banshee]

Thanks for watching and reading. I knew at one point that I would walk down this road doing a restoration however I figured I would do it in smaller stages. After building the engine I was going just spruce the engine bay up and change the body mounts. Things were far too ugly so here we are. It will be a fun journey. I enjoy documenting it on this website as much as working on it.

You are definitely correct with the clearance on the ORD Hangers. At the time I made that statement I hadn’t received them yet but figured that there would more work here. I ended up adding addition clearance for the header collector to hanger right around a 1 ¼ total. I don’t have any pictures of my procedure but what I did was forming a small pocket in the collector with heat and a socket/hammer. Then I mounted the header flipped up on my mock-up engine in the truck like in a drag boat. Put a 3” web ratchet strap around the header right at the bend going to the collector and strapped to the truck frame. Took another strap around the collector and across to the other side of the frame. Headed the pipes and started ratcheting the strap to the collector slowly. Took a while but worked out well. I’ll eventually get the headers coated when I do I finally fit on the restored chassis.

[jaros44sr]

Nice work on the floor board, what tool did you use to bend the flange.

[Mr Banshee]

Thanks. I used several tools to get the flange bent up after removing the pickup truck rear cab support.

• Started with building a support and fastened it to the pan to use as a backer for bending as you can see in the picture.

• Next I used a ball peen hammer to start forming the bend to the backer.

• Followed up with a homemade striking punch with a 5lb mall and torch. Gently heating and striking small area’s then cooling and repeating until I shrunk (took the wave out) the metal and created a clean bend.

• I trimmed the excess metal from the flange to the rough size of the original pan.

• I then followed up with a hand bender to massage the flange to meet the rear step.

I have big hammers, torch and a welder. It doesn’t make me a fabricator but I’m learning….

[Chulisohombre]

Don't matter what you use as long as it gets the job done. I've used a adjustable wrench to bend the steel on my front floors. Sometimes you just use what you got. Definitely coming along.

[jaros44sr]

Good answer to my reply, thanks for the details. Still considering this mod. For my build. Building a backer could be the answer for me

[Mr Banshee]

Had a productive day yesterday massaging the rear flange on the floor pan and the floor supports (out riggers?) to meet the rear step plate as seen in the photos. Improved the firewall to floor pan meeting seem but didn’t capture any photos of this. I will need to cut some of the firewall seem out and make some patch repairs. I’ll follow up with some new photos of this at that time. Next up, need to plug welding the extra holes in the pickup floor and repair the spot weld damage I created removing the rear cab mount that was used on the pickup floors. Then I will need to relocate the holes for the bucket seats and add in the necessary braces and prepare the floor for the console. Still a lot of work ahead before burning the floor in permanently but getting closer.

[C5K5]

Great work, I am doing the same thing but using a truck cab and cutting off the back just wondering how you got the height measurement from the step up panel to the truck cab floor flange ? I have a straight edge on the third rib (at the lowest point ) beside the step up panel body mount bolt
Any chance you remember the height measurement from the rear cargo floor to the cab floor ? Would be greatly appreciated I'm guessing 5.25 inches