I was out today fixing some paint bubbles and some rust/rot in my left wheel. The rust/rot extended on down into the bottom front of the wheel well and when I poked my head under my car, I found that the entire driver side floor pan is about ready to fall out. The metal is ruptured in several places and barely attached to the along the pinch weld area. Not a spot of rust on the passenger side pan however.

Other than the floor pan being bad, I have a serious issue. I live in an apartment complex and have no tools with which to fix this. I can afford to buy a new pan, but I have no idea how much it will cost have the old one cut out and replaced. I live in Ft Wayne, and have family in Lafayette so if anyone knows of a body shop that can do it, send me their info. Also, if anyone has an idea of how much this will cost, let me know.

 

probably like 3 hundred just in labor. a little less less if you take out the interior before dropping it off.

 

Sorry to say it will not be cheap, you are looking at about 6 to 8 hours of labor, sheet metal labor is about $35-45 per hour. You really do need to pull the interior and take it to them to save money. The next problem is you need a replacement pan either aftermarket or from a donar car. If you don't provide this you will be looking at additional time for fabrication, and you need a good metal guy or it will look like a patch job.

 

I knew it wasn't going to be cheap. I can buy a brand new pan (read, its a freshly made one whose age is measured in months, not years) from Hawks for $300 (getting a quote on shipping). Stripping the interior is a non-option, I don't have space for any in of it a 500sf apt, the experience to do it without causing myself more trouble, nor a means of getting the car to a shop without driving.

So, $2000 for a pan replacement sound about right? Thats fine with me, I can live with that on my credit card for a while.

 

would be more like a grand to $1500, maybe hitting 2 grand on the higher side, depending on the shops labor rate. taking the interior out is a couple of hours work, then about 6-8 hours work on fitting and welding, then another couple hours putting the interior back in. so say 12-14 hours at anywhere from $40 to $80 an hour, plus the cost of the actual pan. id replace the whole floor pan whle youre at it. wont be much difference in cost between half a pan and a full pan installed.

 

I'm in need of the full pan, so not a problem there. I know it sounds like I'm just throwing money at this and not taking responsibility for this. However, I graduated college in May and started my job in August (had a very bad summer job hunting) and planned my post graduation budget around paying off my 6yrs of college in only 5yrs then start to work on my car. Rust it seems, has a plan of its own.

So, I'll need to delay slamming out student loan payments until I get this fixed. It's far cheaper to fix the floor pan than it is to buy even a decent used car.

 

Just replaced the driver side floor pan in my 91 vert. This is not an easy fix, you are probably gonna run into more rot issues in the front subframe, like I did. I ended up pulling the trans out so I could get in to fix the subframe properly.Just be prepared for more than just the floor pan itself. I have my own body shop and I cant say what shops in Indiana. would charge, just make sure they are a reputible company. Back yard body shops can total wreck your car if they don't know what they are doing with this type of repair..just my 2 cents

 

This type of thinking will keep you in a 500 square foot apt your whole life.

Step one: Get a meaningful degree
step two: Get a good job
step three: Buy a house with garage
step 4: Repair floor pan

Should take 7-9 years, but you'll be in good shape for the rest of your life.

Here's some rust repair for ya, just to stay on topic:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ower-rust.html

 

Thanks *******. I only spent the last 6yrs in college getting TWO degrees in Architectural Design & Building Construction Management and the summer living with my parents as I worked for a moving company doing job hunting in arguably the worst construction market in history. I do have a great job as a Project Manager with a $20 million/year sub contractor making $35k/yr. However, I also have $26k worth of student loans to payoff and buying a new car or house is not a viable option right now as I have setup my student loans to be paid back in 5yrs or less. I have a credit card that can support the repair and I can pay the minimum on my student loans as my repayment doesn't start until January.

