Floorboard rotted...NEED HELP!!!!

[94gtfreak]

I decided to pull the carpet in my car tonite and some of the backing and to my suprise the front floorboards were fine. As for the rear.....the passenger side under the seat where the wiring comes through the floorboard is rotted all the way through. Now, should i just go to the junk yard and cut a good section out and have a professional weld it in? Really pissed about this one! Any help is appreicated!

 

[Pokageek]

I have seen this on an old dodge charger. The guy just bought some metal plating and welded it on for the floor pan. It was not oem but looked just fine.

Can I ask how this happened? Is this a common occurrence in our cars? When I redid my carpet the flooring looked fine although the carpet was soaked in front from a heater core leak. I wonder if this is what happens..like a slow leak that kills the floor..

 

[94gtfreak]

I'm not totally sure as to how it happend. I do know that the car was wrecked and rebuilt in 1995. As for the rest of the floor pan, it looks ok. Just that one side.

I will just have to look around for a good rear floorboard?

 

[Pokageek]

Yea..how about mustang parts specialities? Aren't they a junk yard of sorts? Anyone know if their svc is any good still?

Also, you want to prevent this from happening again. Check for leaks b4 you go to all the trouble of repairing,

 

[Chythar]

MPS Auto should still be a good resource, although their website has gone to crap. Call them and I'm sure you can get a new floorboard. Be prepared to pay for truck shipping from GA to IN. You may be better off using a local body shop as a resource. Dunno how good you are with welding, might be easier for the body shop to do it for you.

 

[aar0s]

i ordered some for my fox from LMR, they ship for 15 bucks. had a buddy cut teh rot out of the pan and use the new pans to make patches. http://forums.stangnet.com/780653-aaross-floorpan-thread.html
before i put the new carpet in i coated everything with a rust inhibitor.
How hard was the carpet to get out? i may need to do the wife's in a year or two...

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

Hey Chris, if you want I can check with Encore Mustang Parts. They're literally 3 blocks away from me, so shipping would be a hell of a lot cheaper than from Georgia. Hell, they might let me cut a section out myself and we could like meet halfway. I'm literally 200 miles down route 30 from Fort Wayne.

 

[revhead347]

That's a serious problem. Right under the back seat is where the torque boxes and everything comes together. If it's just the sheet metal on top, then it's not too bad, but if the cancer has spread through the torque boxes, it's a big issue. One of my friends had his torque box rip out of the car at the track because it had rotted through. The damage was so bad, he ended up throwing out the car afterwards.

Kurt

 

[Husky44]

That's a serious problem. Right under the back seat is where the torque boxes and everything comes together. If it's just the sheet metal on top, then it's not too bad, but if the cancer has spread through the torque boxes, it's a big issue. One of my friends had his torque box rip out of the car at the track because it had rotted through. The damage was so bad, he ended up throwing out the car afterwards.

Kurt

Definitely worth looking into to see if the cancer's more than just floorboards, but if it is just floorboards, it's probably not worth trying to find a purpose built replacement (or cut one out of a junk body). Without pics it's hard to say, but even a lousy body shop (or shadetree welder) can repair your floors. Just find some steel sheet of the appropriate gauge, cut out the cancer back to good metal, weld in the new stuff.

FWIW, if you've ever wanted to get into welding, now's your time. You can pick up a good 90a flux core MIG welder for $300 or so. Not a great box by any stretch, but more than enough to do everything on my 67. Floors are a great place to learn, cuz nobody's going to see it anyway! You'd probably spend close to that having a body shop do the work, and you won't have near as much fun (plus, you won't have a welder when you're done with a body shop--and you'd be amazed how often you'll use a decent portable box once you have one).

BEFORE THE FLAMES START: No, I'm not advocating a 90a box for most welding needs. Mine was a gift, and although it's not optimimum for everything I do, it's good enough, and doesn't take a lot of extra crap (ie gas bottles, regulators, cart, etc) to get going. OK, FLAME AWAY.

 

[revhead347]

Well, technically, if it doesn't have a gas bottle, it's not a MIG, it's a wire feed welder. I use a wire feed welder for all kinds of stuff, and it does a great job. The only real difference between a wire feed, and a MIG is how clean the welds come out. And you make any weld look pretty afterwards by spending time cleaning it up. And the major difference between a cheaper welder, and one of those really expensive ones is the duty cycle. Most amateur welders like myself don't weld fast enough to worry about the duty cycle anyway. So you'll definately get no flaming from me. I've done all kinds of stuff with my wire feed welder, and you can definately do floor boards with one.

