Rusty Floorpan Repair

[CoolAirVw]

Cant find a new aftermarket floor pan

Cross canada says they don't have for a 85 Jetta.

I must have made 50 E-mailes and only one reply from a salvage yard saying, "Sorry out of stock". (in other words I dont want to spend the time pulling the seat, carpet and cutting the floor for so little money.

Dealer says its still available for $250.00 but it doesn't include seat stand, seat rails or "frame support" underneath.

Anyone know someone at the dealer who can get a break on the price?

I found a jetta at a salvage yard nearby here but I dont think they are smart enough to evaluate whether its usable or not so I go on saturday to "scrape and poke" at it.

Anyone got a parts car. Shoot I wish I would have done this before I crushed the 89!

[CoolAirVw]

Update on "rustoration".

This "hole" is under the passenger floorboard, under a hole in the floor pan that I allready patched. This is a peice that joins the pan to the longitudinal (frame tube??) section. View is from under looking straight up.

Of course I saw a hole the size of my pinky nail and dug and poked at it and it grew into the hole I allready patched in the floor and this hole. Yikes!

Hole



Hole welded (insert crappy weld comments here)



Hole finished. Aint it amazing what undercoating will cover?

[CoolAirVw]

Here's why I need a floorboard. The flange where the front seat stand is spot welded to the floor is like swiss cheese or worse.

Here's the seat stand. I've allready started cutting it out. I didn't have to cut much because it was just rusted away.



Here's the floor with the seat stand removed. After digg'n & pok'n at the seam the metal is shot all the way around the seat stand.



Here's the seat stand.

[CoolAirVw]

25 bucks! (cut it out myself)

[CoolAirVw]

thanks for the pictures and the write up. i probably have just as much as you to repair but being from the south and living in california. i dont know much about rust repair. the pictures help. by the way what do you do about rust in the nooks you cant get to the back side of to stop the rust? just do youre best at the outside and spray undercoat in like you mentioned in one post? thanks ron

Sorry I didn't catch your question before. You have to get all rust out. If there is a rusted peice you cant get to then you have to make every effort to get to it even if you have to cut something out to reach it.

I've read on the "rusty bus" pages that mostly those "inside" areas will stay dry and ok. I try to spray undercoating up in there and seam seal everything.

Note: I'm not a professional at rust repair but I sure am having fun at it.

My best advice for anyone trying this is...
#1 Dont be scared of it. Just dive in.
#2 Use a Test light to poke at the metal to show where its bad.
#3 Making a pretty weld on rusty sheet metal is HARD!

Oh, in case your wondering how I was getting back and forth to work....

[libbybapa]

#3 Making a pretty weld on rusty sheet metal is HARD!

Rust is actually iron oxide. The oxide part is oxygen. It is my understanding that if you try to weld iron oxide, the oxide is released from the metal and corrupts the weld. It's kinda like welding without any flux or shielding gas.

BTW I think you are doing a remarkable job. What are you using for a welder?

Andrew

[Fatmobile]

Glad to see you found a good floor pan.
That driver's seat cracked me up.

[CoolAirVw]

Rust is actually iron oxide. The oxide part is oxygen. It is my understanding that if you try to weld iron oxide, the oxide is released from the metal and corrupts the weld.

Ah, interesting so I'm using sheilding gas to keep the O2 out of my weld and the rust is releasing O2 into my weld. Dammit!

It's kinda like welding without any flux or shielding gas. .

Flux?? Whats that??? Do I need flux?

[libbybapa]

Flux is only necessary if you do not have shielding gas. Shielding gas is superior unless it is very windy.

What kind of welder are you using?

Andrew

[CoolAirVw]

What kind of welder are you using?

The first holes I patched were with a Miller wire feed welder with flux core wire and no bottle. Then I borrowed a Lincoln with a bottle. There both just little home/hobby type welders.

[libbybapa]

Gas will certainly be easier than flux core. I've gotten wire as small as 0.23 (you may be able to get smaller, but I'm not sure). Anyway, the smaller size wire will make a massive difference in the ease of welding thin metal without burning through. The difference between 0.23 and 0.25 as far as performance on thin metal is HUGE. The tip needs to be changed to fit. If you can get smaller than 0.23 than by all means do so.

BTW I spent the weekend building a 3" dia exhaust for a friend's Quntum TD. Lot's of time with the MIG. There sure is something fun about it IMO.

Andrew

[Fatmobile]

I saw this project over on the vortex.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3172630
I'm sure after all this work, you won't need another car... but it's in your area and the guy doen't want much for it... $650 went to $300 pretty quick.
...And the weird body kit might help cover some rust
Nice paint color and the gasser engine is junk... ready for a diesel.

[CoolAirVw]

Here's some prep work on the pan. Removing spotwelds to take off excess metal I dont need.

Long line of spot welds after scraping off the undercoating.



Close ups.

Undercoating helps show the low spot of the spot weld.



Drill pilot holes that guide the spot weld cutter



Start drilling with spot weld cutter (dont go too deep like I did a couple times).



End up with something like this.



Then chisel away the excess.

[CoolAirVw]

Then I removed this section of brace. At the factory the spot welder couldn't get to the back side in the area of the seat stand so there was a bead welded on each side below the seat stand.



Next I'll remove this. Its complicated by two bolts that hold a "crossmember" under the car. You can see thier heads. I'll just leave them out till I am back together and drill through the pan using the holes in the crossmember as a guide and then stick new bolts through the holes and tack them in. (sealed with plenty of seam sealer of course)

[CoolAirVw]

More progress.

Removing seat rail was a pain. Its connected to the "tunnel" peice. This was the last job in prepping the new pan.