Floor Repair - What Have I Done?

Okay, I may have gotten in over my head on this one. Ive got the seats removed and the flooring ripped up. The floor looks worse from in the car than it did from underneath. The passenger side floor pan looks like its getting ready to fall through. The rear passenger is developing some holes and weak spots. On both side, directly behind the seat supports it's quite weak, although to holes...

From bottom the rust didnt look this bad, so I planned on doing the Rust Bullet + Fiberglass. However, that's not an option. Oh... And I don't know the first think about metal fabrication or welding.

Ive got a freind bringing over a welder and says "its real easy" to use... But that leaves the sheet metal work, and cutting out the original. Are therereplacement floor parts (IE pre-bent metal) that I can buy?

Sigh... I wonder what a shop would charge?

 

do you know how the water got in?
you will need to fix that first...

...:Handshake...

 

cowl vent.... Water proof ducting tape fixed that (for now).

 

A shop will charge you an arm and a leg. You can buy a welder, angle grinder, cut-off wheels and the whole nine yards and do it yourself and still come out ahead dollar wise. I think I read where a 71-3 Mustang floor can be made to fit with a little trimming here and there. Google "Floorpan Replacement" and read everything you find. Here's one good link. http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/projectbuild/155_0207_1967_plymouth_valiant_new_floor/index.html I know it's a Mopar site but metal is metal and they both cars came out of Detroit and are made about the same.

 

not trying to be a "butt" here....but if you had to ask for help on removing the front seat, you might want professional's to do the floors.
Just trying to stay even

 

Just pop rivet some old license plates in there, good to go!

 

WoW!! I agree!!

 

Yeah yeah yeah....

You try and wresting the damn thing out the door by your self

Notice the bondo... Someone already tried.

I appreciate it.

SOme of yall could take notes on how to give advice. *cough* maverick5946 *cough*

 

I did give good advice

 

I tell ya what. People will laugh but when I had no money, no welder, no real tools, I used pop rivets in many a vehicle. Mostly my own, just keeping me off the ground and the rain and snow out. Learned how to form metal from doing that, and learned that you have to be into good solid metal to join sheet metal. Pop rivet guns are cheap, and if you find some old sheet metal for hardly anything. you could have a long lasting repair. Then if you fiberglassed over all that, even better. Not everyone can weld, and we all learned as we went. Jeff gave a great link that all can learn from. Keep us posted. One step at a time!
Dan

 

Seam sealer can make a pop rivet job a decent job. Apparently Dan and I went to the same school of experience.

 

If you get some cardboard and make a template of the flolor pan. bend it and make it fit nicely
Then transfer it to a piece of metal.

I bought new metal and had the metal shop cut it to the approximate size i needed
make 2 crossing center lines so you can line up the template with the metal and trace it onto the metal with a sharpie.

straight bends can be done with some clamps on the edge of your work bench, using a backer board so both the top side and the bottom side of the sheet is supported. Make the bend a little at a time. bend with your hands, use a hammer LIGHTLY to convince the metal to mo ve

 

here are some pics

 

A couple more questions:

What thickness sheet metal should I use?

What can I use to cut the old crap out? The onyl affordable cut-off tools I can find are air powered. Is this a good excuse to get a compressor 'n tank?

Thanks for the advice yall! Keep 'er comin

 

Since I see some seam sealer in my near future, what kind do you use and where do you get it. The only stuff I could find was like caulk from Auto Zone.