RTV1100 floor replacement

[cowrider]

I am replacing the rusted out floor of one of my 1100's and wanted to share the progress. Just to let everyone one know, I hate powder coating anything exposed to the element, give me Rust-Oleum any day. Once moisture gets under the coating it travels and rusts underneath and a lot of times it isn't noticed for some time. Anyway, on to the project.

I cut out the floors and some of the wheel wells. I will remove the wheel wells after the floor is in. The center pan is the hardest to remove and replace. I took the center to a metal fabricator to have it made because I didn't have anything to bend it. They made it out of 14 gauge sheet but told me that they couldn't bend it with the center wedge. I had the bend it without the center and had a separate straight channel to weld in after. This seems to have worked out. I had it made a inch longer to extend forward.

For the side pieces I made a template from some heavy paper like card stock that was used to cover pallets. Since both sides are the same you only need to turn it over for the other side. The steel is too heavy for me to bend but if you score it with a cut-off disk on a angle grinder you can then bend it.

 

[cowrider]

Floor welded in, wheel wells next.

 

[rlk]

Good job.

 

[ovrszd]

Very nice work. We build offroad rock crawlers so end up doing this type of fabs. Very tedious and progress is slow but results are very rewarding. Look forward to your progress.

I don't like coatings of any kind beyond paint.

 

[Kanook]

Very nice fab work.....Curious as to the conditions your RTV encounters to cause this much corrosion ?????

 

[avantiguy]

Very nice fab work.....Curious as to the conditions your RTV encounters to cause this much corrosion ?????

Same question here. I've done cars like that but never saw a utility vehicle that seriously rusted.

IAC, durn nice work.

 

[cowrider]

I bought a pair of these from a government auction from a collage in New Jersey. They both came with plows. Everything was beat up. The rust could be from salt used in the winter or even just the salt from being in NJ. I blame most of it on the powder coating. I have several Cub Cadet mowers and other items finished with powder and they all are rusting terribly, large pieces just flake off and rust underneath. I don't use salt and they haven't been in any. I have seen several RTVs on ebay and other sites that have the wheel wells patched. That seems to be a common problem. The last one I saw on ebay with a patch, I asked the seller if the floor had been repaired along with the wheel well and he stated it had. The sellers never mention those repairs in the ad. You just have to be aware of it.

We don't think to look under the floor mat to see how the floor is. I know I take it for granted. Plus Kubota fastens them down. My farmer neighbor has a newer x1100 since they came out and hadn't thought to take out the mat. He still hasn't even though he saw what mine look like. When was the last time anyone looked at theirs.

 

[Keifer]

It might be interesting to send photos of this project to the Kubota Corporation for their review. Although, IMHO, they are no doubt logged in to "our" Forum under some alias anyway.

I have often though how useful it would be to have an open dialog with Kubota. After all, aren't we 'field testing' (pun intended) their products?

 

[ovrszd]

I remember you posting on here about your purchase. I expected to see this type of rust damage.

Thank you very much for posting this thread so we can follow the resurrection!!!!

 

[cowrider]

wheel well fab. Looks like Frankenstein worked on it. At least I won't be playing Fred Flintstone while driving around now. Will need to do the same thing to my second one later this year, for now I have had enough.

 

[bordercollie]

That looks great cowrider. You must has a plasma cutter. It 's too bad that you had to do this work -me thinking it should have held up longer... you did fantastic and clean work- this will hold up well . I remember when I first got my 2011 , the floor made a noise like 2 pieces of metal not connected, when I first stepped on the floor. ( I am small in size) my 2005 never did that.. I thought then that either the panel in the 2011's floor wasn't welded together or that it was at least thinner metal. I will find out this summer when I redo the floor as the rubber mat is getting worn. collie

 

[cowrider]

No plasma cutter, sure would have been nice to have though. All my cuts were with a angle grinder with a cut off blade. Bends were made by scoring with the grinder and then bending.

 

[ccmdvl1960]

Very nice work! A couple of years ago, I pulled up my floormat and did some PM. No holes to patch, but this work has held up well. http://www.nettractortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16568

 

[williemakit]

Nice work cowrider. Looks like a factory job.