Rusty Floor Pans

[launieg]

Okay, I've come across the first disappointment with this 81 FI since buying it cheap a month ago. I finally got the entire interior stripped out and it is clear that it was left wet after the top down in rain. The bottoms of both seats are 50% rust flake and the back seat wire frame is rusty but okay. That would be fine, but the rear floor pans (the short section behind the seat channel) is rusted right through where it meets the longitudinal channels (sills). I've poked and brushed thoroughly and it is isolated to that narrow bit between the longitudinal and the outside seat support, roughly an inch wide by a foot in length. Water was obviously sitting in that spot over a long period. This is on both sides of the car, if I did not make that clear already.

So do I replace the entire rear floor pans or can I have this narrow section replaced? The floor pans I see online are simply flat panels cut and bent to shape, so I'm thinking they are more expense than I need/can afford at this time. My neighbor is a great welder and can probably repair this narrow bit (after I remove the fuel lines on the driver's side). Of course the outside seat support makes a very tight fit. So that would have to come off.

Does anyone know if these floorpans and seat supports are continuous welds or spot welds? Can I remove them with judicious spot weld drilling?

Just looking for suggestions. Morale remains high.

[So Cal Mark]

hard to say without pics, but I'd be inclined to patch them

[newmanboy13]

im pretty much in the same boat. i found out the hard way there is a rust hole on the drivers side floor pan directly behind the front wheel, so if i hit a patch of water, im sitting in a small lake. im wondering if i need to replace the whole thing, but it looks like i can get a small section and just spot weld it in.

[Curly]

Here's a pic of some of the floor patches that repaced the rusted sections of SPYDUHs floor pan. Make sure when cutting out the rusty parts that you cut right back to good metal otherwise you'll just blow more holes in the floor when you try and weld it up.

[launieg]

I've been too busy the last couple of weeks to do anything on the spider, but I glance through the window as I pass by and think about how bad the floors might be! I hate to poke away at it and find out!

So how much of the body structural integrity is reliant on those floor pans? Are the rocker channels (longitudinal channels) contributing most? I can't flex the body even slightly and the door gaps are perfect. So the big question will be how big and how good my patching has to be? I'm not a welder, so I have to get someone to do it cheap. (Always wanted to learn to weld )

[So Cal Mark]

try thinking outside the box; contact a local welding school or community college that offers welding and see if this can be a class or student project. Maybe you can get it welded at no cost!

[grantgsr]

Great point, Marc. I just finished an adult continuing education class in welding taught at one of the local high schools. The instructor was so helpful welded up a couple of things, including patch parts on a Land Rover door frame and a broken flange on a manifold. He will also weld in some replacement footwells on my Land Rover when I get the firewall ready to accept them, all at no charge. He will do it, or have his regular students do it under his supervision, or I can come in any time he's there and use the equipment and do it myself. I can't recommend this enough. The 16 hour course only cost me $189 and I've already gotten more than that done in free work.

Grant