So I have had car for a few monthes now. I finally decided if I was going to put any money in it I needed to see condition of floor pans. I live in the Pacific Northwest and my t tops leak. I went in figuring the worst. But what I found surprised me. Very Very little rust. Worst spot is at drivers floor plug. Metel is bent and a little broken. So what do I do first to fix that. Can I delete the plug. And second area of problem is right above my gas tank. No rust but the po decided to hack in the infamouse access hole. I would like to see what others have done to preety it up. Looks like it was cut with a pair of shears and then duct tapped down.

 

I don't think it is worth it do delete the plug. Without pics it is hard to give advice, but just wire wheel the rust and paint it.

As far as a hacked access hole, I just welded a plate over the hole and used ruberized undercoating to protect it.

 

The area around plug is rusted , so somebody just put a bunch of goop around it to plug it up, so I guess the way to fix it would cut out a patch around whole plug area and weld one in. My phone won't let me attach pics on TG0 but I could email them. As far as access hole, I now have a carb so I don't know if the job was done right so before I seal it off, I need to do some research on it. I suppose I now just have a fuel pump that does nothing in the tank. But like I said, living in our neck of the woods I was expecting a lot more rust

 

Why?

How many cars do you see driving around that are rusty? #1 cause of rust is salt on the roads due to snow--not rain!

 

Rain and t tops. Body panels are usually not a problem. Floor panels are.

 

I've never seen badly rusted floors in a WA Thirdgen.

 

Ahhh....Ive owned 2 IROC's, both with T-tops and have never had them leak which is why I wasnt thinking in that direction.

 

Yeak I have several leaks. And this is my first third gen, so I stand corrected about the floors. I know all my work trucks get some nasty rust spots. But back to the plug. Should I put in new metal and incorporate the plug, or delete it

 

my 86's t-tops leak like they arent even there, and there is not a spot of rust on the floor of that car, on either side. I have looked at hardtop cars over the years that had no floors. Like said above, road salt and snow are the culprit, that and damage thats never fixed and eventually starts to rust.

 

Need pics... PM me if you want my e-mail address and I'll post them for you.

 

Can you copy them to your Computer? Why not copy them to your computer and post them from your Computer. I have a Droid and post DIRECTLY from the phone. With a blackberry i think you have to use their sync software.

 

Here is the pic of the hole

 

The plugs are only there to cover holes left by the factory to facilitate drainage during the dipping process, nothing more. Just wire wheel it, weld in a plug and Rust Bullet or Por 15 it.

 

Yeah, I cleaned it all up. Will remove rust. Bend metal back to where it goes. Replace plug, and because I don't have a welder I was just thinking of putting bondo over it.

 

just a reminder if you use bondo paint it please it will go weird if you just put and leave

 

Go weird?? But yes I will first put some rust blocking primer on it. Then paint it

 

For the sake of your car, DO NOT fill a hole that large with Bondo. Unless you want to replace that half of the floor pan in a couple of years. You can get a no-weld body panel repair kit from Eastwood for about $100, or a piece of sheet, 3M adhesive, and adhesive gun for about the same price, and actually be putting metal down there. Body filler is made from talc, you know, the stuff baby powder is made of, that absorbs moisture? All it will do is get wet and hold that water against the sheet metal, rotting it away. How do I know? I'm stuck replacing a quarter panel because the prev owner of my car decided to slap about 3/4 of an inch of the stuff onto it. DON'T DO IT. Do it right.

 

I wasn't going to fill the hole. I cleaned up plug and bent it back to shape. I was going to put plug back in and then just fill any void with bondo. But then I was thinking of just getting some type of caulking like they use for winshields and then using it instead. Looks like that is what factory did. Then when all is finished I am going to cover floor with a sound deadener/moister barrior

 

i have a droid to how do u post directly from the phone??? sry dont mean to steal ur thread