We are replacing portions of the floor of our project 914 and not doing a complete removal. The insides of the tunnel are quite messy, has anyone opened up the tunnel by cutting the top section, cleaning out and welding it back. Looks straightforward, but the devil is in the details

Doug/Raynekat made an opening with a multi tool to adjust the clearance for his shift rod. It seemed to be a great way to cut the metal but not go deep and damage the metal tubes.

I think @bdstone914 may have had a great solution.

Blocked off the tunnel with clay. I believe he doused it liberally with Evaporust. Probably via garden sprayer or similar. Let sit, rinse, repeat?

Others have done similar with Ospho

You could cut some tuna can flaps here and there to aid access to the multiple holes already there. What you don't want to mess up is the relative positioning of the shifter relative to the rest of the tunnel.

However, given how deep you are already in, and assuming that you have floor pan sections, why not just open it up from the bottom and replace the floorpans underneath it? This is the more robust way to get good access to the tunnel and to fully assess the control tubes.

Not sure how far gone your tunnel is, but, in my case, I just removed the whole thing it was so bad. Replaced with donor from another car. Many cars have donated so this car can live.

Pictures of what you're dealing with are helpful to community both to help you and to learn from. What works and what doesn't.

Thanks, I am trying to get by without flipping the chassis (rotisserie). The floors appear to be 80% good and I would love to complete the work from above. Overhead plug welding is kicking my a**. The tunnel looks good, I might try cutting a section or two out with a Dremel with really thin cutting wheels. I have new front and rear floors from RD, but am looking at using pieces only, not the entire pans.

@930cabman
Man, I feel your pain on this!! I haven't got a rotisserie ('cause I really don't even have a proper place to use it), so I'm making do without. I had some hot welding slag bounce down my sleeve the other day, trying to plug weld from underneath. Sleeves tucked inside gloves from now on, lesson learned! I'm also not that confident in the actual welds being as good as I could do otherwise too, but hey - so far so good I guess.

Listen, please hit me up after you finish taking out what ever 20% pieces of those floor panel you need.. because I have the same situation on my 2nd project car - I have plenty of spots that need to be repaired but don't need entire floors done. Make some of your money back!


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Click to view attachment
Seeing this, I knew the tunnel must be full

Multi tool worked great, small kerf, easy to weld back togetherClick to view attachment

Vacuumed, scraped, blew out, removed some delamination. A couple small holes, I might leave this alone and clean up. It's not that bad.Click to view attachment

Seems too much impact to repair a few small holes. I'll bet there are way worse cases

While you have the tunnel open add some reinforcement brackets to the clutch and accelerator tubes. Do a search on here for ideas.

Good call. I am thinking to wash the surfaces with solvent, coat with Kem Bond and epoxy a couple small holes and reinforce the tubes.

Weld it back up and on to the floors

Never open the tunnel
It’s like fight club....don’t talk about it

I actually took my tunnel out if you need pics of anything. The floor in my car is garbage at this location, tubes are shot and I am replacing the inner and outer firewall.