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Phase one of new floor install: REMOVAL
Article and
photo's courtesy of Peter Snodgrass
How do I start
this off; umm…when you first start this project you will feel as though
you can almost see the light at the end of the Blazer/Jimmy project
tunnel. You have that D60/14 Bolt combo installed with lockers in both
axles, you have the 36” Super Swamper TSL’s with the bead lock wheels,
and the only thing left to do is replace the rear floor; that is if you
can find one first. How many of you are tired of scrambling to get to the
side of the road when your tool bucket tips over behind the rear seat; you
pull over as fast as you possibly can to try and find as many of the
sockets and box wrenches that just fell through your floor on to the
highway. This project can take longer then you could ever imagine. Anyone
that is thinking of replacing the rear floor should take a look at the
detours (rust/rot) that I ran into that are now delaying the installation
of the new floor.
The truck I am
replacing the floor on is in beautiful condition considering it came out
of New Jersey, but there are certain areas of the truck where rust seems
to infect the metal and spread like a disease. If you are reading this
article and your truck is in mint condition I would take a very close look
at the pictures and then inspect your truck for any signs of rust forming.
Ok, now to the fun part, removing the old floor. Oops! I forgot to mention
that the floor being installed (Part #15571692) will only fit from a
78-91' Jimmy/Blazer, the earlier floors (73-77') were a little bit longer.
Below is a
list of things to definitely do before you start with the Leather Face
impression; but with a sawzall of course.
1. Find a place where the
truck can be parked without having to be moved.
2. Remove all of the seats,
center console, and shifter coverings; this is so you can remove the rugs.
3. Remove the front seatbelt
assemblies.
4. Remove the side panels; if
you have them.
5. Remove the carpets; this
is an excellent time to give them a good scrubbing and look for more
rust/rot. If you have a newer model like my truck with the different seat
mounts, check the floor around the mount to see if the floor has any
stress cracks, I can almost guarantee you do. I am going to weld the
cracks back together, but I will be building my seat mounts into my roll
cage.
Steps to removing the
rear floor, tailpan, and wheel wells.
I started from the back of
the truck and worked my way to the front of the rear floor.
Removing the bolts.
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1.
Remove the rear bumper and air deflector. Also, don't forget to
disconnect the license plate light. |
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| 2.
Remove the tailgate; don't forget to disconnect the power window
lines if you have a power setup. |
If the truck needs to be
moved around the yard or garage I would suggest skipping steps 3, 4, and
5. The tailpan is the only support that the rear quarters and top have.
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| 3. Grind down
the welds that connect the tailpan to the rear column. |
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| 4. Remove the 2
bolts on the inside of the tailpan and on the 2 bolts on the back
of the tailpan. |
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| 5. Remove the 2
rear body mount bolts. |
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| 6. Remove the 3
bolts that hold in the splashguard thingy. These will be aluminum
diamond plate when they go back on the truck, mine are to rusted
& rotted. |
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| 7. Remove the
clamp that is on the gas filler tube, which connects to a tab on
the floor. |
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| 8. Remove the
next set of body mount bolts, also remove the bolt holding the
rear axle breather tube. |
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| 9. Remove the 2
bolts at the front of the wheel well. |
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| 10. Remove the
15 bolts at the top front of the floor. |
Making the cuts.
| 1. Before I
started any cutting I pried up the rear floor from the tailpan. I
did this so there was something to support the rear of the truck
until I am ready to install the new floor. |
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| 2. The first
cut I had to perform was around the right rear body mount. I had
to do this because the mount shifted and I was not able to get a
socket on the nut. |
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| 3. The second
cut was on the right side of the floor, since I needed to leave
the gas tank in I had to cut around the filler tube. If you look
at the picture you can see that most of the area around the filler
tube was rotted, so this step was actually pretty easy. What I did
was cut about 2" away from the wheel well on the back and
side. Also, stop about 5" from the front of the floor, so you
don't cut the front floor support. |
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| 4. The third
cut was on the left side of the floor, this was a really simple
cut, just measure about 2" from the wheel well and make a
straight cut up the floor and stop about 5" from the front of
the floor. |
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| 5.
The next thing I did was pry up the front corners of the rear
floor so I could use a cut off tool to finish the rest of the side
cuts. |
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| 6.
With these final cuts completed the floor is ready to be removed. |
| 7. Now you can
also remove the little pieces of floor that are left between the
wheel wells and tailpan on both sides of the truck. |
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| 8. Now with the
floor removed you have the choice to either chisel or drill out
the rivets on the wheel wells. Some of you might be better off
just removing the wheels wells, and buying new ones. If anyone is
planning on buying new wheel wells this will be beneficial to you,
the new wheel wells have welded nuts that allow you to bolt the
floor to the wheel wells, making the replacement almost totally
bolt in. |
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| 9. Both the
floor and wheel wells have been removed. |
| 10. If you plan
on removing the tailpan at the same time as the floor, remember to
remove the wire harness inside the tailpan. First, Remove the
taillights, disconnect the plugs, loosen the holding tabs for the
harness in the tailpan, and then feed the wire out. Second, make
sure you support the rear of the truck, either cut a 2x4 and prop
it under the cap, or what would be even better is if you have the
truck parked near a tree or something strong enough to sling a
rope over, cut a 2x4 to fit on the upper inside of the cap, tie
the rope around the 2x4, sling the rope over a branch or maybe a
beam in your garage and tie it tight, now you have room to work
and you will not mess up the quarter panels on your truck.
Finally, remove the 4 bolts on both sides of the tailpan, the
welds, and cut the tailpan between the column & frame for easy
removal; review steps 3, 4, & 5 of Removing
the bolts. Now you are all set to remove the tailpan. |
Keep an eye out
for "PHASE 2; REPAIR" shortly. Thanks for stopping by and
hopefully this can be of some help to you. If anyone has any questions
about this project you can email me at Peter.Snodgrass@verizon.net
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