Hot Rods Old fashioned floor patching

Ok I know this was a common practice back when I was young and broke but how many of you have had or have cars with floor boards patched with road signs ect. Picks would be great. I stating this because I guy kind know has an off topic muscle car and pulled the carpet to find the flinstone car it really is . And he never has 2 nickels to his name at any given time.


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I have seen road signs as well and an occasional license plate or two.

 

My 57 Chevy in high school was a Fenton shifted three speed, shortly after getting it I replaced it with a B/W T-10 four speed, fairly typical for the time, I cut a piece out of a large coffee can to fill in the missing piece where the three speed shifter had been.
The swap was done on Thanksgiving day, laying on frozen ground and being 16 and not smart enough to grab a piece of cardboard I tweaked my back trying to put it in by myself, had to have my friend finish it for me, chiropractor said give my back a week of rest.
Man, that was the longest week, not being able to test out that 4 speed.

 

There was what probably was a $50 or $100 double faced porcelain oil sign cut in two and used to patch floors in my '50 Chevy. Not even enough left to hang on the wall.

 

Flattened Prestone cans ...

 

Metal realtor signs.

 

I love it keep em coming . I’ve used galvanized wood stove pipe before


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Floor1 by Ford52PU posted May 15, 2009 at 5:36 PM

This was the floor in my 1961 Metropolitan when I got it.

 

This is my Colorado rust free 72 when I started.

 

DDDenny, Ah, The good old days, bench pressed many tranny's in back in the day. Being from Wisconsin back in 60's the 50's cars we patched up were rust buckets already, street signs, coffee cans anything was used as we had not much money and not much for skill's, just doing the best we could, In time, learned a few things, I'm the original DIY guy, (the concept of paying someone to do anything was not in my thought process) heard the question many times ''Do you know what you're doing" my answer then and now sometimes, questionable, But I'M DOING.

 

I bought a '61 Impala back around 1975 and that floor was patched using tar and roof shingles. We were just talking about my '79 Chevy wagon ($65 car...) that the floor was rusted out on the front passenger side. That one I patched using a piece of sheet metal from Ace Hardware, screwed in 4 corners and pop riveted the rest. Sealed it around with a tube of gutter sealer and it looked good. Put the carpet back down and called it done.

 

My current car has a whole lot of metal school desk on the floor. I absolutely take no joy in doing things right in my own time, every minute of my work day is agonizing over details building things for rich people, so when I get home I like to slap things together and “send it”.


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I grew up on Lake Erie between Buffalo and Erie, the snow and rust belt (most folks in the area that had a nice car also had a "winter car" ) and my grandfather worked for the village street department... needles to say pretty much every car i owned from the time i was 15 until i joined the service had street signs for floors. i had a '75 el camino that had the floors made of street signs and the bed floor was made out of a big overhead sign that got taken out by a semi on the thruway LOL the bed "glowed" if you parked it under and street lamp!... anytime a street sign got knocked over by a sliding car or a plow, my grandad would bring it home...i had a nice stack to choose from leaned up next to the garage.
Chappy

 

Easy to find junk washers/dryers, sheet metal is pretty heavy and has ribbing already. Grind off any galvanized if welding.

 

The last '69 F-body car I had came with a no parking sign under the 3 peddles.....

 

I did this last year. The car didn't deserve better, unfortunately.

 

Those with class drove fiberglass....a friend did the whole floor in one of his cars....

 

dumpster patch

 

I wonder what the fine is for ripping off street signs and what not now days???... No need to worry... I'm not a rat!...

 

I found this stack of realtor signs at my local welding shop. Bonus points - Audrey is my ex-wife (as of 1986).

 

I bought a 4-door 60 Biscayne in 1974 for $40 ("$45 with the battery") that had rotted rear floor wells. Previous owners had slapped in a sheet of diamond plate, going from the top of one rocker sill, straight across, over the hump, to the other side. Needless to say there wasn't much legroom in the back. Your knees were under your chin.

