Rust in the Tunnel Repair, my grinder doesn't fit in [I]there[I] Options

[jandro62]

So I popped the access panels off the tunnel, and despite the tunnel looking solid from the top, and solid from the underside of the car, there is soooo much rust in there. I had a field day with the magnetic pickup removing all sorts of crap. I even found a walnut shell, don't know how that got in there. Its enough rust that it worries me. Is this tunnel thing separate from the floorboards? How would I go about replacing it? Hell, do I try and plasma torch one side off of it to get at the rust and try and tack it back together?

Thanks,
Alex

[SirAndy]

QUOTE (Joe Ricard @ Jan 27 2005, 09:14 AM)

The tunnel is separate from the floor boards.

well, sort of ...

yes, you could drill out the spotwelds along the tunnel and take it out, but ....

i bet most of the rust is at the *floor* part inside the tunnel, not the tunnel itself.
and the floor is part of the pan.

i have seen this many times, water gets in there and sits there for years, rusting the tunnel floor away.
this is a tricky part to repair. if the rest of your floorpan is OK, you might want to consider cutting it from the bottom and weld in a patch.
have you checked the floor pans in the rear, behind the seats? did you do the "crunch" test on the floorboard tar?

usually, if you get enough water in the center tunnel to cause this kind of damage, the rest of the floorpans (and potentially the longs as well) doesn't look all that good either ...

give us some pics of the carnage!
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/thisthreadisworthlesswithoutpics.gif)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beerchug.gif) Andy