64 valiant floor pan rust, practical fix?

[Korys_thing]

Started poking at some damp carpet under the brake and somehow ended up down to bare metal with no seats!!

Found minor (maybe? is there such a thing?) rust in the floor pans. Passenger side has some pinholes. Everything is still solid and stable.

Looking at other threads I know the answer should be to cut and remove but I don’t access to or the skills to weld. This is a practical weekend driver, hoping there is another solution that will last a good 5-10 years?

Was originally steered towards some rust dissolver, now thinking that would make the pinholes worse. Have some rustoleum rust reformer i was planning to use when I thought it was just one floor pan. Now I’m not sure the best approach…between dissolvers, removers, reformers, converters, sealers, and misnomers between brands I feel like I’m spinning in circles.

Should I use either of these two items or go buy something different?

Plan is hopefully to do some sort of rust treatment, paint, and new carpet.

All new to me so any thoughts, even if it’s bad news, is helpful. Pans seem solid and fixable until I found the passenger holes! Hoping it’s salvageable

 

[Kemper]

If it were me I would sand and spray with rust reformer . The most important thing is to do the same underneath . I personally might just use some fiber reinforced bondo and apply to the inside making sure to do a big enough area where you are covering any compromised metal on the one with damage. ( check others for compromised metal ) I'd then spray a little primer and paint inside and out and spray some undercoat under there to keep the area from getting any more damage.

Should be about a 10 dollar fix if you have some supplies, a bit more if you don't . Don't make it a bigger deal than you have to . I'm sure evryone on here will agree with me.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Floor pans are available if you choose to go that route.

 

[junkyardhero]

i'd strongly recommend any other course of action than repairing with bondo. especially so if you don't want the rust and damage to spread further and manifest itself in new and interesting ways.

wire wheel all that mess back and see what you're really dealing with. clean and treat the more solid parts with a inhibitor and encapsulator. cut out and stitch in new metal patches as needed. and, fair warning here, it may wind up being a significant portion of the foot well.

i know you said that you don't have a welder or know how to weld. well, this is the perfect opportunity! or, a great time to make friends or join a club and see if you can pull from their resource pool.

however, beyond the repair, it is critical you determine the source of the leak and repair that. otherwise you'll be right back in the same boat again.

good luck!

 

[Kemper]

i'd strongly recommend any other course of action than repairing with bondo. especially so if you don't want the rust and damage to spread further and manifest itself in new and interesting ways.

wire wheel all that mess back and see what you're really dealing with. clean and treat the more solid parts with a inhibitor and encapsulator. cut out and stitch in new metal patches as needed. and, fair warning here, it may wind up being a significant portion of the foot well.

i know you said that you don't have a welder or know how to weld. well, this is the perfect opportunity! or, a great time to make friends or join a club and see if you can pull from their resource pool.

however, beyond the repair, it is critical you determine the source of the leak and repair that. otherwise you'll be right back in the same boat again.

good luck!

I wouldn't recommend making friends or joining a club just to use them to fix his floor pan.

 

[Dicer]

The pans would probably last another 5-10 years, if you replaced the damp carpet alone. Use what you have, and as suggested the underside as well. A ballpeen hammer can tell you if indeed you have soft spots, we don't want that. lol

 

[junkyardhero]

I wouldn't recommend making friends or joining a club just to use them to fix his floor pan.

*rolls eyes*
*makes wanking motion*

 

[Kemper]

Keep the area dry till after you fix it. Most likely it is leaking water onto that passenger floor. That cretes a damp atmosphere in the car and probably causing damage to the other ones. After it is fixed you need to clean out the cowl area before installing the carpet to make sure it isn't leaking.

Open the hood and you'll see the 2 oblong plugs to remove back on the firewall. Shoot a bunch of water in there with a hose to clean that out .
Wouldn't hurt to use a wire or something to push around in there to make sure there is not a build up of dirt. The area in there that is right above the fresh air boxes is slightly raised so water doesn't get into the boxes , but you'll get some in there when washing it out. Open and clean out and dry out the air boxes.

Look under the dash and see if that area is rusted through .

 

[mopowers]

I agree with Dicer. If all you want is for it to last another 5-10 yrs, I'd just treat the area with one of the phosphoric acid products on the market, hit is with some rustoleum paint and call it good. It'll easily last 5-10 yrs so you can fix it properly without having to spend the time cleaning up a mess of old crusty bondo.

