Zachhrt3

Hello everyone, sometime ago Ive decided to strip down my car to have everything repainted since the paint was bad. I've removed the seats, center console, IP, carpet and insulation. When I removed the carpet and insulation I found water, a small puddle and a bunch of water droplets, the insulation was soaked. So after I tossed the carpet and insulation into the trash I let the floor dry and began inspection it. This is what I've found. I'm wondering if you guys think if it's salvageable, like patch up holes and get rid of all the rust, or if I should replace the whole floor, which won't be a problem. I took a screwdriver and poked at the floorboards to find the weak spots, found a couple more.

Zachhrt3

driver front





passenger front

1MeanZ

iTrader: (9)

pull the firewall insulation up out of the way and post pix of the bottom of the firewall... Looks like you're going to need at least front sections welded in...

Zachhrt3

Zachhrt3

Some of the insulation is stuck to the metal and it looks a little like rust, but the firewall is fine it seems like but the front floorboards are as bad as they look.

-=Z28=-

iTrader: (3)

3rd gens are notorious for rusting there. T-Tops? I drilled a small drain hole in mine. But make sure to treat hole so it doesnt rust. Best to just not let water in.... I think that can be replaced. Search the site, Ive seen some great jobs and lots of pics to follow. You can do it!! good luck

-Dan

Zachhrt3

Thank you dan, and my car is a hard top, I know the floor boards should be replaced, but I don't want to replace the whole floorboard, just the fronts if the make sections for which would be awesome

-=Z28=-

iTrader: (3)

NP, I would pull the rear seats and carpet to make sure there is no water problems back there...... be super easy....

Zachhrt3

I'll get to that this weekend, got the whole car pretty much stripped down except for the suspension, need it to roll the car around on. But ill post pics if it's bad

phasevariance

Check the cowl and firewall closely. I poured a little bit of water in there (to mimic rainfall) only to see it leaking in right near the passenger side kick panel.

You caught the rust early compared to most, and that's the difference between a few patches or entire floor pans. Good luck.

Zachhrt3

Good idea, I was thinking that the floorboards rusted away underneath and water would get caught by the insulation and then eventually soaking all the insulation. But I never took the cowl into consideration. However I think I will order new floorboards, I can't find sectionals so I'll jut get a whole and cut off the rears because mine are fine.

Zachhrt3

Also I've been looking around for new core supports, I found one from camarocentral.com but they are out of production.

phasevariance

Can't help you there. But good luck with your floors and keep us posted!.

Zachhrt3

I think I've found one.

http://www.camarocentral.com/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=SHE-10

But I've been looking at the floor and taping all over with a hammer, I'm definitely replacing them. Im going to order them soon, just finished work on my A-pillars.

84LsxZ28

Definitely salvageable. Won't be very hard to replace them, just takes time and patience. My floors were worse than yours and I finished replacing the entire floor of the car in a few weeks (was mostly prep work). Good luck, looking forward to seeing progress

Zachhrt3

Where did you order your floorboards from? Also how is the quality?

Just bough a spot weld cutter so I'm one step closer, next I need to get the floor boards!!

84LsxZ28

I got my floorboards from Summit, I forget which company made them though. Very good quality, a little thicker than stock which makes them not as much of a pain in the *** to weld to.

Cutting out the spotwelds is a huge chore when doing the floors in this car and spotweld cutters can be good for pieces that you need to keep solid, but I'd reccomend using a drill to just drill them out for the most part. Either way, you'll have solid metal on one side of it to weld because you're getting new floorboards.

Zachhrt3

Hmm, I can just drill them out I guess, I've noticed that there is some sort of a sealer placed around the seams, could I use regular urathane like to seal windshields or is there a particular type I should use? I've never done floorboards before but it seems rather easy

84LsxZ28

I'd use bondo to seal the seams. Less messy than that gooey crap, and it should look better.

Zachhrt3

Hmm, I'll look into how to seal them, once I finish that I'll start another thread on the progress of the paint, then reassembly, I have the whole car down to bare chassis excluding the suspension, that will be after paint, but I plan to go aftermarket suspension. But right now I'm just sorting out funds.