I have a hole forming on the drivers side floor pan near the pinch weld and right near where my left foot sets. I'm looking at renting a TIG welder (because I only know how to do TIG thus far and want to get this hole patched before the really salty weather gets here) and fixing it properly, but I haven't been able to find out how thick the metal is there.

Anyone know how thick it is? I'll post pics tomorrow and any advice on fixing the rust is appreciated.

Thanks

 

probably 20 gauge or less

 

You sure? .036" seems awfully thin for a floor pan:

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sc...heetmetal.html

 

20 gauge is plenty strong enough. Especially if it's beaded. But even so, plenty strong enough.

Mathius

 

Street signs work best (But then again I have only ever riveted floor pans cause I'm far too lazy).

 

Street signs! LOL!

 

aren't most street signs aluminum?

 

Heres a picture of the hole. Its about wide & long enough for me to get 4 fingers into it. Sorry for the crappieness of the photo, my camera has a hard time focusing on close objects and I was trying to squeeze myself under the car while it was parked on some darn cold concrete.

 

The heck if I know, I don't weld them. Like I said, I use rivets.

 

looks like a easy fix hard to tell from the pic tho, I use 14ga to 16ga steel... not galvanized stop signs just wanted to point that out

 

need a larger pic of the entire area, if you are just worried about filling in the hole, and the rest of the metal is not rusted away to the point where its paper thin, you can weld a patch on.

 

Heres a pic of the larger area. While I was looking, I saw that the entire length of the pinch weld is starting to come apart, but not all the way through like in the first pic. It looks like there are multiple sheets of steel in that area.

 

thats why its called a pinch rain. Its where multiple steel panels come together and are all welded together.

Looks like you have some more rust to clean up too while your down there.

 

Ahh, that makes more sense now.

Do you think that if I patched all the holes and and painted over with POR-15 that I'd be good for awhile?

 

should be

 

yea for "awhile" band aid fix...

 

Thats all I can afford to do now. I don't exactly have all the time in the world or tools and a very open budget for fixing it properly (thankfully the welder rents for cheap). I just need the car to not fall apart until I make it through my last semester of college in May and get a job. Then it'll be parked when I buy myself a "new" car, probably a big old diesel truck. That way I can work on getting myself some tools and fix it proper before I begin to turn it into a toy

At least I'm trying to nip this thing in the bud before I loose the floor pan

 

Here's my plan of attack since I don't have very "ready" access to the proper tools. First, I'll take a wire wheel & knock off all the rust and spray some weld through primer over the areas where I'll need to weld but won't have the time to do so.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SHW-DPP108/?rtype=10

I'll also prep and paint POR-15 over the rest of the floor pan. I'm thinking a quart should do fine with a paint roller.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/POI-MRQ/
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SHW-DPP108/?rtype=10

Then I'll measure the thickness of the steel, probably .036"-.048" inches and get some sheet to make patches out of. I'm thinking cold rolled A366/1008 mild steel and roll POR-15 over that.

Sound like a decent plan?

 

I used 20 gauge steel on my floor boards to fix some pretty big holes and it was plenty strong enough.

 

i just bought a floor pan driver side from a guy in vancover for 299 cad, mine has a hole around the drain plug, imo these cars are unibodys and the floors are part of the frame, and when its puzzled together its not nearly as strong, and for 299 for a replacement side for a 3rd gen, id just replace it imo but i can see why for cost reasons too but nothin nicer than new floors

 

If I was missing a lot more of the floor, maybe. But for that little amount of metal to fix, its cheaper/easier to weld in some new metal and coat it so that it doesn't rust again.

 

I just fixed this on my car... but mine was worse.

You may be surprised at what is damaged once you dig into it, like you said there are many layers of metal that come together there.

http://www.yerot.com/~aweil/pictures/rust/

check rust16 through the end... I haven't uploaded the finished pics, but it was a decent bit of work.

A MIG with .024"ish wire will be your friend here. A TIG is possible, but it's really hard to get your head into position to see the puddle. I have both, and only used the TIG occasionally.

