Pics of Driveway...Through the Floorboards.
 

You might say there's a small rust problem on the car.
Luckily, its mostly confined to the front driver side.

wow:shock:

you have them fred flinstone brakes?

even before this point, I would have parted the car out and gotten another one

wow thats impressive!

Honestly is it even worth it to try and fix this one, I'm sure you can find another 3rd gen fro around or under $1000 in much better shape.

good luck

I bought this car over 3 years ago when I was 17. Cost me a grand total of $300. Drove it till about a year and a half ago.
Its always been a bit of a learning car. Whenever something broke, or needed replacing, I did it myself and learned from what worked and what didn't.
While, I admit, I should junk it and find something else, I want to learn how to do floorboards properly. I'm going to try and fix it, make my own floors for it. Hell, I know I can't make it any worse than it already is.

can you even safely do that with a unibody car?

why not?

I got my car for less than 1000. Didn't have to do much work to it either, and it was one of the cleanest 3rd gens I've ever seen. There around, you just have to look.

Even 3 years ago those floorboards had to be pretty bad...

That is correct, unfortunately I didn't know the extent of that. I replaced the carpet when I first bought, but most of it was covered by the padding by the firewall. The biggest hole, the one on the left, was a tiny scar, maybe 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. I wire wheeled and sanded the area then painted it.
I never noticed that the seam was busted on the front driver side wheel well. Water was kicked back from the tire, into the busted seam. From there, it was soaked into the padding by the firewall, with was cover by rubber padding. From there, it sat with no where to go, rusted out the area by the firewall and spread.

if its just the driverside thats shot, its fixable, will take some time and some good fab/welding skills, but its doable.

Throw a new carpet in and call it a day.

Ouch.....I thought the floor in my Jeep was bad, but yours is way worse. Post up pics when you do the repair.

- Justin

Oh jeez i wonder how mine looks:shock: My T'tops leak all the time and the hatch. God i hope its not that much money to fix.

the t-tops on my 86 have always leaked, for years, even before i've owned it. No rust on the floor at all. i guess its hit or miss

Yea i hope its not that bad. Well what ever's rust is there i gotta fix it. Its worth fixing.....

i dont see any problems with your floors?

lol good luck ! i got my car for free my drivers floor was just as bad. my friend and i cut out the old and welded in the new and its good as new. eventually these cars will be collectables and you will be happy you saved yours.

Lollers @ floorpans taking good fab skills.

Lay in, mark, cut, tack, tack ,tack, tack, tack, etc. Gotta be the easiest most beginner thing for someone new to metal to do on a car. Go for it man.

You're right Phil, to do it the right way, it takes skills or, you could do a hack job as outlined below.

Hmmm alright then what exactly is the right way that takes so much fab skill?

Floor pans is like the job for a crash course in beginning to weld in an automotive application. You dont have to run a pretty bead on anything because it will warp and burn through. Nothing is crucially structural to the weight or driving force of the vehicle. And even the tacks dont even have to look pretty seeing as how it gets carpet over it...

Its not like we're talking about reskinning a quarter here...

4 Linking a car is a difficult job that requires a lot of fab skill. Saying pans takes a lot of fab skill sounds like an excuse for people that are either afraid to tackle a job that requires cutting and welding, or simply just that bad at fab. Any joe schmoe with a $100 harbor freight flux core wire feed welder some confidence and forethought can do floor pans.

To do a good job with floor pans you do have to have some skill. You can certainly do a half-ass job and get OK results which will not be seen, but to do a good job you need to take your time and have some skill. Hell, you can "do" floor pans without a welder! But that doesn't make it right. Some points of note:

1.) You have to clean up what's there and get back to good solid metal, otherwise you get blow-through. In some cases you CAN'T get back to good solid metal so you will have to know how to adjust voltage and feed speed to attach the new solid stuff to the old, thin metal. This will make a novice job more of an intermediate one.

2.) In a unibody car, the floor is structural. Yes, the rockers take most of the weight but the floor is used for support.

3.) The replacement pans don't always "lay in there". Every time I've done floor pans I've had to heat and form them a bit to get good fitment.

4.) I've never tack welded floor pans as a method of installation. I've tacked them in place but I've always used plug welds for final installation.

5.) This isn't a floor pan repair. He needs to repair the inner rocker as well. Not very difficult per se but will make the fitment of the final pans harder to do, and it's now partially a structural repair. He won't have anything to weld that part of the floor to as well. This makes it a more advanced job. Can still be done at home, but not a "drop and weld"- that's an oversimplification.

Fair enough. I was absolutely agree that it being a unibody and having rot creeping up the usually solid areas you would make a new to old patch at does make the job more difficult.

My point is that in comparison to other automotive jobs necessitating fab and welding, floor pans are pretty much a cake walk. And they are by far not an "expert" job. Thats all I'm saying.

And yes I've never done pans using plug welds (I, as well as others refer to them as roset welds so you through me for a loop for a second there) but it would definitely be more structural and easier to weld.

As far as dropping pans in, marking, cutting, and welding that really all depends on the quality of pan you buy so your right you may have fitment issues.