Upon doing some extensive cleaning, I found a 2inch hole rusted through my rear driver seat floor board. Theres been a leak in the t-tops/hatch that I just can't figure out from where. Is this hole worthy of a patch, or should I consider retiring my bird. Any guidance/ suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

Cut it out and weld in a new piece of metal.

 

should I cut the area around the hole or replace the majority of the floor board. The area besides the hole appears rusty, however it is still very solid. would sanding down the spots with surface rust then sealing be allright. or should I replace the whole thing.

 

You can't weld to rust so cut out the rust until you reach good metal and weld a new piece of metal in. If the surface rust can't be ground down to clean metal, remove the section.

 

Thanks, I think I'm in for more work than expected. I examined the whole underbody some more, and its a wonder how my driver's seat has fallen onto the road. Darn leaky t-tops. This section looks like some hard hours are needed. Would you recommend the same procedure. Cut and weld?

 

My correction. Thats not the panel under the drivers seat. Its the spot where someone in the rear seat's feet would rest. Everything else I sealed and sturdy, as you can see

 

JUST ONE MORE QUESTION FOR TONIGHT. I FOUND THIS PLASTIC RING UNDER THE CARPET BY THAT HOLE UNDER THE REAR SEAT. AT ONE TIME WAS THIS USED AS A DRAIN FOR THE BODY. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH IT COULD FIT RIGHT IN

 

That is NOT for any drainn hole though.That IS a washer for the seat belt buckles that bolt to the floor boards.It goes between the buckle & carpet.Just a thought ,if you dont/didnt have your Rr seat belt installed or the bolt isnt/wasnt in place.The bolt hole would be exposed to the underside of the floorboards,right next to the seat/rust area.If so that could be where water got in.

 

Right where you was showing that hole there is a drain plug i didnt notice yours ill have to get a pic of mine.

 

If that’s all you have then that’s not bad at all…

If you’re going to weld then take a screw driver and try to push it thorugh all the areas that have any rust, if you can’t then clean it up and paint it when you’re done welding, if you can, cut out a section that will take out all the rust and weld a matching patch in. If you want it perfect, take that section out of another jy car.

If you don’t want to weld it use POR 15’s floor/trunk repair kit (don’t know what the actual name of the thing is, but it’s obvious). Clean off all the loose rust and paint, hit it with the degreaser, then the metal prep, lay down the cloth and brush the POR15 over it. once you’re satisfied with the repair, prime the last coat when it’s still tacky or sand the last coat when it’s setup and paint it and you’re done.

 

Thanks everyone. This is my first fabrication application. I'll post my end product when I get around to it.

 

Heres the plug on my car what happened is the previous owner prob took it out cause the t-tops were leaking then some water got in there and rusted around it but the hole was alrdy there. I am going to weld all mine in anyway and smooth them from underneath.

 

So all in all I really don't have much of a headache here. Most of the hole is supposed to be there. Groovy!