thedogs

Busy busy this morning changing out my new rotors. Turns out the parts guy gave me the wrong parts! But that wasn't the killer.

The crappy news is whilst looking underneath for a jacking point, I noticed some foam underlay. It was just hanging out near my rocker panel.
Hmmmm I thought and touched it and it was very very soft.
so soft I could feel the carpet on the drivers side floor moving.
I've a patch about 3' by 6' where the floor pan has rusted away completely.
The rest of the floor pan on the drivers side is on it's way out too.

so what do I do?
How much would it should it cost me to get it fixed?

anyone want to buy my car

My wife is excstatic by my car suddenly been a saleable item.

what do I do? the frame is fine..the front end isn't to bad but the other week I noticed the rear wheel well's inner seam is splitting and rusting.

SHould I park it in newark with the keys in????

DAMN it.
However I may have to move into a C4 or a WS6.

sorry mod's if this is the wrong board.

Street Lethal

iTrader: (16)

You buy yourself a new floor board, and you weld it in...

Seriously though, it depends. It's going to cost you much less to have a new floor-board installed, as opposed to buying a Corvette, that's for sure...

thedogs

I've no idea of the cost of the job or the size.
I assume they have to strip out the seats and carpets.
then tack a new piece of metal.

sounds like one of them jobs where I either buy the equipment and do it myself or wonder is it worth spending X amount...

I really want to be able to just enjoy the car for a while. without something like this cropping up.

I think the thridgen force is weak in me right now.

anyone had this happen to them?

Cadillac

After all that time putting those headers on you can say that?

C'mon Heath! Stick it out!

Then again, if you have the scratch for a WS6 or a C4.... Hmmmm.

86Z

iTrader: (4)

i just repaired that on my car, although my floor boards werent' that bad, a few tiny holes, but both hinge pillars were rusted out right behind the front fenders, my girlfriends uncle has a welder, we welded new patch panels in, used eastwoods rust encapsulator and some new seam sealer good as new, yours sounds like it needs new floor pans, it shouldnt be hard to do but if you dont have a welder then check around for prices, dont let a little hole stop you.

TomP

Or you could park it in my driveway and leave the keys in!

Ask around to find out how much a shop would want to replace the floorboards- and I bet it's much much less if YOU remove the seats and carpet and console and etc. Plus, you should do that first anyway- then hopefully you can find the leak that caused all the rust.

And if the sections aren't as rusted out as you say they are, you could just patch the existing floor with sections of flat steel. Hope Depot sells flat sheets in their hardware aisle. Look in their heating/ac duct section for flat sheets of aluminum. If you don't know how to weld, this kit may help ya: http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...e=PRODUCT&RS=1

thedogs

I double checked tonight after I got home from work.
and the hole is a lot longer than I thought.

it's a pain in the **** because It's not a beautifull car. Throwing more money in it can't really be justisfied. especially if it's anywhere near over the $700 mark. afriend of mine runs a bodyshop so I'll get his advice and price first. the car is worth MAX $2000 and realistically $1500.

I'm very unhappy about it.

no-one wnats to buy my POS car then?
a new car is just on the cards now..

thedogs

tomp where do you live and when would be best?

cheers Mike, I know its a shame isn't it.

86Z....it all comes down to the $ I will look into fixing it myself but it has to be very very cheap.
if homedepot loan welders I may give it a shot.

ntomsheck

iTrader: (1)

Well, you can Fred Flinstone it for a while. Your carpet will hold your feet up, as well as the unibody rail under the drivers side. My formula has this issue right now. It's not terrible, I get to waive at people from under my car and they just stare....

The problem has to do with GM's design flaws in this particular area. Let me guess, the area where your left foot rests, is gone, and then it slowly gets stronger towards the middle, then weakens back out as you get to the rear LCA mount (under the rear seat).

The front is due to this main issue:
At the bottom of the windshield, there are vents. These bring fresh air into your car when you turn the vent on. Well water runs into here as well. This runs down a big channel and exits inside the fender, between the door hinge and the wheel well on either side. Well on quite a few of our cars, the fender made a nice seal against it's mounting point, so any water that drained out would sit there for quite a while (longer than it should, but not days). Sometimes it would escape, but run along the bottom of the floor pan. GM used a rubber undercoating for the bottom, and those are killers once water breaches it. It'll find it's way everywhere. Also, the area where the left foot rests, there isn't a whole lot of air flowing on the floor pans, due to the unibody rails, so water doesn't immediately get whisked off by air. Combine this with road salt that flies onto your windshield in the winter and boom; you've got a rust colony in a matter of years. The LCA mount area is just an area where water can get trapped up underneath since they don't really seal that part.

What this means, is there's a good chance that more than just the floor pan is gone. When I repaired this area on my GTA, I had to replace part of the inside rocker panel, the fender mount, parts of the outside panels, the left foot rest, and a large section of the drivers side foot well. The rest of the floor also has a covering of surface rust, but nothing to compromise the structural integrity of it were I to blast it and POR15 it (which I will). I also have to get at the mount point of the LCA mount (you heard me haha).

Now, to get away from all that discouragement lol. If you love the car, or you're attached to it, it's not as much work as it sounds. You can clean it up and weld in replacements like I did in a day. Do yourself a favor and take the entire cabin interior and dash out like I did (another one day job). And always remember, the amount of work you feel that you're doing is inversely proportionate to the amount of fun you're having. Throw on some good tunes, grab a 12 pack, and have at it!


Sorry for the ridiculously long post. Remember, you guys only had to read it!

84bandit

You could just POR 15 the bottom and fiberglass over the drivers side floor. To do this you will have to take the metal down to a shiny surface then just lay down resin and start building up fiberglass over the holes. with 7-8 layers of strips (2in wide and like 6 in long) your floor will be rock solid, and resin and fiberglass mat(get fine mat, not course, looks like a clothing material) should only run you like 50 or 60 dollars and will last 15 or 20 years

ntomsheck

iTrader: (1)

That would actually work very well too. Fiberglass is remarkably strong. The only problem with his method would be spanning the bigger holes. The ones where the saturated strips would sag down into. This is where molding skills come in.

Take a piece of coreggated cardboard, bigger than the hole. Cover one side and most of the opposite (as in front and back) with box tape. Box tape is that really slick, shiny, clear tape that comes in 2" wide rolls. Decide at this point which you would rather use to prevent the fiberglass from sticking - Vaseline or oil. If you choose Vaseline, apply it before you attach it; If oil, apply it later.
Ductape the sheet of cardboard to the underside of the hole. Smear oil on it if you chose not to use vaseline. Now you've got a surface to span your fiberglass resin+fabric across without it sagging (use corrugated cardboard).