Need some floor pan advice

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Paint and Body
1

I’m looking at full floor pans from transition panel to firewall panel. There is nothing correct for the 69. So I can:

  1. Find a car with a good floor and swap them. (hard to find one for a decent price, I do need other removeable sheet metal parts too so this is a viable option)

  2. Use the 67/68 full pan and modify it. (besides the hole in the front floorboard is there any other differences with this panel; like the length)

  3. Patch it. (don’t care to go this route, too much work and I want to build this car right)

I have some rot below the seatbelt holes at the rear seats and plan to patch that. And my drivers toe board is toast.

Can anyone help guide me in the right direction? Having some trouble making this decision, if they made a correct 69/70 pan thats what I would do.

Thanks,
Chris

Here’s a few pics of those floors, notice the build sheet on the front passenger toeboard too, fyi.




2

The method I always went by, was to keep as much original sheetmetal as possible. From the looks of the pictures, you have a couple areas that are too large to patch and if you did the metal looks to be rusted to a point where it’s getting flimsy. I heard where the Cougar pans are longer, somewhere, than the Mustang but I haven’t yet got into that on my Cougar yet. Could you look at the Mustang pan and possibly put the parts in you need and just the area where they’re needed? The stampings look pretty close to what you have. Sorry, but at this point my expertice is more in the 65-66-67 Mustang range.

3

I’m pretty sure the difference in length is in the trunk pan area. I also think the 67/68 full paneI differences are the ribbing at the rear seat area and the large plug holes in the front floor area. I’ve decided to remove the bad areas to see exactly what the patches would look like and in the mean time keep looking for another good parts car. The one I have had B quarters that I have already removed but the floors were no good. I also like to keep as much original metal as possible as you stated. My hood, trunk and doors were toast on this car so that’s pretty much out the window now. But the body is in pretty good shape though considering all.

Thanks Chris

4

The floors on the '69 Cougar are nearly the same as the Mustang. I put repro floors in my '69 Convert and the only problems that I had in the interior was that the sides of the rear floor under the seats were not the same width as the originals. Maybe a convertible problem though. The trunk floors are definately longer than the Mustang, but you can buy them. I just made a new piece from about the wheelwell back…

If you can find an original rust-free floor then go for it, but otherwise it would be better to put in Mustang floor panels than to patch or continue driving.

I have pics if you are interested. My advice would be to clean up the floor really well before you plan anything. I had only planned on the full floor pans, but ended up changing everything due to pinholes in the rear seat area.

5

Thanks for the info Andy.

I got into it yesterday and made the decision to go with a new full floor pan. I’m trying to find a made in the USA brand but only see that for the 69/70 convertible and 67/68 coupe. The 69/70 full floor at WCCC looks the most correct but I’m not sure who the manufacturer is or the guage of steel. Mustangs Unlimited has what looks to be the same and CJ Pony has three different levels depending on primers and seat platforms but non state the better made in USA or guage information. NPD has a high quality version but the ribbing is not as correct.

You are right about cleaning it up first to find all of the issues.

Thanks

6

If your tunnel is ok then you could just buy the full length pans for each side. Looks like the seat risers are a bit eaten up as well?

The hardest part of the job is the removal and prep of the floor pans on the rocker panels. The welding them in is the easy part… :smiley:
The panels that I bought from MU were great.

7

I’m going to start that removal and prep tonight. I ordered all my parts today from Don a WCCC yesterday. If you want to link me to any of those pics you mentioned that would be great.

Thanks

8

Here ya go…should be at least motivational for you. :smiley:

9

So I went ahead and took the floors out yesterday. I did not find any major surprises under the floor. Everything looks pretty good. Torque boxes are another story. Rears are good, will have to replace the front passenger side and at least replace the top angled piece of the driver side.








10

My experience on this job was to replace generously. Everything towards the firewall on your car is trashed, and you might not find good metal that you can weld to.

Also check your cowl, heater core, and the side air vents for the source of all of the water that most likely caused the rust. The problems on my 'vert were the front cowl under the fender that was rusted out and leaking down into the vent, and most likely a leaky roof.

11

The upper and lower cowl panels are good along with wind shield channel. Side panels are good, have one little bad area that is easy to see and get to. I cut out the areas of the toe boards this morning. All my structural flanges are in really good shape too.

Thanks