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if I found a ton of rust under there. Lord knows how long its been like that before I poked my head under there. I'm currently in the boat of too broke to even rent the proper tools to fix the hole. I have the skills, but no tools to fix it with.

Good advice on the MIG. I've done some pretty weird stuff with TIG, so its still a possibility.

 

Don't know what happened to my whole note but it disappeared. to make a long story short. welding is ok--you can buer small pece of sheet metal from canadian tire here in Canada for 9.99 or they have larger ones. Gooled and it said if you weld it must be from underside of car--also said you could fibreglass the hole from inside the car--check with a mechanice re fibreglass--i think that would be if it is not structural--just to keep the exhaust out. but a lot cheaper fix.

 

forgot sheet metal. i checked with a body shop and they said 20 or 22 gauge--which is what Canadian Tire sells.

 

Overhead welding sheetmetal is no fun. Only reason I wouldnt do it from the interior is if I couldnt access it from above

 

Maybe I'm getting old, but I'd sandblast the whole underside, then check for soft spots. IMO, it's just as easy to cut the whole floor with an air saw and weld a replacement than it is to make 5 patches.

Almost every project car I bought (that wasn't fiberglass) has needed some sort of repair like this. My current Z28 needed two rear quarters! Those are fun to do.

-- Joe

 

I'm well past this now. I'm to the point both pans need to be replaced. And I have no shop in which to do it:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ace-floor.html

 

Wow. That is crazy. I don't even know what to say. That is a lot of money.

-- Joe

 

just further on my pan hole patch. Had my brother weld in a patch from inside the car--he sure hated using that thin(to him) sheet metal--(he welds pipelines) from Canadian Tire. It was just a hole where a plug had rusted out--but had to be fixed for safety. Then I fibreglassed over top of the welded spot--first time i had done any fibreglassing but looks ok. I probably did overkill as I put on four layers of fibreglass.It is under the floor mat so didn't need to be pretty--but i think it is anyway. Is there something i should put over top of the fibreglass?? i see people talk about PRO-1--don't know what that is. A shame they put plugs in the floor as the floor otherwise is mint. The hardest part i found of the fibreglassing was trying to make sure i got the mixture right. Mind this was on a flat surface--don't know how i will make out when i start the outside of the front fenders.

 

Imagine being in my shoes. This is right on the edge of buying a new car. I'm going to make my final decision next weekend when I pull out the interior.

 

why did you fiberglass over the metal patch? and its POR-15. it stands for paint over rust, formula 15. its a special paint that goes on bare metal to stop rust from spreading and to prevent future rust from forming.

 

I fibreglassed over the weld on the inside because I was told that if the weld was done from the outside it would pass inspection. As the weld was done from the inside I fibreglassed it because I was told that you could fibreglass it from the inside and just the fibreglassing from the inside would pass inspection. Overkill yes, but i do want it to pass inspection.

 

what inspection would it need to pass? if your in the US, then the inspection would consist of a generic safety check to make sure things like the lights and horn work and then a sniffer test (is applicable) to make sure your car falls within pollution standards.

welding a sheet metal panel in is welding a sheet metal panel in, it doesnt matter which side its welded from. the fiberglass doesnt provide any extra structural support and most likely will crack and separate from the sheet metal over time.

whoever keeps telling you these things(like using expanding foam and fiberglass to repair a rust panel)sounds like they have no clue what they're talking about, or have a degree in half-assing things.

 

i am in Ontario Canada--that should tell it all with all the regulations we have. It is a vehicle safety inspection that your vehicle must pass each time it changes hands if it is not a brand new vehicle. A mechanic who is has a ticket to perform inspections goes over the vehicle from top to bottom looking for safety issues, brakes, brake lines, holes that would allow exhaust into the vehicle, rust, tire tread, lights, brakes, windshield,etc. etc.

 

ouch thats gotta suck.

 

If you all are interested in what the pans look like, I've added pics to my other thread here today:


https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/bo...ace-floor.html (How much to replace a floor pan???)

 

its not easy, i used a road closed sign to fix 4 sections on my floor, all welded. melts easy! not easy! had to use a GOOD WELDER,.