02/01/07 – Repairing the Floor
Pretty simple yet a bit time consuming.
Yesterday I wire wheeled and sanded
the driver's side floor
pan making sure to get all of the rust off. Most of it was actually
just rust
dust from a few problem spots1:
Then, using some 16GA plates, I
tacked the plates over the
rust from the inside:
Next, I will fill in the seams with seam sealant and then paint the floorpan with rust inhibiting paint2. This is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.
When I first started welding these in, I sucked at welding. Most of my tacks were accompanied by a hole in the chassis of the car. I got a lot better at heat control later. Also, a lot of the holes were due to the undercoating burning and releasing gas that really effed up my welds. Once I realized the importance of CLEANING the weld, my welding improved greatly…
(1) Rust always looks so much worse when it’s photographed with a flash…
(2) I actually wound up solid welding most of this. I will seam seal the rest, though.
