Busy night yesterday. First, I picked up some more plywood. I decided to
use the type finish sanded on one side and stain the floor instead of
paint. It could be a while before I get tongue and groove in there and I
wanted it to look good. I know a painted floor would be more authentic,
but paint just doesn't seem to hold up well on floors...
So I took the passenger side template out and traced it onto the
plywood. Then I ripped the sheet down to a more manageable size and put in
on to the saw horses. I started in with the jig saw only to stop about two
feet into my cut... I had the wrong side up on the plywood! No problem, I
could still use it on the driver's side, right?
So I took the template back into the truck, flipped it over, cut out a
notch for the fuel filler, and taped in another piece of paper to take up
the space the battery box extends into the cab on the passenger side and
trimmed with a razor blade. Back to the plywood... no dice, I had already
started into the battery box cut, and the wood couldn't be replaced! The
old adage of measure twice, cut once came to mind as I started to hoist the
wood off the saw horses, then it hit me I had already started to cut the
BATTERY BOX, not fender... I was cutting the right side after all! There's
also this adage of "Early to bed, early to rise..." and while I've been
keeping the Early to rise part going, I'm really falling short on the Early
to bed part.
So I finished cutting the passenger side and guess what. Fit first time
in! Now I had my drivers side template ready to go, so I traced and cut
it. And once again, FIT THE FIRST TIME! Too good to be true you
say? Well, the planets must have been lined up because I didn't have to
trim a thing. Center section is 17-1/2" wide, straight cut. Look Ma, I got
a floor!
Then I climbed underneath and drilled through the captive nuts with a small
bit to mark them. I couldn't get at all of them with the drill (Hint for
those contemplating a new floor for your Carryall; Put the floor in BEFORE
the running boards. I was able to brake a pencil off short and mark the
ones I couldn't reach with the drill. The floor panels came out again and
I drilled all the holes full size. Now clean, prime, and OD paint the
bottom (Gellespie goes on nice with a roller too.) Then flipped all three
over, clean again, and varnish. I didn't get to bed anywhere near on time,
but I'll have a floor soon!
Chris Davis
MVPA #20000
Lake Forest, CA
'42 WC53 Carryall
'66 M274A2 Mule
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