This is part eight of a series of posts on the auto restoration of this 1931 American Austin. Part One of auto restoration describes the history of the Austin and presents photos of the car before any restoration work. Part Two of auto restoration shows the condition of the Austin after return from media blasting and describes the donor chassis. Part Three of auto restoration covers the restoration of the chassis and mechanical parts. Part Four of auto restoration begins covering the metal work part of the restoration and talks about starting the new floor construction. Part Five of auto restoration follows on the floor rebuild and presents photos of the tunnel damage and restoration. Part Six of auto restoration shows how we made the left-hand floor from scratch using a pattern from the right. Part Seven of auto restoration continues the description of the floor rebuild, covering the upper end of the floor.
This post covers the left floor half made from scratch and grafted into the tunnel to complete the floor. We do use an original section on the left side rear, as when we began this project it was agreed we would salvage and use as much original metal as possible (as long as it was structurally sound). We have quite the collection of original material we couldn’t reuse and plan to display it next to the car, when it’s completed, for a few artistic shots.
Auto Restoration: Final floor restoration photos
Where possible it was our mission to salvage all perfectly good original useable sheet metal, and here’s an example of just that!
TIG welded into position and ready for metal finishing.
Our freshly made left hand floor half.
Honing in the bead detail in the floor.
Floor pieces joined into position with the tunnel.
Floor to tunnel grafting begins.
The metal finishing process.
Two floor halves and the tunnel successfully grafted together.
Front tunnel capping panel, positioned using clecos.
New floor mounted on the donor chassis to check fit.
This is part eight of a series of posts on the auto restoration of this 1931 American Austin. Part One of auto restoration describes the history of the Austin and presents photos of the car before any restoration work. Part Two of auto restoration shows the condition of the Austin after return from media blasting and describes the donor chassis. Part Three of auto restoration covers the restoration of the chassis and mechanical parts. Part Four of auto restoration begins covering the metal work part of the restoration and talks about starting the new floor construction. Part Five of auto restoration follows on the floor rebuild and presents photos of the tunnel damage and restoration. Part Six of auto restoration shows how we made the left-hand floor from scratch using a pattern from the right. Part Seven of auto restoration continues the description of the floor rebuild, covering the upper end of the floor (by the foot pedals).