1968 Dodge Truck floor pan, rocker and cab mount replacement, part 2

by kenny exline on 01/08/14

I have the floor pan and rocker step welded into place now. I tack welded the pan in place spacing the tacks every 1".  I but welded instead of overlapping the panels, this makes a nicer finish , it looks factory when finished and will not rust out where it is overlapped. Then I welded between the spot welds at one place on each of the 3 sides that were getting welded and let it cool. After it was cool enough to touch I welded the next 1" section and let it cool . I repeated the process until all of the welding was completed. Then I used a 4" grinder to grind the welds down to almost flat and finished with a 3" grinder and a soft disc to finish smoothing the welds. I did have to clean off a lot of grease from the bottom of the floor before welding, that stuff is one way to catch your truck on fire!  After the floor is painted you will not ever know the floor was repaired.

 The rocker step is tacked in similar to the original . I did weld more around the rear of the step area because there was some rust in the cab that need repaired there and I wanted to make sure it was solid. I also welded in the inner rocker at the same time. The cab mount was replaced also but I do not have it welded yet because of some more rust that needs repaired in that area.

 One thing for sure is that every time I start fixing rust I end up finding more rust. The kick panel, inner door post braces and cowl panel are rusted pretty  bad also, that was not visible from the outside. And since the cab mount attaches to this area I will need to fix this now also. I wish I could tear the truck down and get it media blasted and fix it all at once,  that would really be the best way to do it, but I want to be able to use it again this spring and I know I don't have the time to do it all this winter.  So I am doing it the hard way one section at a time and waiting to see what rusty surprise waits for me on the next part.