 

[Kemper]

I agree with Dicer. If all you want is for it to last another 5-10 yrs, I'd just treat the area with one of the phosphoric acid products on the market, hit is with some rustoleum paint and call it good. It'll easily last 5-10 yrs so you can fix it properly without having to spend the time cleaning up a mess of old crusty bondo.

I wouldn't put any pressure on that area and I certainly wouldn't put carpet back over it without stiffening it up. Treat it and stabilize it with some fibered bondo . Find the source and keep it from happening again. Where there isn't holes the metal is compromised and need more than something sprayed on it . I doubt the bondo will be a problem if the area is not allowed to get wet.

 

[barbee6043]

LIke said above..I would use a big wire cup on a right angle grinder, clean it best I can, but, I bet the OP has no such, so I would take a sheet of 40 grit and a hand used wire brush and clean it best I could, soak it for a DAY at a time with OSPHO, for several days, when dry, clean off the phosphate duster, apply 2 good coats of Rustoleum OUT OF AS CAN with a brush, (no aerosol can). Like said, clean out the cowl, see where the car leaks water from, cowl rusted out? windshield gasket?
And IF you will be driving it, I don't like holes in the floor to let in exhaust fumes, spot cover those pin holes with a cheap siliconized urethane caulk. Auto seam sealer is too high for this C********* fix. All this will help save the floor until a proper fix and the car goes to someone that can fixed right maybe. Leave the floor without any carpet.

 

[65 Cuda 340]

Number 1: Park the car somewhere out of the weather. Number 2: If you want a full on restoration, cut and weld. If not, sandblast and treat. If you can't sandblast, wire brush and coat with some kind of rust paint like POR-15. Number 3: New, dry carpet.

Keep the interior dry and even a half-*** repair will last for years. Let it get wet and it will quickly get worse.

 

[Kemper]

Better stiffen it up before putting any pressure on it.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I replaced the rear floor pans in my car. You can see what I did here if you like. It's a 64 Valiant like yours.

Thread '1964 Valiant "Get Runnin & Drivin"'

Jan 9, 2019

I'm in an A body again. Needs some work. Nothin I caint handle. Has "a few" things I don't wanna handle, LOL, but they are gonna get done. First thing I am going to fix is the brakes. There are none. After sitting over twenty years in dry storage, the brakes are no more. To me, unless you can jump and "stop it", it just AINT safe, so the brakes are gettin done FIRST. I will take a picture or two of it in the shop and post in a few, but before I do the brakes, would yall like me to do a "how to" overhaul drum brakes? I ask now, because I have done literally thousands of drum brake jobs and...

• RustyRatRod
• Replies: 2,195
• Forum: Early A-Body Discussions

 

[Icetech]

Wire wheel, then clean with phosphoric acid (concrete etch/prep) or make up a batch of evaporust (threads about it here and on fbbo) that would take just a few hours to get rid of the rust.. seal the rust with corroseal.. and patch any holes (can't tell how bad it will be from the pics)

How you patch the holes is upto you.. if it's just pin holes i would have no issue using some flexible filler.. bigger spots you could patch over with metal/adhesive or seam sealer.. main thing is to clean up the rust and stop it.. how you patch.. meh.. if it's not a show car and you are happy with it, let it fly..

P.S. some of the guys here will tell you to replace the floors which in a perfect world is fine, but some of them had a cut up stop sign for a floor in the past themselves

Being from michigan those floors don't look bad...

Here's the thread for rust removal stuff... it will make life easy. don't forget to clean under the floor and seal it also once it's cleaned up.. i use brush on rustoleum black, but spray looks better.

Rust removal, better than evaporust and 10x cheaper..

soo.. so in doing my car which was a michigan car i have dealt with a lot of rust and spent way too much money on evaporust that i finally went online and looked and found this guys video and made his mix and it worked better than evaporust and lasts longer so far. Sadly i'm down to only a few...

www.forbbodiesonly.com

 

[Kemper]

I just went out and took some pics of the car I'm working on. Same area as you are. We had some rain last night ,so I can see where the water is getting in and that is probably the same on your car.

