Just got a 92 Firebird a couple of days ago. Today, I discovered that the surface rust I had seen on the underbody is far more seriousthan I had suspected. While trying to jack the car, the jack almost went through the floor board (on the jacking point of course - not trying to jack in the middle of the floor board).
Have any of you had this problem and had it corrected. Trying to find out how bad this problem is. Both $$$ and effort. Very worried that this may be uncorrectable. I have heard of floor boards being replaced, but not in the area of the jack points (flange area).
Not sure how this got buy me. Not my first car (or first restroration) and I did check underneath before buying. Unfortunaley, I did not press around in this area because I had pressed on areas right near it that looked far worse and were only surface rust. A lesson for any of you currently in the market.

Larry

 

Hey larry,
yes you can fix the floor. It's all a matter of will power!!Time and money also factor in, more time than money though. You can find/buy/get some sheet metal probobaly 20 gauge would work. You will definitely have to reinforce the supports to be able to trust the strength of the floor. These thirdgen's have really crappy sheet metal, way too thin. If you can get to a set of oxy-and acetalyene tanks you can cut out the bad and braze in new. No one will ever know if you do the job goodnclean. But before you start, you should look at the car realisticaly, is it something that you are willing to spend several long hot hours on? Is it worth it finacially? If so, good luck.You can buy floor pans, complete or in smaller sections.Classic industreis sells a complete pan (I think). They are not cheap. But if the car's floor is rusted now, it will only get worse as the cancer spreads.Anyways, good luck with whatever you decide to do.Some other peolpe on here might have done this before on a thirdgen. I've only done floor work on sixties muscle, and they have alot better/thicker metal to work with.

 

heres what mine looks like now...after ive cut more of it out..

 

new floor pans

 

haven't jacked mine up yet even, my project car that never gets started. Where abouts is the designated jacking point on a thirdgen? (not on an axle though, need the suspension to be lax)

 

OMG! You guys in the midwest and east coast have real problems. Out here, that would just be considered total scrap! Not intending to be a butt-hole or anything, but wouldn't it just be a lot easier, labor and financially, to buy a non-op car out here in the West and trailer it home? Even the wrecking yards have perfectly good shells (no rust at all) that just get crushed when they are picked of their usable parts.

Salted roads? Is that what does that?

 

Yes, salted roads, and not garage kept.. This is my first car, and is the first fbody that anyone in my family has bought, but it didnt look as bad as it really was when we bought it. My plan for this is just to sell it and make a trip to visit my uncle in California, with the money i get from it and money Ill save, and just drive one back here...

 

The jacking location is on the body joint where the underbody panel meets the outer frame rail/rocker panel. There is a large bump in the metal followed by an indentation about 14" back from the front wheel. the jack should be placed in/on the indentation. Of course my indentaion is now flush with the underbody with holes around it.

How hard is it to learn to do this type of welding work? I have done body work but not with welding (rear quarters patched on my '71 Chevelle with new sheet metal installed via metal screws and duraglass).

Also, did any of you have this work qouted from a body shop? What's the damage there?

I can't believe I found this only 2 days into ownership. I am thoroughly discouraged with this project and would just sell the #@%%! thing if I could get what I paid for it (not likely with this hole problem now). I would have rather had the engine or trans go than deal with this.

 

heres what i did today..

 

another, its not welded in yet but its about ready to be...

 

pic would help

 

Looks real good. Does this attach right at the body seam as before? Were you rotted out at the jacking location also?

 

A friend of mine had a similar problem. His pickup had some engine problem and the '88 IROCZ was his daily driver. So we installed Spohn subframe connectors to solve the body integrity problems. Then we mixed and sprayed POR15 thoroughly throughout the entire underbody area. That was 2 years ago, and he still drives the car every day.

I will admit this is a temp fix. But is was just the thing at the time.

Thanx,ANDYZ28

 

yea, it buts up close to the original metal, then just weld the crack shut. the frame rails werent rotted out, just rusty...

 

My brother bought what looked to be a really clean '84 Z. Being car nuts we tore the thing apart to find that the floors were competely rusted out including the rocker panels, the trans tunnel was wrinkled, and the back of the car was really rusty. Aparently it had been totaled, someone bought it out of the yard after a couple of years(explains the rust) and did a quick fix and sold it to some sucker So, he drops about 5 g's into it gets it backhalfed, 10 point cage, 9" rear, ladder bars and a new frame that is straight. It took about a year to get all of that done. After $1.4K on the trans and a couple in the engine it should be ready to go racing.

 

i bought an 82 camaro about 2 years ago .. the body of it has no rust , the bottom looks great... about 9 months ago or so i bought a 90 RS ... that car sucks!! that thing has so much rust all over it ... the bottom is very badly rusted i was leavibng a drive in and the car bottomed out a little bit, and then something started dragging.... so i pulled into the gas station, looked to see what it was, it was the floorboards.. both of the floor boards where the back seat passengers put there feet have really big holes in them ... only thing stopping u from being able to touch the road is the carpet.. kinda scary thinking about the driver seat just falling through the floor while im driving.. when that engine dies, im stripping it and its goin to the junkyard.

me and my cousin tried changing the tranny mount last night and we started to take out the metal piece that holds the tranny up there ... he tried looseingin the bolt, wouldnt budge.... so we took a can of liquid wrench used almost all of it on 4 bolts... then we let it soak in for like a minute .. then went back to trying to get bolt off, and it snapped at the head. after it snapping we started thinking of other ways to do it... we prolbably didnt even have to attempt taking that off.. who cares now. theres a pretty nice 90 RS convertible (except its white with red and pink pinstriping down by the ground effects, that looks gay... and i hate white cars) for sale not too far from my house .. maybe theyll trade it for both of my camaros :P

 

metal corrodes all around the car, not just in the obvious places either. some parts are particulary troublesome to fix. for instance, ever tried to replace a rotted out a-pillar and then not be able to keep windsheilds in the car because they keep developing stress cracks. ever thought of welding in a new firewall and then realizing that you'd have to remove the entire dashboard along with the engine before starting the project?

 

Took the car to a local body shop and got a quote on having the floorpan replaced. The shop is figuring on needing 10 hours to do the repair at $36/hour. So if I provide the floor pan, I can get it done for $360 in labor plus the pan (about $280). Not too bad so I'm planning to take them up on the qoute although I am also looking to whether I can do the job myself at a buddy's freind's place who has the welding equip.

 

Remember that most of the 10 hours they're quoting you are prep and finishing. To install the new floor pan they'll have to strip out both the interior (the center console, seats, carpet and underpad) as well as pulling your gas and brake lines out from under the car. And putting it all back together after the floors are done.

If you buddies friend has the welding equipment, he'll probably have the cutting equipment too. It's really a straight froward job, especially if you're using prefab floors. Don't expect to be able to do them in 10 hours, but if you take your time it'll turn out good.

With the money you save by not having the body shop do the work, pick up a set of subframe connectors and get those welded in while your doing the floors. All your lines will already be out of the way and they'll give you some really sturdy jacking points

Arawn

 

haha... im laughing with you man..