***EDITED TO BE MY BUILD THREAD*** I left in the important paragraph

The journey begins!

"im sorry it was without your consent, but you are ALL now my new mentors, educators, and general eFriends/maybe some day REAL friends. Look forward to that noob-to-educated resource transition! "

here's kind of where i basically started:
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Thanks Everyone!

After some "cleanup"

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Pictures I found when scouring the Classics:
Is mine comparable to this? or was his surface rust?

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is it rusted through, that is, do you see the road thru any holes? if not, why not wire brush the rust away and POR 15? if so, you can drill the welds and weld in new floor pieces. restoration-design, among others, sells floors.

Now I've pretty much read EVERY thread in the classics forum about floorpans. Depending on ya'lls recommendations, im leaning towards
Restoration Desigins floorpans, or if i can find the Left and Right combination id prefer that

Let me know where i stand on this project.

And just to nip it in the bud, please don't say this is a "parts" car.. because the only thing it's a part of is ME. (corny i know, but the parts car comments get to me..)

thanks for your help!

Type, it is rusted through in SOME spots but not all over. Mainly in the corners.

Id like to do this the right way the first time so im leaning towards getting new pans. Would it be safe to go ahead and order them?

where can i get the left side/ride side combo as opposed to back and front pans? or what is recommended or easier to replace?

ive tried wiring brushing it and it looks fine but since theres random holes and a big one by the pedal assembly corner, i figured i might as well just replace the pan with a new one and start from scratch.. that way i know what im sitting on. also i could then add the stiffening kit

I have a new rear pan with the stiffeners that I thought I was going to have to use. Turns out I don't need it, and I will sell it to you for what I paid if you would like. I paid 150+ shipping for the rear pan and the stiffeners , which you have to buy seperately. It is one of restoration designs. I would also use Engmans inner kit if you are going to do all this repair. Keep up the good work, and be thorough with everything. Do it right and your car will turn out very nice.

That all looks repairable. I would look over the longs and the jack posts. Look at the Hell Hole under the battery. Replacing the pans is a good idea but it is a lot of work. This is harder because you will be working upside down. Patching is maybe a good option. Only you can tell for sure. The small photos are not the best at this point to tell you to patch or replace. I suspect patching and POR 15 may be enough. Speaking of POR 15, there are lots of other products that folks use. Some claim they are better than POR 15.

Don't worry. You can do this. At least your seat mounts are still attached to the floor; mine weren't. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed just step back and focus on one easy part of the process. If you get upset while working on it, move to something else or leave it alone for a bit. That is what I do. This is my first restoration project as well. I just remind myself that it is supposed to be fun and that the only deadline on being done is the one that I set.

I agree with Chuck, I did it on my last car project, before you cry or get out the bigger hammer take a break and work on something you can complete however trivial.

cool thanks for the encouraging words, just what i needed to hear!
so i decided to just.. "dig in"! here's where i stopped for the day

I found $0.12, the broken handle for the seat adjustment, and one of the screw things for the headlight motor!!! woohoo

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You'll have to change your handle if your are going to keep working.
914 and stateofidleness are mutually exclusive! As mentioned above you need to have a really good look around at the longs as long as they are ok then you are good to go. Do you weld?

I know what your saying about a 22 year old with a porsche that he can't drive. Not much different at 55 Just don't put yourself under time pressures. Choose your battles. Make the car safe first then start on the rustoration and beautification.

heck - that ain't rust! You're good to go!

how about shots of the two rear corners of the floor and the rust through

under the seats? or near the pedals?

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Peel up all of the tar crap in the floor boards and then look at the whole picture. Take a four in grinder and put a knotted wire wheel on there and go to town. It will take most of the rust off. Then Por-15 or Marhyde One Step the whole thing. Take the sound pad off the firewall and look for rust there and at the base of the fire wall. I am betting the rear window is leaking and needs to be resealed. Also look at the point where the firewall connects to the floor pans. Those are good places for the water to hang out and start rusting.

