Hi all, I'm seeking some advice/guidance on a restore I'm about to start restoring. Bought this 1991 RS for a good price. Body is near perfect, but it needs floor pan repair due to the guy letting a T top leak go. The passenger side isn't too bad, just a couple small holes, easy enough. But, the driver side is pretty much gone. An easy enough fix, but what I'm concerned about is how far the rust has gotten toward the driver side subframe. If I install a new full length pan, will it be safe enough to drive? I assume the new pan will cover/be welded to the subframe shown in the pic. Believe it or not, the rockers and everything else on the car look pretty good. I'm a fairly competent welder and mechanic, but this is kind of new territory for me.



Has anyone here been through this?

 

That doesn’t look that bad. The rocker is the strength of the body, and the tunnel. Yours looks great. Remove the bad stuff, trim your new pans, and start installing. I usually go all the way to the rocker but try not to disturb the braces if solid. Screw your panel down first then weld. Makes a tight fit. Then seam seal and undercoat well. You don’t want to do this job again. Take your time and it will come out great. Good luck!

 

That's fixable. The frame rail looks like it's OK. I would leave it in place, drill the spot welds and remove the floor pan above it. From there, you can get to the inside of the frame rail and clean it up, get rid of any surface rust and paint it. On the rocker panel side, I would drill the spot welds where the floorpan attaches. Use a spot weld drill bit so you only drill the floor pan and not the inner rocker. On the tunnel side, cut along where there is no rust and do a butt weld there. The seat bracket needs to come out and go back in (make reference marks before taking in out so it goes back in exactly the same location). Also, when you weld the new floorpan to the existing inner rocker panel, it will burn off the inner corrosion protective coating. Drill a couple of holes into the inner rocker panel above the floorpan and spray an inner frame coating in there, plug it with a rubber body plug and seam seal over the plug. It will all be hidden by the carpet and sill molding.

Just beware, this is the rust you can see. Guaranteed you will find more as you tear into it. Be ready to take it on, or cut your losses if its too much to deal with. The front rocker corners (inner and outer and where the floorpan attaches) are very common rot spots that are hidden by the fender and ground effects. Toeboard behind the front passenger wheelwell and rear inner wheelwells are the other common spots. Best to know what you're getting into before putting in a lot of work and finding out there's more rust than you thought.