Well this is my 69 M code Mach1, I bought the car back in 1982 from the second owner for a whopping 2k (that wasn't all that cheap back then lol). My main concern at the time was that it was indeed a Mach1, complete with all the original parts, and after checking all the number's it was, so I took it home. The car had obvious signs of wear and was going to be a project car. I knew the car had been repainted red by the 2nd owner as I could see what I thought was Wimbelton white peeking through a few chips on the car, but never actually checked the paint code as I planed on painting it at some point anyway. I drove the car for around 6mo, it had 130k on it and the engine was tired, so I parked it. In the mid 90s I pulled it out of the garage and rebuilt the engine(balanced, blueprinted, pro head work, and built to the hilt) and proceeded to tear up the bowtie boys on the street err um I mean the track lol. It saw occasional "weekend duty" as it was too wild for the street until 2003 when I broke my back. I had the engine and tranny pulled and stored, and the car sat covered outside at my brothers house.
Fast forward to 2015, my back is better, and the car still sits, I had become disconnected with it and thought I'd just sell it. I hadn't seen the car in 12 years, I pulled the cover off, and knew I couldn't sell it as all those old feelings came back in an instant. To my surprise it wasn't all that bad considering how much time it spent outside. So I dragged the car to where I live now, washed it, and here it goes into my garage to start the restoration.
Been working on my version of the "dog house" for the 3-link to have clearance and not crash the bottom of the car. I have it ready to transfer to metal as of this afternoon. I don't know if I like it any better or not, it looks like a small space ship is sitting on my sail panel right over where the rear end is. I am going to make it, but I don't know if I'll install it, the things you do when you modify....
I broke out the saw bucks and moved the floor from it's position against the wall, and got to work. I marked the areas I wanted to modify for the mini tub area. I made some card board templates the other day, with a couple of checks of where I wanted them to go, I marked the areas to trim and re-flange.
With it all marked up, I sketched out the flange I wanted to leave, flattened the existing flange flat almost half way, and cut off what was not needed. A little trimming, and it was time to start the new flange. I have drilled my inner wheel houses, hope they line up with my new flanges on the floor, if not, then these formed flanges will be removed and flat steel will be welded in place... you get the idea. I used my shot bag to dampen the hammer noise while I was beating on the floor, it was quite loud with out it. I started with my universal sheet metal tool (adjustable wrench), best sheet metal tool ever made, and got a good crease on my sharpie mark. Using several different shaped hammers, I worked the flange from the center out, to stretch the metal, and not get any wrinkles.
I wanted to keep the shape of the floor contour as close to the way it came as possible. The duck bill vice grips are to keep that area from rolling down. A bunch of hammering (these plastic hammers from Eastwood are light) so moving the metal is sorta slow, but the results are worth it
I will trim the flange, if I can, once I get this floor in the car for fitting. I started turning the rocker flanges down, I might cut them off and just weld it to the bottom of the rockers, which I am going to do any way. The convertible rockers are 2.375" wide, and some areas towards the rear are going to have to be massaged just a little to look right. Still no big deal. I am curious on how to get it in the car fitting over the rear torque boxes, under the rockers, and over the trans brace, guess it will have to sort of fold a little until it gets under the rockers. Don't know, but I'm fixing to find out. (first one piece floor pan install)
