I knew it had rust but not this bad. PO did a good job covering it up with fiberglass and painting it underneath. This is what it looks like after I got the loose rust off.(wasn't shy with screwdriver). whats left is solid. The frame rail moves a little when you jack the axle up(is on jack stands now). other side looks repairable but I don't know if this is. should I repair it or save up for a knew car. Its just a sport coupe with no rare options. My brother welds for a living and will have him do it so I'm not paying someone big money to do it. Hate to scrap it. love these cars.

 

Personally, if I had the time. I'd fix it.

 

It's just a floor pan. How much more rust is there? Floor pans rust. it's what they do. They make replacement pans and you could just go crazy with a Sawsall at the junkyard too.

 

My Passenger floor pan has a unique patch that the PO did. I'll have to replace mine as well, So i'm not telling you to do something that I don't plan to tackle myself. If i were at home, i'd snap a shot of it and show it to you. It's actually quite funny.

 

Looks just like my car! I would no doubt save the car. Just a floor pan replacement or even a patch. Fix it and call it good.

 

thanks for the feedback. I wanted a few more opinions before I jumped into this repair. I'm not really worried about the floor pan replacement. Its just that when you bounce the rear suspension up and down I can see the frame rail move. I have a shift kit and can feel the body twist and dog track when it shifts. My panhard bar is bent also so hopefully that's where the twist/dogtrack effect is coming from?

 

I've repaired much worse. Don't scrap it, or part it out, because of that.

 

oh ya, forgot to mention. the frame rail is sticking up a 1/2'' higher than the floorpan. passenger side is flush. Ill have to tweak it back somehow. Ill repost when I'm done and show pics.

 

thats nothin, look @ what i repaired on my lsx build...

http://www.necamaro-firebird.org/for...hp?f=34&t=5342

 

Well I guess I will be the one that goes against all the others.

Considering your location, that may be normal. But around here, it is pretty easy to find a car without all the rust issues that one probably has. If the rust is just in that one place, I would fix it. But how bad are the wheel housings? How bad are the strut towers?

It basically comes down to this, after factoring in the time and money spent to fix the shell, could you buy one in better shape? Im not talking about a spot here and there. Im talking about fixing everything correctly.

I parted out an 84 z28 because of rust in the floorpans, rear wheel tubs, and strut towers. Less rust then in your picture but bad enough to need full replacement.

It is your car, but it is also your money. I would atleast attempt to look for something better. But being in Indiana, that might be hard. If that is the case, fix it right and good luck.

 

i agree, your probably only seeing the easy fix now. before i made a decision, id take a chipping hammer and check everything. if its ONLY the floorpan, id fix it. but it sounds like you have some other issues going on too. if your brother is a welder he may be more qualified at whats repairable or not.

 

I would fix that, but first I would pull the whole carpet and see what else is going on.
Some might say " there's lots of bodies here with less rust" but a lot of otherwise mint looking cars have that much hidden. the question is, what else is there?

 

Well i got the whole interior stripped today from the firewall to the rear cargo area. Forgot to take a pic to put on here. Looks good for the most part. The front floorpan/firewall area has a few small spots were it was thin enough to hammer through. I could easily fix that with some patch work. shock towers look good. Going back over there tonight with my welding expert to see if he can fix the rear frame/floorpan area. Ill try to photo the whole floor of the car and post it tonight.

 

Ask your Brother about SFC's while hes over looking at it. That will fix any frame flex. Always look for the upgrade!

 

Finally got my brother to look at to see if its fixable. He couldn't believe the way energy is transferred to the unibody. It looks as if the control arms transfer to the frame rail, then to the thin floorboard metal. Doesn't look to strong even if there was 0 rust. Seeing that both sides cost 580 for the replacement floorboards and that I could buy a roller chassis for around 6 to 800 with little rust on craigslist. I doubt Ill buy the floorboards. Going to try this weekend to patch it the best we can and see if it stops the frame rail movement. If it works im going to put SFC's and maybe even a roll cage for added insurance. Probably wont look the best cause were using flat stock instead of premade floorpans(lots of curves to duplicate). Ill repost when were done and show pics.

 

dude that rust is nothing, you wanna see rust come out here and see what i had to start with. go to the junkyard find a trashed thirdgen and cut the floors out of it if they are good. if the frames alreeady twisted you arent hurting the car any, good luck

 

Mine came from up there near you in Michigan City. Its totally ruined on the driver's side floor board, and the spare tire well, and on and on.

Really it DOES come down to money. You don't need to spend all that money on new floor pans. If you have the skills to patch, then do it. If you don't then it will cost you more to repair it than to get another car. You have skills and access to skills. Fix it, man. They don't make those any more, you know?

As for your frame flex, you need to take it to the collision shop, have it put on the frame rack and get it racked back into place and then weld on your subframe connectors. Then get your alignment done and you'll be fine. All 82 and newer F cars need subframe connectors.

Good luck, man!

 

haha mine was so bad that when i took out the carpet the whole passenger floor came with it

but i agree if you have the tools to fix it properly do it, your saving a car that will be valueable to you later on because you did all the work

 

LOL that also happened to me i was doing a burn out when suddenly the Tourque arm riped of the body.

 

haha^ were like brothers

 

Well i finally got it done and it is solid with no frame movement. My brother was supposed to weld it but he never had time. so i jumped in and figured it out. Figured i needed to learn anyway. I went to junk yard and cut out a section from a firebird that goes below rear seat. patched the rest with flat stock. what do you think. progress is from left to right

 

Nice work man, :u most people that have an fbody with some repairable rust just junk it because usually their too lazy to fix it or it seems to complex. But its good to see you didn't let that stop you.