73 Power Wagon floor pan question

Not able to find a definitive answer in the parts book...Is the cover panel on the trans hump a factory arrangement? It looks like it is because there is a flange in the floor pan that the cover panel sits in.

If indeed it is factory are these the correct mounting bolts? I can’t imagine these are OEM style because they would stick up through the carpet?

Thanks in advance!

Definitely not on my '79 Power Wagon but I guess things changed

My 78 has Phillip head screws. They are painted body color so I am assuming original.

...just wrong hardware

Cool!

Do you know if there are u-nuts underneath that those Phillip screws go into?

Square captive nuts as pictured.

Hmmmm, not sure what happened to mine. Thanks

My 73 W200 also has large screws holding the hump down.

-Jon

So I guess '79 was a change over. I wish mine had removable tunnel.

if i remember right from my garbage motors days(chevy truck), the bigger truck had that removable tunnel and they used a "j" nut underneath and a foam seal to keep air and dirt out.

Ya, my '79 doesn't have the removable tunnel piece either. Every other 70's 4x4 I've had, we're removable. I guess when they changed the hoods, they changed the tunnels too!

I had both a '78 and '79 at one time thinking one would end as parts for the other. Oh, how wrong I was! For as similar as they looked, they were considerably different.

I think when the big truck building ceased they decided to go with the one piece floor pan. All the big trucks had a different floor covers depending on drive line options. Old 2wd cabs had the lower flat one piece floor but also had an outline for the tunnel. I converted many 2wd cabs to 4wd with a doner tunnel.

My '72 W200 had the removable hump. IIRC, it had Phillips head screws that I had to drill out. Replaced them with button head hex screws.

When the captive nuts (called "cage nuts") are rusted or coated with undercoating, etc, they often require more torque to turn than what the cage will hold so they break free and are no longer usable. I have a 65' and replaced several of mine for the same reason. If the previous owner didn't know where to get them or had a better idea, they got replaced by what was available.

- EM