Before you go being a **** head thinking that someone whose asking a question doesn't have the slightest clue about what to do or how to do it, THINK. I worked my way through college working in a student machine shop and know how to do all this. However, the realities of the real world cost money, money that I currently don't have readily accessible. Space costs money, tools cost money, utilities cost money, shipping costs money. My priorities right now are keeping the car running in a safe functional manner until I get my student loans paid off. Just so happens driving the car and seeing the road rolling by aren't my idea of safe.

I had the same plan as above. However, when life presents you a problem that you didn't have on your plan A life list, you go to plan B. This being plan B.

Go **** yourself and may we never speak again!

 

Chill I was just giving you a hard time....

 

*UPDATE*

I managed to get only two shops to commit to giving a quote on this. Also, found out a friend of mine has done tons of interior work in his thirdgen, so I now have a place strip my interior and get it put back in.

The first shop quoted me $1700 labor & work on the drivers side rocker to replace only the driver side pan plus patch the hole in the wheel well. This is with me supplying the pan ($465) and stripping out the interior. Throw in the cost of renting a car for the week ($250) and it comes out to $2415 just to replace the drivers side pan. No under coating, no paint, no rust preventative, just labor & misc. materials.

The second shop I just came from found out that the 3 little holes on the passenger pan are actually all the way through the pan and have about a year left on the pan. The good news is both rockers are in fairly good shape, and if not he can replace both rockers while hes in there . He quoted me $1300 labor to replace both pans and do the undercoating so they won't rust again plus patching the rear wheel well. He also quoted me $250 labor & materials per rocker to replace them if they need to be replaced. He's fairly certain they don't need to be replaced, but he let me know just in case. I'm supplying both pans ($930) and stripping out the interior. Throw in car rental for two weeks ($500) and it comes out to $2750. If both rockers need to be replaced, its $3250.

I need to do some more thinking, but it looks like shop 2 is the answer.

 

Why are you paying $975 for floor pans?

 

sounds like shop #2 is giving you straight answers and not trying to candy coat or up sell you. usually a sign of quality work. ask if he warrenties his work.

 

Why are you paying $3200 to a shop for something like this??? You could get a really nice rust free car for that...

Have a read up on this:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ml#post5090803

 

Because I don't want to have buyers remorse in getting an eBay special and I also don't have the time to shop for a set of pans. I'm currently assigned to a sewer plant and that job eats my days up pretty well. I'd rather be safe and get a set of brand new pans from Hawks.

Yep, he's quality for sure. He's rebuilt 4 of my bosses Camaro's including an 88 Convertible. I saw on his rate board that he has an standard 90-day warranty. Charges $46/hr for labor. He also gave me a great bit of free advice on stopping any rust that might be there we didn't see. He said to take a 50/50 mix of oil & kerosene and spray it into the void spaces in the chassis. Kills & keeps rust away what he says.

Shop #1 was good as well, but they charge $45/hr for labor & $70/hr for fab work. The floor was so clean I could have ate off it and every classic car known in the US was in that shop having any thinkable kind of work done. Reminded me of an Aston Martin service bay kinda sorta.

Because I have neither the shop, tools, or time to replace the pans myself. I didn't build 3 race cars in the three years I worked in the machine shop at school and learn nothing about fixing rust. Trust me, this is well within my skill set. I also don't have the luxury of shopping & buying a rust free car here for the same price. After this investment, I'll pretty much have a new chassis to work with. All the other rust I have is on non-structural items and I have no qualms about using a wire brush, Bondo, 50/50 oil kerosene, and Rustoleum to keep it at bay until I have my student loans paid off. I plan to pay back my debt in less time than I was in school. That means a $500 payment a month to getting out of debt. Thankfully, my repayment doesn't start until January, so I can pay the minimum ($250) until I get this paid off.

 

I understand, I used these in an 84 Z we restored and they were great quality

http://www.classicindustries.com/cam...ts/c12179.html

 

Well now I know where the Hawks pans come from:

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/19...floorpans.aspx

 

theyre probably both just drop shipped directly from the manufacturer.

