New guy here needs floor advice.

[silverloaf]

Dave,

The rub rail and aluminum seam cover must be removed. When you peel back the rub rail, you will find screws that go through the skin panels and into the side of the floor.

The staples are merely placeholders to keep the lower skin panels in place during production. Once the middle panel is installed, the screws for the seam cover lock the both panels together.

You can take a small grinder and cut the staples flush to the skin after the old floor is removed. What's left will hold the panels together until the seam cover is re-installed.

Here's something to keep in mind when replacing the floor. The exterior walls get their support from the outriggers as well as the sandwich construction of the wall itself. The outriggers are welded to the main frame and project outward under the wall. They are located roughly 4ft apart under the side walls. See the pic below.

Avion relied on the structural nature of the walls to bridge or transfer the load to these outriggers. For this reason, the interior wall panels and spray foam should not be removed when replacing the floor. I suggest cutting away the floor systematically at the outrigger points and install 2-1/4" blocking to support the walls.

Use an angle grinder to cut the elevator (flat head) bolts that hold the floor to the outriggers and the screws that hold the lower wall channel to the floor. Do not do all of them at once. Otherwise. the walls might bow out. Start reconstructing the floor in segments.