73 Mach 1 Floor Pan Surface Rust and one Small Rust Hole

[salhi_aemr]

Hello all,

first let me thank you guys so much for all your advises you give to me or to other people concerns.

I am in the process of taking off my carpet to put a new one. I took all interior as you can see in the pic and took the old sound deadener because of the amount of sand I found under it ( sound deadener seems ok to reuse ). anyways after I clean and vacuum the floor pans. is there any kinda material i can brush so it will keep it solid and not rust. like POR 15 brush. I hate the spray I dont want to spray my dash board or other items. also there is a quarter rust hole as you can see in pics, Can i fix that without having to replace my original floor pans. its tiny but I would like to get it fixed like with any material. Does Bondo work on that rust hole or small floor pan patch welded is better. Thanks

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[turtle5353]

Hello all,

first let me thank you guys so much for all your advises you give to me or to other people concerns.

I am in the process of taking off my carpet to put a new one. I took all interior as you can see in the pic and took the old sound deadener because of the amount of sand I found under it ( sound deadener seems ok to reuse ). anyways after I clean and vacuum the floor pans. is there any kinda material i can brush so it will keep it solid and not rust. like POR 15 brush. I hate the spray I dont want to spray my dash board or other items. also there is a quarter rust hole as you can see in pics, Can i fix that without having to replace my original floor pans. its tiny but I would like to get it fixed like with any material. Does Bondo work on that rust hole or small floor pan patch welded is better. Thanks

Best to weld in any patches. cut out the bad area and weld in new. I would poke around a little more. You may find a few more holes. On passenger side where floor pans goes up the toe board. looks pretty rusty?? Use a screwdriver and poke around , if its soft and you go through you need to replace a few sections. Your hole is right by the seat riser. So there maybe some holes under the seat riser. You can check that section from under the car. As far as sealing it back up, I have had good luck with POR15 being brushed on. Used it on the frame of my old bronco and it held up very well.

 

[salhi_aemr]

Does $500 at a shop seems to be ok to change the rusted floor pan with hole and fix all the surface rust in floor pan

 

[turtle5353]

If that ends up being the only hole in the floor pan then that's pretty expensive to patch 1 small hole. If there are other holes that need patched and they patch those and clean and seal it, then that's not too bad. I would poke around a little and check the entire floor before sending it out to be sure they find all the soft spots. When I do welding and patching on the side I usually charge $35/hr and that's pretty cheap.... a regular shop is probably closer to $75/hr.

 

[salhi_aemr]

Turtle5353 they are charging me $44 per hour and that would include fixing that hole with a new pan since the whole area is weak around it and also fixing any other holes found also they will clean, prime and undercoat inside floor pans also they will replace all seals and also they will coat it from outside and paint black to go with the other pans from the bottom.

 

[turtle5353]

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

 

[Mister 4x4]

If it's possible, have them save the seat platforms to repair (if necessary) and re-use. Fastback seat platforms are not currently being reproduced - and the ones that ARE reproduced on the market are for coupes & convertibles (despite saying they're for fastbacks)... which means they're almost twice as tall. If you're normal to short, it's not so bad... but if you're taller, it can make a big difference losing that extra inch or more of head room.

Also, have them trim the floor pans to save as much of the transmission tunnel as possible - the new reproduction floor pans won't have the mounting holes for things like the center console, seat belts, etc. Cutting the floor pans to save the holes is a lot easier, cheaper, and quicker than cutting the car to fit the pans, then having to go back later and relocate holes, buy new hardware, realign and remount components, etc.

Hope that helps!

 

[salhi_aemr]

I ended up having a professional restoration place doing it right. So far changed the passenger floor pan and working to see the rest.

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[salhi_aemr]

Rest of Floor Pan

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[salhi_aemr]

Finished Fixing it

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[turtle5353]

Looks good. ready to rock and roll. Since you already have the carpet out and it all clean, I would recommend putting in a sound barrier/heat shield material like dynamat. Eastwood sells some stuff very similar to dynamat and it works great. Really cuts down on the road noise and heat on your feet from the floor boards. Keep up the good work!

 

[cudak888]

Those are NOT new pans - those are patches out of sheet steel. The seat risers/platforms have to come out for new pans. The factory welds on the risers have not been touched.

Those patches look VERY sketchy to me - and I'm curious just how much of a patch they are.

The left side appears to be a crudely cut piece of steel glued (with 3M 8115 or similar) directly over the rusted section, while the right side looks like a pile of Bondo slathered over the hole that was in front of the seat platform/riser (note that the platform flange just disappears under a smooth filler). The paint they threw over the pans didn't adhere right either.

Do yourself a favor and crawl under the car. Make sure that someone cut the rusted sections out and lapped the patches accurately - and make sure they shot it with paint. If you find remnants of the rust and/or no paint = it'll rot again in short order. Don't go back to that shop if you see this.

Personally, I think $500 for some mild panel beating, glue, and Bondo is a ripoff - unless looks are deceiving. If they promised new pans, you've been taken.

-Kurt

P.S.: Nothing personal, of course - I'm just concerned whether a shop has delivered or done someone wrong. Body shops who do work like this, charge $500, and fail to disclose that they're simply lapping a piece of metal over rust to the customer should not be in business. I'm not saying that a shop shouldn't offer cheap (but structurally sound!) work for the budget-minded consumer, but the results should not be a surprise at the end for someone who loves their car (nor should it stretch the definition of "budget").

 

[turtle5353]

WOW. I didn't notice the flat piece of sheetmetal. If that's the case, they kinda hacked it together! I gotta stop looking at this shit on my cell phone!!!!

 

[salhi_aemr]

Kurt, Thank you so much for the advise and clarification. I was there at the shop when they cut the rusted hole around it and then welded a new patch from a new floor pan. I did make sure I see it because I know that a lot of shops do the bondo. Also they only changed the rust hole pan on the passenger area. On driver side it only had surface rust so they primed and coat whole floor pan. I dont know how previous owner did but I only had to replace the passenger side rust hole patch.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Well, I don't suppose you can get much better than that! It's always better to only need small repairs, rather than replacing large pieces.

If you're happy with the results after having seen the work in-progress, then it's a Win-Win!

Thanks for sharing the experience. ::thumb::

 

[salhi_aemr]

Your welcome Eric, I am glad I asked you guys for solutions on this forums. Very helpful.