 

Lots of aftermarket parts out there, just need to find the good ones. Good luck with your project, and help or advice just ask thats what we are here for

 

*UPDATE*

Started pulling the rear seats out today. The rear seat buckets came out with ease as only 1 13mm bolt holds each bucket in place. The rear seat back is also easy, remove each swivel nut on the bottom corners and the seat belt braket and it comes out with ease. However, one of those bracket bolts didn't get the memo or wasn't up to snuff as the head is stripped out with only my dinky allen tool. All the others came out without issue.

Passenger seat is for tomorrow.

 

IIRC the seat belt brackets use torx head bolts. not allen. which would explain why it stripped.

 

This is correct. I have stripped the ENTIRE inside of my car before of EVERYTHING (Except for the dash) from the firewall to the trunk well and I don't recall a single bolt/screw being allen headed no matter how big/small. These cars use Torx bolts/screws.

 

You are correct, its a Torx bolt. The tool I have has 9 torx bits on it (Torx, Star, Allen, I use the terms interchangeably and need to get out of that habit). I think it may have been stripped before I got to it as it didn't fit the tool to begin with (somewhat loose) and the next size up bit didn't fit it either. The next size down was too small. Time for the vice grips.

 

theyre also loc-tited in. it was a hell of a struggle taking mine off. i wound up using an impact drill to get them loose.

 

I noticed that, had break out the can of Whoop-*** for them

 

*UPDATE*

Got all of the interior out tonight minus the center console, drivers seat, & carpet. What carpet I did peel up revealed the exact same things as I saw from the outside. The sub-frames look to be intact, as I can't exactly see where the pan joins them, but I'll defer to my judgment and your all's input after this weekend. I tallied up the time it took to remove all the seats and panels and I did it in just under 2hrs total by myself.

There may be a glimmer of hope yet. If the sub frames are beyond reasonable repair (as in there is a bit of rust that can be easily fixed), then I'm calling it quits on this project.

 

*UPDATE*

Here are the pics of todays efforts.

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Part 3

 

Part 4

Thoughts, opinions? My friends and I are of the opinion that it is very much worth saving. And my friends thridgen both were far worse than this when they started on their repairs.

 

Absolutely worth saving. Although, the view from the top can be a bit misleading. Best to have a look underneath. BTW, ALWAYS be prepared for rust surprises.

 

This is the first time I've seen it from inside the car. The esitmate & my inital thoughts on this project were all based on what we saw from the outside under the car.

 

How bad does the bottom look?

 

Exactly as stated in my original post. The passenger side for all intents & purposes looks from the outside as if it needs only a few patches & touch ups. The driverside from the outside looks like its ready to fall out though.

 

Can you put it up on stands and get a decent pic of it?

 

Cant do that (no stands or jack). I should have taken pictures of it when it was up on the lift both times, but I didn't have a camera with me. The pinch weld on the drivers side for all intents & purposes is gone. I can run my hand the length of the weld and reach into the rocker along the length of weld. Every crack you see in the interior pictures is visible from the outside. The subframes don't show any rust on them from the outside and the floor pan is covering them up from the inside. The passenger side shows three pinhole rust spots on the pan from the outside and thats it.

 

Move the wire harnes ouy of the way and take a pic from around the trns tunnel close up on that rocker area. looks like the that plastic wire harnes is covering up the rotted area

 

Cant see anything else that way. The heater core leaked & was replaced 3yrs ago and when I pulled that blanket back today, that was all that was there. The metal seems to have only surface rust on it. It was like the clean steel as far as how it felt to the touch. Not soft or springy like all the other rot.

 

That wire harnes that runs along the drivers side door sill, Can you move that out of the way

 

I can, will do that tomorrow though as it is pitch black out right now(These pictures are from 3pm today and I have laid the carpet back in as I neither want to go deaf or see the road go by while driving). But I can see & feel that harness THROUGH where the pinch weld should be from outside under the car.

 

I just want to see that edge, you can still have a good metal fabricator fix this with out replacing your entire floor. Take it back to the shop and let them look at it again

 

Well, no pics today as the camera is apparently taking the day off. I pulled up the harness and going from front to back, there is metal with rust on it & seam sealer until you get back to just in front of the seat belt mount. From that point back to where the pan starts to turn up to the back seat is open through the pan wide enough I can fit my hand into the gap.

