I have a hole about the size of a football that is rusted out.. right in front of the driver seat rail.

I'm just wondering how I can fix this major problem... without taking it to the bodyshop (no money).

I kinda have the idea of welding on a plate of steel, but do I do it from the top of the floor, or the bottom? (there is a ton of undercoat tar stuff under the car).

I'm going to try to rent a mig welder to do this. Do I clamp the ground cable to the plate or the car?

tia

 

i would clamp to the plate. you could just bolt it in. make sure to clean the old metal and rust off and paint the underside when you're done.

 

Here is what I would do. Cut a square around hole eliminating all possibilities of further rust problems. I think steel sounds wrong? I would use aluminum plate with some thickness to it. Cut aluminum plate to size of square and weld it in. Weld the sheet into the square in 3-4 places on each side of plate to avoid warping the metal. After you have the sheet tacked in, proceed to go around and weld the rest of the plate.

 

Well, if its rusted through it has to be a steel of some sort. Aluminum doesnt rust.

As for welding a steel plate, you are better off getting a floor pan from a junk yard or some thin sheet metal and doing it that way. You will need to completely clean every area that you plan on beading with weld.

You are better off sucking up the **** flying up at you and saving for a body guy to do the work... If you have never welded, this is probably not the first attempt you would want to undertake.

 

you should have seen the two holes I had in my drivers side car... It was only on the drivers side too, the passengers side was mint.. when I got the car.. there was a piece of thick metal plate just sitting on the floor under the seat, I was afraid to see what was under it, and only the front bolts of the seats were in, there were 2x4's holding the back of the seat up
all fixed now, I used sheet metal on the bottom, then fiberglassed the inside of it, its held up for over a year now with no problems.
I also ran new braces under the car now too.. I'll post pics of that up on my site under the same section if you want.

edit, heres my floor before
http://www.angelfire.com/d20/h....html


Modified by Hcivic88 at 8:14 PM 5/11/2004

 

yeah i have a little whole in the pass side in the front i migh just goto a yard with my dewalt 18v cordless sawzall and hack in a new one

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Keebler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, if its rusted through it has to be a steel of some sort. Aluminum doesnt rust.

.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i wanna live where you live, here in hawaii. everything rusts. lol

 

god, i thought fender rust was bad... You should leave the hole there and turn it into a flinstone mobile.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hcivic88 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you should have seen the two holes I had in my drivers side car... It was only on the drivers side too, the passengers side was mint.. when I got the car.. there was a piece of thick metal plate just sitting on the floor under the seat, I was afraid to see what was under it, and only the front bolts of the seats were in, there were 2x4's holding the back of the seat up
all fixed now, I used sheet metal on the bottom, then fiberglassed the inside of it, its held up for over a year now with no problems.
I also ran new braces under the car now too.. I'll post pics of that up on my site under the same section if you want.

edit, heres my floor before
http://www.angelfire.com/d20/h....html


Modified by Hcivic88 at 8:14 PM 5/11/2004</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, and I thought I had it bad...
Mine looks almost identical to your "drivers foot well" rust.

I guess I won't try welding since I haven't welded anything in my life before. I think I'll ask some of my buddies to help me out.
So I should use aluminum instead of steel? Can I weld aluminum to steel? Also, that brace in the middle of the floor (it runs lengthwise, front of car to rear, beside that circular thing in the foot well) the brace seems to be a plastic of some sort. I may be wrong but it is scratched up and I see a mukey white plastic thing. I dont think I can weld to that brace... the rust is all the way to that brace.

Man, the problems with my car never stop... I still have that idle problem with the b16a.

 

No, you cannot weld aluminum to steel.

You need to find a floor pan, or sheet metal (steel) to weld, not some think steel plate.

You can always try to weld it yourself, Im only saying it may not be the wisest of ideas

 

I'll weld it for you I'm in scarborough at Victoria park and Lawrence.

Get the steel plate and remove all your carpeting sound deading crap and bring the car by. I'll only weld from the inside as you got too much tar on the bottom of your car.

 

to be honest if you have that kind of rust in that spot you most likly have it in other spots too it just hasn't broken yet so you have more holes to come .....its a toronto thing

 

Thanks!
I'll start removing the carpet and stuff.

Hey, do you happen to know how to make that bracket to fit the EG seats in as well?