Floor pan replacement/patch questions
 

Hey guys,

I have a few questions about replacing the floor pans in an 88 iroc along with
a few general questions about the frames of these cars.

I've had my 88 iroc for 8 years now and the floor pans are completely shot.
its been my daily driver here in Rhode Island since i was 16, so i haven't been
good to it and now I'm paying the price.

It looks like I'm going to have to set it aside as a project so that i don't
make any backwards progress. I evaluated the damage today and i can't
imagine that just patching the problems is a viable solution based on their
location/magnitude.

So I guess I'm just wondering how much of the car's structure is relying
on the floor pans being there? will the car hold itself together while i have
an entire floor pan out? do i have to support the car in any special way to
perform this operation? are sub frame connectors a good idea as
reinforcement?

sorry if there's a lot of (stupid?) questions mashed in there, im just trying
to gather the information i need to do this correctly. everything else
underneath is actually in half way decent condition.

Here's some pictures!

The car still seems to have plenty of torsional stiffness as i jacked it up in the back.....
Attachment 261975
driver's side rear floor pan
Attachment 261976
driver's side front floor pan
Attachment 261977

Re: Floor pan replacement/patch questions
 

you have to support the car and put in temporary reinforcements to keep it from flexing when you cut it out look like you may also need to repair the rocker. it would be best to replace the entire floor pan

Re: Floor pan replacement/patch questions
 

Subframe connectors would be good to put in first before you do the floor for sure. How are the torque boxes and have you taken out the carpet yet as it might be worse then you think from the inside from rust you cant see

Re: Floor pan replacement/patch questions
 

That really does not look too bad. Mine was in similar shape roughly 2 years ago, Maybe a bit worse. I had concerns about my car collapsing on itself too. I originally wanted my friend to brace it as if he was doing a floor replacement on a convertible. My transmission tunnel was still in good shape so what we ended up doing is we cut the lower pans out 1 at a time and replaced them. This left 2/3 of the floor in the car at all times. Once the metal fabrication was finished and the car was back to stock condition we installed spohn sfc's while we were sealing up the underside. I cant say if they would have been in the way had we done that first. I ordered my pans from classic industries. The stamping, fit, and thickness of the metal was really good. Other companies may get them from the same supplier as classic but I can't say for sure.

To give you an idea on prices it came to about 3.2k in labor for a reputable shop to install them. That included a small patch on the firewall, fabricating new fender tabs and repairing the inner rocker on the drivers side where they always manage to rot out. I supplied all of the parts myself. Floors came to about $850 from classic shipped and $220 shipped for the spohn subframe connectors. Totaling in at around $4270. I am very happy with how I spent my money but you could probably find a clean one with less issues for that kind of money or less if you were so inclined.

Re: Floor pan replacement/patch questions
 

Wow thats alot man but if you think you spent your money the right way thats all that matters. I have body work and its the only thing I will pay to do on my car. Well paint and body work. When it comes to welding I really like the challenge of it and I learned how to weld On my old 85 while fixing the floors and some other stuff. I just used sheet metal and stuff on that one as my 85 was a car i just beat the crap out off really.

I do agree if you are gonna do it and keep it you should do it right and get actual pans for the areas you need and put subframes in before you cut the floors. I would rather go with the weld in but its just a preference.