 

I went and looked at a 40 Ford Tudor a local was selling. The guy was real proud of the rust "repair". The whole floor from the firewall back including the trunk and tool box was several layers of fiberglass mat/ resin and it went up 8" or so on the sides. Same with the insides of the doors. After it cured he sprayed a heavy coat of undercoating over all of it. Not a bad looking car but needless to say I passed, I couldn't imagine what a PIA that would be to get back out to fix it right.

 

I got a U. S. Royal 4x8 metal sign facedown in the back of one of my trucks. Someone shortened it to fit the bed. Now it's just S. Royal

 

Yeah, we've all seen the use of "STOP signs" for floorboard repair. When I first bought my front engine dragster, it had actually been converted to a rear engine dragster; the rear rails were't plum and the guy made up for it with the rear end mounting brackets. He put the car together for his wife; his rear engine dragster was a very nice one! Anyway, he used a stop sign to separate the fuel tank from the driver compartment. Took a lot of work, but I returned it back to a front engine dragster. I saved all the aluminum, pop riveted on body panels, and everything else made of aluminum, and got $32.00 for it at the scrap dealer's. At our home, the wooden fences on either side of our lot ( neighbors deteriorating wooden fences), I have decorated with old signs; most all of them I've bought from second hand stores, garage sales, friends giving them to me, and a couple that I have found. One I found was a Boeing company "No Trespassing" sign, found in a grocery store parking lot, miles away from Boeing (?). I have another from the Bangor Submarine Base that has the warning, "Use Of Deadly Force Is Authorized". Our lot is encircled with chain link fencing inside-of the wooden fences. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I remember taking a hub cap off and screwing it to the drivers floor to cover a hole by the clutch on a high school beater.

 

As a kid in the late 60's I remember my Dad using a pizza pan (to cover the hole) under the driver's side floor mat in his 63 Chevy II.

 

Around 1975, I bought my younger sister a 63 Chevy II Model 300 Wagon ($125.00) The car was straight as an arrow, but the paint was shot; it was that sort of "tan" color a lot of Chevy II/Nova's were. Ran good, I cleaned everything up, and pop riveted some sheet metal over the thorougly rusted out sheet metal floors, then covered it with some old carpeting I'd found somewhere. It actually was pretty clean. She promptly wrecked the car, running it off the road on a curve, right through a "fence" of stacked rail road ties. I believe alcohol mixed fuel was involved, and this was in 1975/76. She turned the car into a stretched out "Z" from above, and broke the engine/transmission mounts. To pull the engine, I just clipped the wires and hoses, and ripped out what was left of the radiator. Engine and trans went to the garage, the rest of the car was taken by a hulk hauler. I had wanted to eventually turn that car into a Bracket Racer. Typical Chevy II/Nova; I think the floors came pre-rusted from the factory, and this one was no exception. Years later, I bought another 63 Chevy II Model 300 Wagon, with the best floorboards I'd ever seen in one of these cars. It had sat in an apple orchard for a few years, with the rear window broken out, so the rear cargo area was really rusted, but the floors were GOOD. That car became a street racer, giving the Z-28 and 5.0 Mustang guys fits. 340 HP 327, 4500 stall converter, one of my own build aluminum Powerglides, 4.88 positraction and Dutchman axles, along with headers and traction bars. Still had the SMALL drum brakes, and that's what did the car in after I sold it to a "friend". I say "friend", because I wanted the 4.88 Positraction back after he wrecked the car, along with the axles, but he let it all go to a hulk hauler. That car had been a lot of fun, but never made it to the drag strip. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

My dad worked for the county road dept. I had an unlimited supply of road signs to patch up my northern Michigan rust buckets.

 

I used a 1923 Michigan license plate for an access door for the master cylinder in my T bucket...does that count?

 

Saw some "car" online just the other day, but I don't remember where it was. The entire floor was license plates; most likely one of them "rodent builders". I am Butch/56sredandelivery.