More work on the floor

It makes the world an interesting place when everyone has a different opinion.  We have the talking heads on the TV now telling us how they are going to change everything in the country, but they all use the same tired words that candidates of the past use, and across party lines. At least for me there were really only three major options I heard for the floor repair, although there is no consensus, or single right answer for that matter.  I asked lots of people and read internet web pages, and you have one group that says replace it all, some say patch, some say patch the big holes and use POR15 on the pinholes. Replacing everything is nice, because you get rid of all of the rust.  It is challenging because the body can twist if not properly braced, and you ruin the whole car when that happens.  New metal isn't as thick or strong according to some as it comes from Asia (real or opinion?), and the stamping is not precise (this is true).  Any option with new metal will require hours to make it fit right.  Thus, the middle option to replace rusty pieces where they are needed.  You get the strength of new metal, but can retain much of the factory stamping.  You won't get all of the rust out where the bracing keeps it hidden.  It also takes a lot more time to do small pieces than the whole floor, and you end up with welds everywhere. The cover it up method is easiest, and some of the products out there I hear are really good.  They still will never be as strong as metal, and you can coat what you can't get to. 

I chose the middle option, as it was best for my skills, I couldn't screw things up, and any ugliness will be hidden underneath the carpet or underbody rustproofing.  Plus my time is free to me, and I get to learn more this way (I think...).  In total, I replaced the two front floor sections, a piece under the rear seat, a spot under the passenger's seat, and one by the front left body mount. 

I did not want to have to do this one, but the bolt here was rusted so badly I could not extract it from below.  To get it out, I had to weld a nut to what was left sticking out the top of the cage nut you see, and unscrew it from the inside of the car.  Lots of heat and penetrating oil were still necessary.  I was able to save the cage nut, so that part was good.  In the picture you can see the kind of rust that will be hidden under the old floor.  This is one reason the whole floor replacement was suggested.  I cleaned up what I could see, and painted inside with rust converting paint as best I could.

 This is what you get from the patchwork method. I cut just what I needed from the new floor, and butt welded it in place.  With the edges ground down, it looks not bad.

 The front body mount on the firewall was rusted beyond saving.  I had to cut out a larger access here to get to the cage nut, chisel it out, and weld in a new one (cut from a section of the trunk floor I'm not using).  Then butt weld the piece back in place, grind smooth, and we're almost as good as new.

 Dave came over for a few more hours and welded in the passenger side floor.  We chose to overlap the panels for additional strength here, and welded them solid from both the top and bottom.  It isn't the prettiest repair I've seen, but it will be very strong and hidden.  The transmission tunnel was left open until we get the frame back.  The shifter comes through in a different spot, I think where you see the floor dip down at the back of the replacement panels.  This will need to be opened up for the new transmission, then we can weld this area together.  At the bottom of the picture you can see where I had to replace under the passenger seat.  The metal looked perfect from the top, but had rusted through from underneath where the bracing is.  Same procedure as above.  Here I cut back until I found solid metal, and used a piece of new floor fit to just what I needed.

We took the motor over to the shop last weekend so they could use it to get the transmission brace properly placed before painting.  The frame has been completed and rust proofed, and is just waiting for the brace before it is painted.  Looks nice with all of the rust removed, doesn't it?

 Sharp eyes may notice the boxing of the frame we asked the shop to do.  Originally the frame was an open c-channel from the firewall back.  Plates were added for additional strength that will keep the body from twisting from the additional power, and give more overall strength.  Cars have abandoned the perimeter frame concept, but you will see new trucks advertised with 'fully boxed frames'.  Same idea here. The Chevelle is looking more like a brand new car with the rust quickly disappearing!

