Dealing with Floor Rails

[AndrewLarson]

Just purchased a AWD Chevy Express passenger van and need to begin to deconstruction phase. Im worried about dealing with the floor rails however. It sounds like a nightmare. Anyone have any pro tips or experience with just incoporating them into the floor and building up the floor between rails? Seems like an option for less work but you sacrifice an inch or two of head room.

 

[4Fox]

Glad you were able to find one!
Depends on what you're plan is, but it looks like grinding out the rails is a major PITA. I plan on leaving mine in as I'll be keeping the middle seat bench in most of the time. With the design in the rear, the benches will either cover up the rail or be pretty damn close it won't matter

 

[wjeeper]

I helped my brother rip the rails out of his passenger van and it was a PITA. We had already removed most of the interior so we used a grinder and cut most of the heads off the difficult to get to carriage bolts from up above.

We decided that it was an easier approach than removing the heat shields and reaching around the fuel tank/ exhaust. Took us 3-4 hours and it really wasn't THAT bad. If it were my rig I think its totally worth the effort to remove them. More headroom and you can do the flooring in less pieces and have metal/ wood interfaces and less potential for squeaks

 

[86cj]

If you are going to build a full RV with sub floor and lots of permanent cabinets etc..., sure get them out and have a normal build.

I was going to cut them after the front bench and make my bed storage like most people do. I knew I wanted to bolt it down rather than screw the floor to death, so after a few days of not thinking about the issue it just hit me, use the super heavy duty floor anchors you have if you can. The issue reminds me of the kind of thing my dad would suggest that "I would have no part of but later realized he was way ahead of me as usual"

I was able to come up with a plan that is working very well for us, the van has no squeaks "really" and everything is bolted to the floor rails and walls, so removal is an option. My build is more like a dorm room than a nice hotel just the basics, these are early pics and it's not quite as basic these days.