Never thought I'd join in with people bagging the "DPO" (more like DCO) but
I think I might slip over there just this once. :)
You might remember I was removing my engine, then got caught up also
removing the floors as the Workshop manual says you must - to remove the
engine and gearbox (bollocks). Anyway, I decided to replace the old carpet -
should I say carpet? as the shreds I had left might only have been called
carpet in some afterlife! <G> Anyway, excuse the rambling. Well these
floorboards are a nightmare! The front RHS footboard was just sitting there!
The LHS secured by ONE bolt. The floors weren't much better except for the
fact that ALL the remaining bolts were rusted solid and I had to go at them
with a cold chisel. The bolts didn't budge much, but my HAND did, and so did
the tone of the neighbourhood after a few choice expletives! One inoperative
hand now. <G> There is not much room to squeeze 6ft3" of me under the dash!
The gearbox tunnel cover looks like it's missing at least six bolts and is
basically just sitting there. I finally got the floors out albeit a little
more useless than before, and all that is left to come out is the panel in
front of the battery boxes. That has four rusted bolts and I'm tempted to
just cut around them then smack them off with a chisel. Arggh! The 'might as
wells' have got me good this time!! <G> I am glad I've started on it though,
the floors were much worse than I thought (with a nice crack right under
where I sit - anyone for a Flintstone impression?! <G>) and it will be a
good time to give them a coat of rust inhibiting paint - any
recommendations - zinc based? I'm going to go at the floors with a wire
brush first, clean everything up. There is so much dirt and gunk there it's
incredible. The DPO was definitely pulling our legs when he said he replaced
the floors. Even if he did, he only put in a 1/4 of the bolts necessary!
A question - as always. I spoke to a friend the other day and he said he was
tempted to install alloy floors in place of the wooden floors, using the
orig's as templates. This sounds like a bloody good idea to me. Has anyone
tried this? Not worried about concours here, praciticality, reliability &
strength. Only problem I can see would be electrolytic corrosion. What about
heat transfer? Worse/better? Comments - ?
Cheers,
Neil
--
61 A / 70 BGT / 68 CGT/ 56 BN2
URL: http://www.apphosting.com/mgstuff/
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