I went to change the carpet and found quite a few holes in the floor. My plan is to weld in new metal. From what the damage looks like, would I be better to use sheet metal or find a less rusty floor and cut the sections from that?

In front of the drivers seat is pretty bad.



Right below the pedals along a seam has some holes. The drivers kick panel area is fine.



The passenger kick panel is rusted right through. At some point it was lifted on the front fender mount and bent it over. That is where the hole is.



Behind the drivers seat at the back of the door is rusted through 1 layer of steel but not another. What is this area?



Passenger floor in front of the seat has a few smaller holes.




Most of the rust in the seat areas appears to be surface rust and seems solid still.

The very front of the floor pans where the black rubbery sound deadener on the firewall meets the floor was a bit wet as It has been raining here lots. But where would the water be coming in? It is high enough up that the water has to be coming down the inside of the firewall.

 

I had some similar issues in my floorpans. It's really up to you, I cleaned the area up really well, primered, used sheet metal, sprayed rubberized undercoating on the side that would be in contact with the floor, placed it, riveted in place, and then undercoated under the car in the same place if I remember correctly, no issues since.

 

If you could get new-ish/er floor pans and weld them in and then coat them really well that would probably be the best way to go, depends on your resources.

 

I would order new full pans install them and you may have to find a donor car for the kick panels

 

Don't order new panels, waste of money. You can either do it the right way and get some rust free ones for cheap at a junkyard, I payed 250 for both sides which were clean.. or you can go cheap and patch em with sheet metal.