When to replace trunk and floor boards.

JimKueneman

Mopar Nut
This is for my own personal car, not looking for 100 pt restoration just something that is dependable and will not continue to decay. I blasted the floors in the '63 Dart and like all old cars they are cratered. From the bottom it looks fine other than pin holes and the occasional 1/8" or smaller hole. I have blasted it down to bare metal and really and thinking about epoxy primering it then fill the holes with filler, sand it mostly smooth and hit it with epoxy top and bottom again. There are no reproduction parts made for these cars and my skills at welding when I get done I think the better job is the filler. This is a fun cruiser that will never see rain on purpose. It lives in the desert where I have had it stripped to bare metal in the garage for a month and there is zero flash rust so it is super dry here. Would I be ridiculed here if I went down that path :). The problem pin holes are the once that are into the frame channels so I can't get in there to really hit the back side with epoxy. There I would not use filler since I would not want it to be able to absorb moisture. There I would like use seam sealer to make the floor water tight.

Thanks,
Jim

Good example. Oh and some moron in the past hammered in sheet metal over the floor pans and screwed them in a 100 screws (the round holes, I can weld them shut as there is full thickness metal around most of them).

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Have you tried finding a used trunk floor? There use to be a small older car scrap yard in Benson, a large one in Case Grande, another in Phoenix.
 
Have you tried finding a used trunk floor? There use to be a small older car scrap yard in Benson, a large one in Case Grande, another in Phoenix.

I have not, like I said by the time I changed it out it would be in worse shape than this ;)
 
Yep.I would blast to bare metal,weld those holes shut and epoxy the hell out of it. Short strand glass on top,epoxy bottom,undercoat and good to go. It's yours and just a driver.
 
What I worry about when I see a floorboard like that is the strength factor. Anything in the road that gets run over can come in the car with you. I saw a piece of tubing ran over by a race car come up through the floor, through the seat between the driver's legs, narrowly missing his manhood:eek:. After that, my son's car got a piece of fish plate in the drivers side floorboard:)
 
What I worry about when I see a floorboard like that is the strength factor. Anything in the road that gets run over can come in the car with you. I saw a piece of tubing ran over by a race car come up through the floor, through the seat between the driver's legs, narrowly missing his manhood:eek:. After that, my son's car got a piece of fish plate in the drivers side floorboard:)
Good point Texas. Looking at the photos again, I probably would repair them.I was thinking craters but it looks like a lot of rust holes.
 
Ok since I am getting guilted into replacing them are lap (flanged I think they are called) joints acceptable in floorboard repair? I will use epoxy first on the panels and floor instead of weld through primer? ;)
 
On the trunk I think Id roll/brush epoxy on to get a nice thick coat, probably a couple good coats. Most likely that will fill any pin holes with straight epoxy.

The smaller 4 inch wide nap rollers work pretty good, they leave a more uniform coat than a brush.
 
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Jim,
I am facing complete floor and trunk panel replacement on my GTX for the same reason. Only one side of the floor pan is real bad but welding a seam down the center like I had to do with the '65 Buick Convertible is not something I relish doing again so I will buy the full floor pan.
Floor Pan Front Right Rust.JPG

Trunk Floor rust.JPG


Main thing is to get your welder dialed in properly. Once that is done the rest is being methodical and most of all patient.
'65 Buick Before Pictures
Floor Rust through 1.JPG

Floor pan patches 4.JPG

Floor Pans in Epoxy Primer.JPG

Floor Pans in Epoxy Primer 1.JPG


You can do this and probably much better!
 
there is usually so much more once you start cutting, trunk extensions, quarter extensions, end up at rockers, it creates alot. If any extras are in good enough shape, I highly recommend making the patch panel into a patch panel and fit it where you have good enough metal to weld it to or see if the rest of that under belly stuff is also going to be available.
 
there is usually so much more once you start cutting, trunk extensions, quarter extensions, end up at rockers, it creates alot. If any extras are in good enough shape, I highly recommend making the patch panel into a patch panel and fit it where you have good enough metal to weld it to or see if the rest of that under belly stuff is also going to be available.

It is a solid Arizona car, there is zero rot except where water sat in the trunk (Mopar trunks ALL leaked) and floorboards (convertible...). The rear quarters along the bottom rot in Arizona because of the dirt and dust. It settles in the bottom between the trunk extension and quarter panel (on this car it also has a body line where the quarter get tight to the rear wheel tub and it filled with dirt there too) and then get wet and rots there...

Here is the state of the rest of the car.... It is like new
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