When the factory cut holes in the floor pan

[Ghoste]

For a four speed, did they trim it away nicely or cut with a template or just stick a torch in there and hack out a hole while it was going down the line?

[bakerhillpins]

I remember looking at this (I think I even had a thread about it too   ) and it seems it was just a hack job.



[EDIT]

Ill be dammed, I actually found the thread using the search engine...
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,82565.0.html

[six-tee-nine]

Anyone with a little respect for a Charger today and who takes pride in his work will do a nicer job then the factory did.

Buy a hump, put it over the floor, draw a line cut away.
Careful so you dont cut the crossmember, since the hump covers that part just with the outer rear part. If you start by the firewall and cut away the half of what you done, then you can see the crossmember and stop in time.

Weld in place and smooth the edges. If you dont have undercoating I suggest you put seam sealer over the edges...

[Ghoste]

Honestly I plan to do it the way the factory did.  If they hacked it in then that is how I am going to do it.  Did they use a torch or did they cut with power shears of some sort?
Would this have been done on the assembly line or would that section of floor pan have been modified offline somewhere before becoming part of the larger chassis?

[Cncguy]

Someone told me that you set the hump in place and reach inside with a sharpie and trace the inside. Then cut. That's how Chrysler did it.

[Baldwinvette77]

wow.. i suddenly feel better about my 6 speed installation 

[JB400]

Air powered body saw would probably be the weapon of choice.

[Charger-Bodie]

Someone told me that you set the hump in place and reach inside with a sharpie and trace the inside. Then cut. That's how Chrysler did it.

You want to leave the part of the floor that's above the transmission xmember though.

[Ghoste]

Question partially solved.  A buddy gave me a four speed floor hump cut from a 69 Road Runner and its attached to a large section of floor.  I'll get some photos up later but it looks like the hole was started with a torch and then finished with shears (and most likely of course, air powered) so this will serve as a template as well.
I still wonder for my own curiosity where it was performed in the assembly process?

[Mike DC]

I find it surprising that as early as the mid-1960s, the factory was making all the floorpans automatic by default and having workers hand-cut the manual tranny humps.  They used to call manual a "standard shift" because it was more common.  You'd think just the carryover of habits from the past would assure that they could build manual transmission cars without a hand-cut job like that.  (Although column-shifted manuals were still in use then.)

[Ghoste]

And column shift was the majority by far I think.