NEED FLOOR PAN ADVICE

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Paint and Body
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NEED FLOOR PAN ADVICE……Hey guys (and gals), I’m needing to replace my driver and passenger floor pans in my 67 Cougar. I’ve been looking at some full length floor pans from National Parts Depot and Mustangs Unlimited. Both companies have two different quality of floor pans and this is where I need your help.

NPD has a full length floor pan made in Canada and another one made in Taiwan. Upon speaking with a rep via e-mail, I asked him what the difference was in the two pans. He stated that the “Canadian pan is a thicker gauge pan than what Ford used (stronger), but the tooling is from the 80’s and the ribbing & details aren’t nearly as crisp and correct as the pan from Taiwan.” He then stated this about the Taiwan pan: “Metal thickness is virtually identical to original Ford and has more modern and correct tooling (more correct details/ribbing & far more crisp and cleaner pan) and is an Excellent fit.” He also said, “There’s a stigma about Asian panels, but in this case it’s not deserved. In a side by side comparison with the Canadian floor pans, it’s hard not to choose the Taiwan floor pan.”

Mustangs Unlimited has a “premium” pan made in North America and the non-premium pan is made overseas. Both are 19 gauge metal. I asked what the difference was and all he said is he “compared the two side by side and they look like they could have been stamped using the same tooling. The premium pans are bare metal and the imported pans are primered black, which may require a little more prep work before installing.” He also said, “I honestly don’t see why you would opt for the premium pans (more expensive) unless you cared where they were made.”

With that said, do any of you out there in Cougar/Mustang land have any experience installing any of these floor pans? The NPD Canadian pan isn’t as “precise & crisp”. Does that mean it doesn’t fit right? Is there any modifications needed to make these fit right? If so, what exactly needs to be done to them? The rep made a strong case for going with the Taiwan pan (virtually identical metal thickness as Ford used & it’s an excellent fit), however the Canadian pan is stronger. Personally, I like the idea of a stronger pan, but if there are issues with fitment that aren’t easily fixed then I might want to shy away from it. Trimming or bending a flange isn’t that big of a deal, but are there any other issues?

As with the Mustang’s Unlimited pans, they are both 19 gauge metal and “look to be (with the naked eye) the same tooling”.
How many of you have worked with any of these pans and what is your experience and advice? Which pan would you go with (cost not being an issue)? And what does it take to make any of these pans fit properly? I’m looking for quality and ease of installation. But like I said, if a pan needs a little trimming here or there or a flange bent to a different angle, that’s not a big deal in my opinion. Thanks for the help…

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I can’t speak on the quality of the 67 / 68 pan choices, but I bought both Taiwan and Canada pans for my '69 and the Taiwan ones were junk in my case. The Canada ones fit well and were sturdier. I ended up using the Taiwan pans as patch metal elsewhere.

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It’s difficult to take a sales reps advice with very much credibility because they just want to make a sale and what sales person would ever say anything bad about their product. That’s why I am asking you guys; the guys who have actually used these floor pans and know the quality of them from first hand experience. So thank you for that info. That’s very valuable info and I appreciate it.

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Having done this surgery many times; don’t cut out the old until you have the new pieces there to size up. Hopefully you can keep the original tunnel because it makes alignment and sturdiness much better. I helped a club member in Oct. put in the whole floor (including tunnel) in a 68 Mustang. He bought the import floor from NPD, the ribbing looked like the original, the tabs around the sides had to be trimmed in every corner, some slight rebending. It wasn’t as long forward as was needed because of torque box replacement. Why I mentioned the tunnel was we could not get it to sit flush with the remaining tunnel in front we eventually had to slit at the top and flatten down. We had made height measurements at the old tunnel side for the seat risers then drilled out the welds. The risers were blasted and reused, some massaging on the tunnel was required to get the riser height back. Overall it looks good and he jumped up and down inside with no apparent bending or welds breaking.