What would be the best way to graft this torque box in to my car? I was thinking about drilling all the spot welds from the floor pan first, that should leave just the torque box, front frame rail extension, and rocker. would it be better to install the torque box in one peace or drill it apart and peace it back together?
that would be my best guess, drill it apart and install one peice at a time. i have to replace a small section of torque box inside of my '72 but im just going to patch it instead of replacing the entire panel. mine isnt all that bad...
I had to build mine piece by piece but if I had a good complete box I would have tried to install it as one unit. I'd recommend drilling out the cover and then grinding and cutting away the old rail and rocker connections and lap welding those back in place and spot welding a new top on it. Once you have the top layer of the torque box itself off you can see how the edges fold over and are spot welded inside to the rail and the pillar. You also have the bottom lip as well. You'd be better off to grind off the old pieces where you can from the attachment points and try to install it intact minus the cover. The hardest part will be the bottom rail edge as it sits in between layers of the rail pieces which are all spot welded together.
Never done a Maverick but I did do a 67 Mustang convertible. I would imagine there is not a lot of difference. Once the floor and toe board is removed, weld the torque box in as an assembly. Weld to the inner frame rail and outer rocker panel. Then weld your new floor sections back in. I'll see if I can scrounge up pictures of the Mustang and it will make it clearer. Good Luck.
