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Not a 100%, but I think it has to do with the Junior models that had rumble seats. So that would be Convertible Coupes and Sport Coupes.

I think those are the ones that still had a lot of wood from the B-Pillars to the rear.

I know the Senior model bodies still used used lots of wood in '37.

By 38, I think all the Junior bodies were all steel, but the rumbleseats were eliminated.

This is the "tack strip" I am referring to:

Yesterday while the site was down, I figured I would get that tack strip out and replaced.

The tack strip sits in a V-shaped floor channel formed where the front metal floor and the rumble seat compartment floor flanges are spot-welded together. The slotted wood screws were so rusted that the slots were gone. But the wood was so degraded that it pretty much just came apart in my hands, and then I was able to grab the screws with vise grips to remove them.




It's pretty rusty in there, so I cleaned the channel with a wire brush and then painted it with some rust converter paint. From this angle, it looked pretty good.




Then I went around to the backside to make sure I got the paint everywhere, and after the wire wheel had done its magic, rust holes appeared that were not visible from the front view.




So, I will have to cut that channel out and weld in a patch panel. If I can find a piece of 18/19 ga pre-bent "angle iron" sheet metal, that would work perfectly. Most likely, I will spot-weld it in and seam-seal it. It will have to go in from underneath, as that is really the only way to do it without breaking that flange between the front and rear floor pans.

That tack strip, which I am positive must have been to secure the carpet/floor mat in the rumble seat area, is the low point. So any water that gets in there ends up in that channel underneath that wood, rotting both the wood and the floor pan over time.

While I'm all for originality, perhaps this might be a time for minor invisible improvement? What if you replaced the trough with a raised bead roll (strength but not a low point that would collect water) and just glued the carpet to that or utilized a lower profile tack strip?

This is what the underside of that panel looked like half-way through the scraping process of removing 80+ years of muck.

It was one of the messiest jobs I've ever done. It was pointless to use a stripping wheel as that muck just gummed them up. So a putty knife was employed to scrape it all off, then followed with some rolock stripping disks on a diegrinder. It pretty hard area to work it. You're laying down under the car why this crap rains down on you. Trying to reach around the driveshaft, swaybar and associated linkage.





After a couple of hours, and some cursing....it looked like this:




Besides the isolated line where the rust holes are, the rest is completely solid. Try to cut out that area only and weld it a piece is going to be a nightmare. Since everything except that isolated line is solid, I'm just going to weld a 3" x 48" long patch over the area from the bottom.

So I had to run out to buy a sheet of metal long enough.

I got the patch made and welded in. That was a job i wish to never do again.

Welding upside down, in a confined space, laying on cold concrete, having to reach around the driveshaft, swaybar, and exhaust pipe, all while the spatter rains down on you is no fun. No my best welding effort for sure.

I made the panel and then put a gentle bend in it to match the transition between the two floor panels.




Holes were punched down it's length for the spot welds.

I then temporarily screwed the panel in place to clamp it as there is no other way to hold it in place. This pic is when I am about half way done installing the screws. This also help flatten the panel down to it final shape.




After all the screws were in, I went about and flatted the flange anywhere it wasn't laying completely flat against the existing body structure.

I went around and pulled out one screw at a time and then welded hole shut. So basically plug welding the two panels together.

When done, this is what it looked like from the top side.




I sprayed the patch panel and the area around down with some primer. Once that cures, I'll go back and seam seal the outside of it.

Also, I run some seam sealer down the inside of that groove where the rust line was to protect it, before putting the replacement wood in place.

It's done, and let us never speak of it again. I also have a work shirt that is now swiss cheese from the welding spatter.