 

*UPDATE*

Just heard back from the shop. I sent them these pics last night and he didn't see anything he wasn't expecting and said that all of what he saw is repairable. Going to make some calls tomorrow and pic his brain on the passenger pan as that might just be within me and my friends tools to repair ourselves.

I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on this.

 

Sweet! Be sure to keep us updated with pics, glad to see another one getting saved.

 

I'm not going to be dancing until this is done, one way or the other. I ordered a set of replacement pans from Hawks on Monday, they placed the order with the manufacturer on Wednesday. Neat thing about replacement pans is that they are made when the order is placed.

Also, no pics. I'm lacking a garage & tools with which to do this, so its going to a shop for two weeks at the end of December. Hopefully it comes out cheaper than the $2800 I estimated for this project.

 

That is not all that bad. But I will warn rust is always worse then it looks. This is a pic of my drivers side floor pan. Going to be fixed, just need a welder and floor pan, and well see from there.
The bucket was my seat when I moved it from my shop to my garage. (less them 50ft.)

 

Yikes!!!

And I do understand that it will be worse than what me and the shop have seen from both inside & outside. I'm hopeing I caught this earlier enough that its not anything too costly to fix beyond what I'm already paying.

I the next 3 weeks my pans should be delivered to the shop.

 

You can clearly see the subframe on mine, and I am 99% sure I will be into the rocker to fix mine. But it all amounts to what you want to pay to fix it. Mine will be done by me. So labor is at no cost, just my time which as a hobby time is well what you want do to. So I am paying for parts.
The downside for you is that you are paying for labor. Body work is the most expensive part of car repair.
Just be ready for more work then you think. Rust is never what you see.

 

I gotta ask, did you read through the thread before replying to it? Reason I ask is all that you are pointing out to me has already been pointed out by others and the shop I'm taking my car, which is my Daily Driver, to. Me and the shop are on the same page as we both expect work to be done on the rockers. If it was just pans and labor, I'd be $2000 out of pocket. But I'm also expecting both rockers needing replaced, so thats another $800. Throw in the fact that I have to drive my car daily and don't really have the funds or credit rating for a new car, that's why I'm going through with this. If the sub-frames are shot, which they look good so far, I'm going to get rid of the car and find something else. I can afford a couple months of credit card payments, I can't afford a few years of car payments. They are going to whip this out in two weeks time if all is well or within reason & budget to repair.

Also, I've described multiple times the underside condition of the pans. I've seen the underside twice on a lift and neither time did I have my camera with me to take pictures of the condition of the pans. I did think to take my camera with me when I stripped my interior out of the car, so thats why there are pics of the car from the inside. Ideally, I wanted to do this work myself after I got my student loans paid off. But I can't really wait 5+ years to get my loans paid off and then spend another couple years buying tools & parts to do this. I understand that I'm in a bad spot, but if this gets me through the next 5 years without anything beyond oil changes & regular repairs, I'll be happy. If this works out to that time, I'll be able to get into a place with a garage and buy a truck so that I can park my car & work on it.

 

Wasen't trying to tell you not to do it.
That is an advantage I have, I don't need my car.
It really dosen't matter if it's a Camaro or a Cavalier. At some point you will be beyond the worth of the car to fix. But like my Camaro and even 49 Ford I could buy new one's cheaper then fixing them.
In the end it comes down to what the car is worth to you.
Seems to me you want to keep your car. Just sucks you have to pay for the labor.
But even on the other side of the coin if your not going to use the tools you need to fix this (if you were to do it yourself) you can spend more on tools alone then you would labor.
So in the end it all comes down to the car, the owner, the tools you do or don't have, and the experiance.
Your car isn't a cheap fix, but if you can keep the rust at bay, or clean it when it starts if you have to do another floor pan it will be years from now. So still well worth it.