70 Chevelle convertible. Can the two floor pan braces be replaced without doing a total body frame-off ? Need some thoughts on this. Thanks, Steve

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1970 Chevelle Convertible (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/howell.jpg)

I don't see anyway this would be possible. The braces you are reffering to are "L" shaped on the end and are not only spot welded to the floor pans but also to the back of the rocker panels.
The frame is to close to the rocker panels so I wouldn't have any idea how you could possibly even cut the old brace out let alone weld a new one in.
You could remove all the body mount bolts and lift the body just high enough to give sufficient room to work. But you would need to be very careful with tranny cables, linkage, chassis to body ground straps, fuel and brake lines ect.
You would also have to remove your seats, carpet ect. so they are not damadged from the cutting and welding.

FastSS396man

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69' SS396 Chevelle
L78 396/375hp
M-21 Close Ratio
Cortez Silver
10 year Resto
It's brand new again!

Howell, please investigate your project carefully. If you are having to replace the floor pan braces, what condition is the floor pan in above the braces? IF you haven't taken out the carpet for inspection then do so.
This is from experience. I did the complete floor pan project including one brace on my '67 Elky. At first glance it appeared to be just the drivers side. After taking out the carpet and using an awl to punch around it bacame apparent that I was in for a complete floor pan. After getting the old pan out then I found one brace bad that looked good from the bottom.
Do it right the first time and save time and money in the long run.

Difficult to tell from my signature photo, but this ride is going to get a total frame-off resto this winter due to finding a couple things on the underside recently. I think its worth while (being a 70 drop-top) to do it right. This spring, there will be "new" rat-powered rag-top in the neighborhood. Thanks, Steve

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1970 Chevelle Convertible (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/howell.jpg)

I agree with thrmn, if the brace are bad the floors are likey bad as well. You must lift the car up off the frame abit to replace the braces. I just used several hydraulic jacks around the car and jacked it high enough were I could work safey and remove the braces. Replace only one panel at a time dont cut out the entire floor including the braces all at once. I replaced both braces first, got them to fit to the original floor and welded them in. Then removed the floor in halves and got it to fit to the new braces and the other half of the floor that still remained in the car. Once the new floor half was welded in, remove the last half of the floor. This just makes sure everything fits where it should be and gets rid of the guessing and more important makes for a cleaner, better fitting end result.

One other thing, since this is a convert and you will be replacing the floor and braces with the car up in the air, I would highly sugggest that you make some type of brace that goes from the door hinge to the quarter panel to keep the car from flexing. Remove the doors and take some flat steel and bolt that to the hinge area on the cowl. Weld some steel to that flat piece and weld it to quarter on the inside. Once you are done replacing the floor unbolt it from the hinge and grind off the weld.