(Re)engineering a floor

 A couple weeks ago I shared the removal of the floor pans.  Last weekend (with my sisters approval :) ) I decided to go to Lowes and buy myself a MIG welder.  It's another $380 towards the project, but everyone should have a welder anyway, right? The floor design is pretty straightforward, just a stamped piece of sheet metal.  I don't understand the cowl design Chevy came up with; I'd like to think it was a crush panel they designed, but I doubt in 1965 safety was a major concern. More likely there was something about the manufacturing that created the cowl structure. I can't capture it in the pictures, but there are several layers of steel here.  There is one outer layer, that the rocker is spot welded to.  Inside there is a second layer that forms the inner skin, where you see the large cutout for the vent.  Between the vent and the door is a thick piece of 16 gauge steel, the sets over this layer, and runs down to the base of the rocker.  If you follow the inner rocker from right to left, you can see a line where it goes from gray to rusty.  This is the edge of the inner rocker and the rusty part is part of the thick steel that fills the kick panel by the door. On both sides, this piece held water between the inner and out layers, and cause it to rust through.  There is another layer you can see in the second picture, where the filler panel at the back of the fender rolls around into the rocker.

 Layered sheets of steel are bad when it comes to rust.  Maybe good for safety? I don't know, but my decision was to eliminate this mess, and create one solid piece welded around the edges for the floor to mount to. This eliminates a lot of ugly mess created by the factory design.  It won't be stock, but I think it will look better and function well.  I was surprised to see that in the rockers behind this area, there was no rust at all.  It was just confined to the kick panel area.

There are no replacement panels or guidebook how to fix the kick panel area, so this is where engineering meets trial and error.  After searching at three Lowes stores, I found a piece of 16 gauge steel.  This is about as heavy as one can work by hand.  The original floors are probably 18 or 20 gauge, my guess is the new floors are only 22 gauge or thereabouts.  I wanted the kick panels to use as thick of a piece as I could work to replace all of the thickness from the factory.  My method was to use a piece of posterboard to figure out the shape I wanted, and cut that out.  This is what I came up with, the drivers side is the larger piece, as that side had more rust.

I think this picture gives you an idea what I had to remove.  Lots of rusted pieces and spot welds in this area; using the air hammer really did a number on my wrists.  I'm getting to old for the hard work!  The fender mounting bolt was rusted completely away, so I cut out a body mount bolt from the trunk pan that won't be needed, and welded it in here.  It's a little larger bolt size, but has the correct cage nut to allow the body shop to mount the fender. I found several pieces of windshield and side window class, as well as a mouse nest deep inside the rocker.  The glass had probably been rattling around in there since 1965.  I did leave a broken drill bit behind for the next person to find. A little wire brushing and rust reforming paint, and we're ready for new metal.

Here is what it looks like after welding in the new piece.  What you don't see is the hours of fitting the parts.  Posterboard is much easier to bend than steel, so even though the shape was close, there is a lot of pounding and bending to get the new kick panel in place.  The edges were all welded solid, with a few spot welds in the center for good measure.  Both sides now have a single thick plate that connects from the firewall to rocker to the floor.

Here are a couple pictures of the drivers side.  The rust was worse here, but that almost made the job easier.  I cut out more metal, so had more chances to make the piece fit better.  On the passenger side I was trying to save more of the original metal, which creates more work.

This picture is from underneath showing the drivers side repair of the rocker area.  Originally the filler panel seen at the right would wrap around the kick panel filler. Because this was rusted away, I flipped it and the kick panel repair now wraps around the fender filler panel. I get the strength necessary this way, and it will all be hidden behind the fender.

 After wire brushing the floor, I found one pinhole and some rust under the rear seat that I didn't like the look of.  I cut a patch from the 16 gauge leftover steel and welded it in.  Here it is before cleaning up the welds.  It's been 15 years since I welded, and I need some practice getting back to it.  It's pretty cool to be able to melt two sheets of steel together.

 Dave (son-in-law of Jill's coworker) worked this week to fit the floorpans.  This the part that takes real skill to fit, pound, and otherwise massage the part into place. One challenge he faced is after I cut out and replaced the factory mess that was the kick panel, there was less thickness in that area, so the floorpan needed to be adjusted to fit the larger gap created.  It took a few hours, but he did a great job.  The floorpan will be welded around the edges, and the welds ground flat. Once this is painted and under the carpet, you will never notice.