...and this one is a little OT but just throwing it out there in case anyone has one on a roller or parts car that they dont need:

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how is that back pad affixed to at the top? i dont want to damage the rear window or its "seal" thing... it looks like double sided tape or something.. is it seated in tabs or something or should i just be able to yank it off without hurting the window?

Its just glued on . . . no big deal to take it off.

The rust isn't too bad either; my car was much worse and I fixed it all (I didn't know how to weld before I started). Its a great learning experience.

James
(who's 19 and just getting to the driving portion of a 5 year total rebuild)

Well the molded backpads? That the seats fit into? It should be screws on the bottom and metal tabs on top... it was on mine although my tabs were broken... doh! They may have put double sided tape also.

i guess there's only one way to learn how to weld in new floor pans.
let's see some shots of the rest of the car...what's the engine, etc like?

You have a couple of holes to patch up. Not too bad. Weld in new patched BEFORE any painting. The stuff can be hard to get off and clean metal is needed for welding.

ok so today i really started tryin to get the factory tar off the interior. took off the targa top.. waited 10 minutes.. the Texas sun acted as my heat gun lol.. most of it came off like butter! except near the far foot area where it was shaded. i got a couple of questions:

1. wise to remove the tar on top of the center consoler and it's sides or leave that?

2. remove the big wire cluster going down the center console? also related, are ALL these wires JUST for the seat sensor?? seems they all come out RIGHT THERE into that little under-seat adaptor? can all this be removed??

3. i dont know the difference between teh jack spots and the "donut" things that are removable in the floor.. i know both are covered with caulk or sealant and it's hard to remove lol.. should i just take those out and patch over em completely?

4. does the caulk need to be removed completely?

5. dumb question, but i need to remove the pedalboard thing right? is there tar behind it?

IM MAKING PROGRESS!! and keeping ya'll words of advice in mind every step of the way! i really do catch myself saying "one small part at a time"

thanks!

hey, that's my car!

the pictures of my car look worse than it actually was because of the orange paint and the brownish carpet glue.

i only had surface rust on the floorpans, no through holes ...



in your case, i'd say do it right and replace the pans and that lower firewall piece.

you'll also have to take of the rocker panels and dig into the longitudenal. after seeing that gaping hole in the "hellhole" area, i bet the long is rusted right through around the jackpost area ...

get yourself familiar with a good automotive welder!
Andy

it actually looks patchable right now.

how do i take the rocker panels off?? the longs seem VERY clean and sturdy both in and out from what i can see. ill check again on the outside.

replace the entire lower firewall?? theres a small hole in the interior where the hell hole is but it looks minor, the actual hell hole is real bad though.

ill go take some pics of where i stopped for the day

do a search here. McMark posted some good pics of how to patch that lower firewall ...

the rockers are either screwed or riveted. there's a few on the bottom and on the top.
if riveted, just drill them out.

once the panel is off, you can start poking around with a screwdriver. take pics!
Andy

I wish my car was in that condition! My floors look like swiss cheese, I know my inner longs are rusted out, and my hell hole is shot, and no real idea on how to weld. Its gonna be a fun project!

Hope yours goes well.

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Lots more cleaning to do. Grab some rust converter to spray on there as well. You should be able to bring it back to the point that it's not rusty and has nice clean metal. I don't see anything that warrants new stampings of sheet metal, assuming that most of that rust is just surface rust. You absolutely need an angle grinder with a wire brush on it (wear safety glasses!). Clean, clean, clean, and don't get to focused in on welding on huge pieces of metal. If there are only a few small holes, then a whole floorpan isn't necessary.

i was wondering about that.. the order of events in spraying things
do i get all the tar off and the "sticky" stuf as well, then wire brush/angle grinder brush it to get it loose, THEN spray rust converter, then clean some more? or should the rust converter be sprayed AFTER all metal is replaced and wire brushed completely?

can someone lay it out for me.. what's my sequence of events

Rust converters such as POR-15 MetalReady can be used at any time. And feel free to use them liberally. I've found them to help in the rust removal process. Get a bottle and spray everything in there and let it sit overnight (at least) to dry completely. Then hit it with the wire wheel and start bringing it down to metal. MetalReady has a zinc additive, which protects the metal from surface rusting as quickly. So it's a good to spray each section as you finish it, as well.

