SO a while back I decided to completely change the floor

I am building a Hot Rod 48 Willys CJ-2A Original drive train all upgrades within the Jeep family pretty much.

My body on the East coast and in the Rust belt would have been thought to be awesome, Here in Oregon where unless the jeep was left outside rust is not a big deal and with every panel wavy and bent. I decided to completely rebuild the Tub using Classic Enterprises sheet metal and some DIY fabricated pieces.

I have been wanting to completely change the rear floor for a very long time. My original floor was horribly treated by the farmer who my dad bought the jeep from in 1962 totally sway backed and then since the Tub was on a CJ5 frame and never attached to the frame rear of the riser its was wasted.

So I decided I wanted something a little nicer then stock. The plan is to build a frame work from 3/4" x 1 1/2" .083 rectangular tubing to then lay a sheet of 16 ga on top of. Above this will be .375 x 1.375" White Oak strips with 2.5" in between. there will be 10 of them just like the original ribs in the floor. The floor will be painted black the Oak boiled in Fruitwood Watco to give a nice deep honey color. They will be attached with stainless steel button head 10-32 screws. The floor will be one piece with the top of the tool box which of course will have the same treatment.The floor will have 3/4" thick foam insulation in the voids in the frame work and then the underside will be covered with 20ga. Leaving a completely smooth underside.

So I got started on the frame structure the other day. Here's a snap shot



I'm also going to structuralize the Riser and the Rear Valance. I also have plans to tie the Roll bar base to the HD floor structure there by creating a box around the rear seat area.

To the right in the photo you can also see the Jig I built to help get all the new body parts lined back up and square with each other. I built it into the Old tub (which was hilarious as it showed the original tub was off set 3/8" to the right at the dash compared to the rear fender boxes) This will speed up my reassembly time and make it much easier to end up with a square Tub.

I am only reusing the Dash, Cowl, Firewall, and Tunnel forward of the Riser. To the rear of the Riser only the Tops of the Fender Boxes will be reused. Along with a few braces.

Since my Jeep lost its qualifications for a restoration prior to 1962 I have no qualms about modifying it. It will still look stock from 10 ft it just won't be.

I'll post more photos as I go along.

 

Can't wait to see your progress! Post lots of pic's!