ken3983

I gotta vacation in October. I want to rip out the carpet because this thing is 16 years old. You can imagine what it looks like especially with kids. HORRIBLE!!! After I rip it out, I'm going to check for any rust or starting or rust and correct that problem if it occurs. Then, run any wire for later stereo use like RCA patch cable, etc. MY MAIN question is... what to put on a bare floorpan once all the carpet is gone? I was thinking about just priming it but was also considering the very likely possibility of using that undercoat rubbery stuff. This was a consideration due to the leaky t-tops and water that might stand and that HAS stood in the past. Looking under the car I don't see any rust but ya never know til ya yank it all out. Any suggesstions and what to do with the bare metal floor prep?

Ken

Jay

iTrader: (2)

it's gonna have paint on it.. so it won't be bare metal exactly. Best bet is to clean up and repair any rust, and then go over it with a rust inhibiting paint such as POR-15, Rust Bullet or others. I prefer Rust Bullet myself, others like POR-15. I believe Eastwood sells a simmilar product. Then if you want you could go over that with a sound deadner to help reduce some noise.

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

Well, if you had leaky seals, there is a good chance that there are going to be holes in the floor. I had some large holes due to leaking window seals. I ended up putting some bondo in the smaller holes and welding some patches in to fix the big holes. After fixing up the holes, I put some por-15 down and it turned out great. The por-15 doesn't smell at all once it dries and the carpet is down, which was my main concern.

ken3983

Well, al least I have'nt fell through the floor yet. LOL. If I do encounter any rust I was thinking about using Ospho. I've used it before and had pretty good results. One concern was the noise without the carpet, that is kinda why I was thinking about using undercoating. I will pull the carpet and go from there. With any luck, I won't see any rust Fingered crossed). Thanks for the reply guys.

Ken

dennisbernal91z

iTrader: (2)

After I pulled my carpet I found a few holes and I have a hardtop. I welded the holes shut, calked my welds, and POR-15ed the entire floor pan.

My major holes


Holes all welded up with metal that was bent with a sledge hammer and acquired from a scrap heap (that I still had to pay for )


Testing the coating


Worked out great. If you wanna see more pics, go to my CD site.
Later

-Dennis

Auto Mission

I am restoring a '57, put POR-15 on the entire frame, then needed to cut some of the frame with a plasma cutter. One inch from the plasma cut the POR- 15 did not even melt. That stuff is awesome, and incredibly tough.

I plan on using it on the '87 camaro we are restoring, even though the car is rust free, it would be nice to keep it rust free forever.

chevymetal

Don't forget the sound deadener while the carpet is out!

Saber

iTrader: (2)

Have fun with reparing the rust. Im doing the exact same thing now. I wish all my rust holes were just along the edges and not in corners which makes fabbing up pieces to weld in a tad bit harder. just make sure you take your time. If its not a show car dont worry about looks either seeing as its under the carpet. Make sure you have plenty of time also. Just grinding the rust out and such took me the better part of a week. I still have a few tiny spots to hit up. As for what to put on the floorboards i cut out and ground down all my rust, doing that pretty much stripped most of the paint off. In the process of cutting the rust out, i found some rust on the inner fender. I cant tackle that rust at this point in time but i plan on putting por-15 on it to stop it from spreading. Once i have new metal welded in i plan on putting por-15 on the whole floorboard and sealing the seams all over with seam sealer which pretty much is the way to go when getting rid of rust.

TA In Progress

iTrader: (3)

POR-15 works great, tough as can be. Went over the exterior of my floors and cleaned up some minor surface rust (no holes at all), cleaned everything and layed down the POR. It's been several years now and it still looks great and no rust.

Joeboy

Im about to do the same thing. What kind of sound deadening should I use underneath the carpet?

chevyracingrox

how well does this POR-15 insulate soundwise? i have a good sized hole in the drivers side floor. so i'm patching, caulking, and maybe this stuff too.

IROCQ

Are you going to replace the carpet with new material? Where are you going to source the carpet? Classic Industries, Year One, Hawks? I'm hearing some negative vibes going with these aftermarket carpet kits, like fading or dis-coloring in less than 6 months. Is this true? and if so, where can we get original GM carpet replacements? They don't sell them through GM dealers anymore.

AMigs87IROCz

I'd get a fitted carpet(year one, ect..), be sure to shop around. i think a good price is about $130.00. The fitted carpets come with the "padded area" adheared to the carpet. If you want to go the extra mile...get some Dynamat. AWESOME stuff, keeps the floor pan cool-and "tones" down the exhaust rumbling through out the body-it won't tone down the exhaust by any means but the "cabin" becomes queiter, the audio system(if u have one) can be appreciated more