alright guys, hit a snag.. just need some clarifying.

what do ya'll do with the wiring in the center tunnel when you're working on the pans? in the pictures of SirAndy's car, the wiring harness is gone.. is it simple a matter of yanking it out?? or does it involve labelling each wire and disconnecting....

ive got all the tar off the inside and was also wondering about those removable circular plates in the floor.. should i cut those out and weld in metal over it completely or try to salvage them and reshape them to fit properly?

also, ive got all the sticky glue residue left from the tar, does this need to be removed before i spray the rust converter or can i just spray over it?

thanks for the help! anxious to get welding but still arent sure about the process order....

DUMB QUESTION: do i have to remove the engine or fuel lines or anything before welding on the floor pans?

You should be able to weld without worrying about the fuel lines. Thick plastic is what they are, and unless you have a fire, you should be OK with welding spark.

Go over the rusty parts with a wire brush. Then weld if needed, then spray metal-ready again, then paint with POR-15.

I would try to salvage the circular plates... but if they are too rusted, I wouldn't worry about authenticity there.... besides, yours is a Chalon... authenticity is out the window already!

I am not seeing a whole lot of metal replacement on your floor pans, from the photos you are showing.

what all precautions do i need to take before i go wire brushing/grinding on the interior?

started using a drill with wire brush attachment, and some saw sparks on a few occasions.. should i have the wiring harness removed? how bout anything around the pedal assembly??

just wanna be safe!

tryin to finish the "prep" work today so that i can start cutting and welding in new pieces!

Thanks

Don't worry about the wiring harness or cluster. If you are working near glass or anything that you don't want to get hit by sparks, just cover it up, you don't have to pull anything out.

ok finished for the day... here's where i left off
few pics and questions on some of the wiring and whether those hole things in the floor look salvageable or if they should be cut out
side note: (can someone explain all those holes and donuts in the floorpans? theres like 4 removable plates, 2 indentations in teh front that look like donuts, and then the metal looking small plates that arent removable.. confusing??)

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have any of ya'll completely removed the rat's nest of wires that go under the passenger seat?? seems like since it's not even functioning, that it could be removed..

Things I dont know:
1. what is the round connector for thats in the center tunnel wiring harness as showin in the pic?

2. What is that little rotating "knob" next to the heater control lever for on right in front of the shifter?

3. what is that one lone black wire with female spade for thats running along the center tunnel as seen in the pic?

4. any ingenious ideas to make a really thin shop vac attachment to clean down under the center tunnel nooks and crannies? i folded a paper plate into a funnel shape and it kinda worked...

For the emission maintance counter box some cars had



Can't tell from pic. This is about where the console screws down



Looks like the wire for the heater control light



Use compressed air to blow the junk to one end




Big ones were used at the factory. Little ones look like they cover where the carpet mounting posts were.

Doesn't look too bad. If you're patient with your welding you could probably fill those holes in the floorboard with out too much trouble.
I personally would grind away even more of the rust until you are completely down to bare metal. For me a wire wheel didn't work so well for this, but a stripping disk similar to the one in the top left corner (and usually available at Home Depot) was able to get rid of ALL surface rust on my floor pans.

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After, weld up your holes, then just treat the pans with a rust converter/etcher like metal ready, and then cover with POR15 or similar product and yer good to go!

oh really? i have some of those type "discs" but didn't really know their use

i will give those a try!

Those stripping disks work wonders on removing paint and rust. Buy a good number of them though because they definitely consume themselves.

hardest part was getting the old sealer off.... how much needs to come off?? i did enough to clear for the engman kit and whatever i could get to physically under the small flat metal piece round things..

i guess those stripping discs wont cause sparks either!

question, on the metal ready or rust converter step, do i spray the entire interior floor with it, or jsut the rusty spots? i have enough for the whole thing, i just didnt know if it would be ineffective on clean metal

i will post a pic of the product i have.. dad has cases of it from work!
let me know if it will do the job! will post tomorrow