You can see by the trail in the pic where it is coming from. In the second pic you can see the area where the water spread and I found wet rust in there, enough that I could grab and throw out of the car. I am definitely going to address this shortly. this needs to be traced back to see why the water is staying in that area or why it is getting in there , if it isn't suppose to.

 

[Kemper]

Does anybody know where a person can get a " mini-vac " or something to vacuum out areas like this. Do you just make an adapter for a small vac ? I would like to get as much of this stuff out as I can ,get it good and dry and do a 50 cent application of rust reformer. Maybe a shot of paint where I can get to.

Might even drill a hole or 2 to access the area and allow it to breathe better.

 

[Big.J.007]

Just needs some plaster oF Paris and some paper Mache.. If long term results are your goal, do it once and do it right.. If just a band-aid completely seal and run as bare floor 0 carpet.

 

[Icetech]

Does anybody know where a person can get a " mini-vac " or something to vacuum out areas like this. Do you just make an adapter for a small vac ? I would like to get as much of this stuff out as I can ,get it good and dry and do a 50 cent application of rust reformer. Maybe a shot of paint where I can get to.

Might even drill a hole or 2 to access the area and allow it to breathe better.

if you have a shopvac use some heater hose or something and duct tape it to the shop vac nozzle.. no point in buying a whole new small vac for a small one time thing

 

[Kemper]

if you have a shopvac use some heater hose or something and duct tape it to the shop vac nozzle.. no point in buying a whole new small vac for a small one time thing

Yeah sounds good. I may have to adapt down a little smaller but probably wouldn't have to worry about burning my vac up if I didn't turn it on and let it run too long while being adapted.

 

[Icetech]

Yeah sounds good. I may have to adapt down a little smaller but probably wouldn't have to worry about burning my vac up if I didn't turn it on and let it run too long while being adapted.

yeah, you are talking 2 minutes, not 20.. should be fine

 

[Kemper]

I think you may be able to get back on the road with your carpet in shortly. I took some more pics and in the first one you will see where I inserted a wire into the cowl drain to see if I would encounter any thing wet or dirty. I didn't notice anythinng there but I'll clean out that cowl because there could be a little build up of something around that drain or elsewhere. ( first pic )

But I think the most likely culprit is shown inthe 2nd pic. Notice where the hood hinge mount meets the body and where the inner fender well meets the cowl.That seam is wet and most likely some of that is running inside the pillar and running down and out onto my floor pan. I'll clean that up , put a little rust reformer on those seams and a bead of Dynaflex230 caulk.

When I pulled the cover off my car to check this out I noticed how beautiful my car is and I don't even have the final coat of paint on it. It has that satin finish and blends in so well with the bright work which also shows some age . I'm glad you started this thread and put this on my priority list.

 

[Icetech]

I think you may be able to get back on the road with your carpet in shortly. I took some more pics and in the first one you will see where I inserted a wire into the cowl drain to see if I would encounter any thing wet or dirty. I didn't notice anythinng there but I'll clean out that cowl because there could be a little build up of something around that drain or elsewhere. ( first pic )

But I think the most likely culprit is shown inthe 2nd pic. Notice where the hood hinge mount meets the body and where the inner fender well meets the cowl.That seam is wet and most likely some of that is running inside the pillar and running down and out onto my floor pan. I'll clean that up , put a little rust reformer on those seams and a bead of Dynaflex230 caulk.

When I pulled the cover off my car to check this out I noticed how beautiful my car is and I don't even have the final coat of paint on it. It has that satin finish and blends in so well with the bright work which also shows some age . I'm glad you started this thread and put this on my priority list.

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yeah.. it only takes a tiny spot where the seam sealer is pulled back to let a lot of water in.. kinda crazy how much can come in. I would blow it out with the compressor then put a fan blowing directly on it to dry it out well for a few hours before i seal it back up

 

[Icetech]

P.S. i would also pull out that existing sealer.... but that's me.. either way will work

 

[Kemper]

yeah.. it only takes a tiny spot where the seam sealer is pulled back to let a lot of water in.. kinda crazy how much can come in. I would blow it out with the compressor then put a fan blowing directly on it to dry it out well for a few hours before i seal it back up

Yeah, I'll make sure it's good and dry. I knew I was getting water on the floor but when I noticed, it was after it already sat there for a while and I couldn't tell where it was comig from. The trail leaves no doubt.