1973 Riviera Floor Pans

[Nygex]

Hello,

 

I just received a 1973 Riviera in my shop that requires just about all of the flooring to be replaced/repaired.  It's required to pass inspection here in Bahrain as the customer bought it and imported it here (they wanted to cancel the car but the customer promised we could fix it).  I was told the inspectors don't even want any paint on it because they want to see exactly what we've done.  I notice I can find most of the floor pans online so that's good news.  However, has anyone replaced all of these before and is there anything we should look out for?  I have a rotisserie, lifts, etc. in my shop so we should be in good shape but this is our first Riviera.  Appreciate any tips/tricks if available.

 

Thanks.

[telriv]

Just your normal floorpan replacement, nothing special you probably haven't run into before. 

[Nygex]

Thanks.  I've got to give him a quote today so just wanted to see if there is anything I might have missed.  It does look pretty standard so hopefully we'll get it right.

[60FlatTop]

Don't take too big a bite at one time. I would do it in quarters. Driver rear, passenger rear, driver front, passenger front. If you are like me and things seem to look better the more you do, the most noticeable will come last and be the nicest.

Edited October 24, 2021 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[telriv]

IF you can find a complete original floor pan out of a donor car that would be the best way to go as far as I'm concerned.  You end up with a better overall look & originality. Less chance of warping than when done in sections.

Just my opinion.

 

Tom T.

[Pat Curran]

6 hours ago, telriv said:

IF you can find a complete original floor pan out of a donor car that would be the best way to go as far as I'm concerned.  You end up with a better overall look & originality. Less chance of warping than when done in sections.

Just my opinion.

 

Tom T.

I did that once and it came out great.

[protrash63]

I have not done a Riv but done others. It shouldn't be more than the usual fitting and fitting and modifying and adding/subtracting here and there to get a good fit.......and some colorful language thrown in for good measure!

[Nygex]

Thanks everyone.  We've now had a chance to get everything out of the way and it does look pretty straightforward.  We're taking it a quarter at a time as we don't have any donors over here.  The customer got it from the northern US so I had attributed all the rust to road salt?  However, the way the seat bolts were rusted, it almost looks like it might have sat in some water for a while.  Other than that it's in pretty good shape.

 

Thanks again.

[Nygex]

We finally got started on this project and thought I'd post some pics.  We're having to fabricate quite a bit since the shipping is too costly but it's coming along pretty good.  I'm making a time lapse video of the entire process so will post a link to that later if anyone interested.

[60FlatTop]

It looks good and looks like your are working with some existing structure still in place, My comment about doing the job in quarters was intending to maintain support through the process rather than remove the complete floor and leave you open to the body twisting. Most recently we did a later Volvo rusty floor replacement in quarters just for a used car flip. I am in the US northeast and we see a lot of floor section replacements.

 

I had to look up Bahrain. Good area, surely won't rust again. I would like to get to that area of the world to do some building operations work someday.

[Nygex]

Yes, good advice.  We did decide to leave it on the chassis for the reason you mentioned.  We still want to remove it off the chassis later but plan to add a temporary support rail of some sort along with the new pans.

[Nygex]

Welp, we finished and we'll pull from the chassis now to fine tune it.  I think it came out pretty good.  The first quarter of the video is before I placed the camera inside.