i recently picked up an 87 trans am, car runs great body needs some work but my biggest concern and the only thing ive never done on a car is floor pans. the pans appear to only be terribly rusted on the rear floor, the front part of the pan where the front seats and floor are is solid as in no rust. at all. dosent make much sense how the rear is literally rusted to pieces but the front is fine. anyway i need some advice on how to fix this, will a patch work? i wouldnt mind replacing the floor pans but my budget just does not allow this right now. ill try to get some pics up in the next few days but from what ive seen on it so far its literally just the rear floor.

 

we'll need to see pictures to give you a good suggestion on how to approach the floors. My definition and your definition of bad rust could be two different things. The way the rust formed was most likely from a leak at the back of the side window or a leak near the hatch bolts. That would leave the front floors solid but rust out the rears, at least thats what I've seen happen in person.

Without pictures and assuming the floors are completely shot, id track down a panel from a donor car and weld it in. The front floors are normally the ones that rust out and decommission a car so the rears are not that hard to track down. It may sound like a lot but if you cut out the bad metal and lay the"new" pan in place yourself, a welding job would not be terribly expensive. Of course pictures may suggest that you can make a patch for the floor and go that route.

 

No help to offer but I'll bet a doughnut the car has T-Tops...?

 

ill post some pics up tomorrow if the weather is nice today was a downpour. and yes the car has ttops- i thought the same thing but it appears to actually be the doors that have bad weatherstripping. i poured some water on the car and nothing leaked threw the tops or the hatch but the door let some in.

 

Thats one good side of solid roof cars .I dont think I ever seen one with rusted floorpans.

 

You need to come to nj. Road salt will rust out anything solid roof or not. I've got 2 hardtop cars now with floors that are gone.

 

Drive anything on wet salted roads and it will get eaten. Rust is exactly like cancer and it's various stages. Catch it early and repair it correctly, it will go into remission.
Do a half assed repair and it will come roaring back and spread. Ignore it completely it will become terminal.

Post your pics of your floors

 

well I said that thinking that most normal people dont dwd sports car in winter on snow The hardtop ones Ive seen around that werent driven in winter but sat outside had the floors ok.I mean these cars don't tend to rust worse than other things outthere ...GM did a good job with body work.

 

this is actually just the sound deadener stuff, its that color because there is some rust but it looks terrible here





rear seat bucket drivers side





drivers side front





drivers side rear





drivers side rear





drivers side front





passenger front





passenger front





passenger rear





passenger rear





passenger rear





rear seat bucket

 

wow i hate to say but that is pretty bad. The only way to fix the floors is going to be welding in replacement pans. Before doing that though you should check whether the water is coming in the car around the weatherstripping or from other rusty areas. Check the roof behind the weatherstripping and near the t top bar for holes. Also check the cowl area and areas around the windshield. A lot of water is obviously getting in the car somehow and you need to make sure the rust damage has not consumed hard to repair areas of the car.

 

the water is coming in at the top of the door, the weatherstripping on the ttop is shot. i poured a gallon of water on the car and sure enough thats where it was coming in, and it was a lot. do you think i could just weld in some new metal after cutting out the rot? i just dont have the money for new pans but id like to stop the rusting.

 

Please post pictures of your progress on here if you fix it. I have a camaro that is a lot worse. Yes, I know I should just scrap it and get a new body, but it was cheap, so why not.

We always love pictures, and it would help me out seeing what you did.

I would personally weld braces across the doors and across the back from pillar to pillar to help keep the car together when you get them out. Then just find a camaro with decent floors and get them out, or weld in sheetmetal.

 

im probably going to be putting in some sheetmetal as i cannot afford new pans. my first priority is to fix the front end, the car was in a front end collision before i bought it and i am replacing pieces and fixing some issues up front first. the impact bar is destroyed but the frame/unibody is in good and straight shape only issue is it bent the flanges that the impact bar bolts on to so im gonna have to get it to a shop for that, ill take some pictures tomorrow. i ripped off the drivers fender and hood today, tomorrow is the pass fender.