I agree with Husky, I would just give everything a good inspection, and if the torque boxes look good, you can clean up the metal, and weld an extra layer of sheet metal on top. Also, it would be good insurance to put some battle boxes in the car to make sure nothing comes apart. As far as I know, Wild Rides is the only company that sells them. wildrides.com: The Leading Rides Site on the Net.

Kurt

 

[Pokageek]

To do the carpeting correctly you must pull the center console, seats, belts and (vert) rear panels. Its not rocket surgery, just time consuming. Make sure you have a torx set with you for the seat belts.

 

[92grnlxcpe]

I have seen this on an old dodge charger. The guy just bought some metal plating and welded it on for the floor pan. It was not oem but looked just fine.

Can I ask how this happened? Is this a common occurrence in our cars? When I redid my carpet the flooring looked fine although the carpet was soaked in front from a heater core leak. I wonder if this is what happens..like a slow leak that kills the floor..

usually occurs from a weather stripping failure water leaks in from the door jamb and pours in the car down into the carpet and floor at least that was the case with my 92 got the floor pan on order also got lots more welding to do. Also to answer the first guys question if u have a pro weld in your new floor pan u are gonna get soaked might as well buy a 110 volt buzz box a argon set up and teach yourself to weld. I got a lincoln 145 amp mig set up with argon gas and cylinder for about 700 brand new gonna cost u at least that to have an auto body pro to do it

 

[92grnlxcpe]

Well, technically, if it doesn't have a gas bottle, it's not a MIG, it's a wire feed welder. I use a wire feed welder for all kinds of stuff, and it does a great job. The only real difference between a wire feed, and a MIG is how clean the welds come out. And you make any weld look pretty afterwards by spending time cleaning it up. And the major difference between a cheaper welder, and one of those really expensive ones is the duty cycle. Most amateur welders like myself don't weld fast enough to worry about the duty cycle anyway. So you'll definately get no flaming from me. I've done all kinds of stuff with my wire feed welder, and you can definately do floor boards with one.

I agree with Husky, I would just give everything a good inspection, and if the torque boxes look good, you can clean up the metal, and weld an extra layer of sheet metal on top. Also, it would be good insurance to put some battle boxes in the car to make sure nothing comes apart. As far as I know, Wild Rides is the only company that sells them. wildrides.com: The Leading Rides Site on the Net.

Kurt

You dont burn through with yours my welder doesnt recommend welding anything over 18 guage steel due to the fact that the self sheilded wire burns much hotter than the mig wire i had to get an argon/co2 set up

 

[Husky44]

You dont burn through with yours my welder doesnt recommend welding anything over 18 guage steel due to the fact that the self sheilded wire burns much hotter than the mig wire i had to get an argon/co2 set up

Yes, you'll burn through when you first start, but you can practice on some scrap metal and get the hang of it. I do everything from 42 year-old body panels to 10 gauge plate with my 90 amp wire feed. I use .030 wire for the small stuff (or is it .30? Never can remember, but the other option for my box is -35--use the smaller stuff for the thinner gauge). I make sure I have a new tip on, which gives me better control, clean the pieces thoroughly, and dial way down on the juice. With practice, I almost never burn through. When I do, it's time to practice more, and fill it back in.

I'd be interested to know what the OP ended up doing? 94gtfreak, did you fix your floors?

 

[99FiveOh]

It's just odd to see any rust on an SN body. I've never seen any on all that I've owned. Foxes are a different story. They'll rust if you look at them wrong. Gotta stay on top of them for sure.

If/when you tackle this, please post up pics of your work, I'm sure many on here would appreciate that.

 

[94gtfreak]

Ok, well I don't know jack diddly about welding. As for the floorboards....still unfixed. I've been dealing with a divorce, movin, and goin back to school. So I've had NO money for the past month or so. Now, with winter around the corner I'm gonna be lookin for an SN with a 6 to beat around in and then part in the spring. Unless I can find a good cheap floor pan and have the money for someone to weld it that can be trusted. As it sits now, I'd rather just buy a 6er with a clean body and do a full swap and paint in Vibrant red. But we'll see what the b*tch takes me for first. WHEN I fix it I will definetly post plenty of pix!

Thanks for all the tips and hints everyone...it will definetly come in handy!