How bad is this?

[Dball]

Cleaning up the truck I just purchased a couple of months ago. I took a quick peek at the floors when I bought and they looked pretty solid. Well tonight I started pulling the interior want to recover the bench seat and possibly put in a new carpet kit. Trucks not perfect but looked pretty clean for what it is anyways pulled the door seals and this is what I find

[Dball]

Dirty

[Dball]

Sorry on my iPad one pic at a time

[Dball]

All of this caked in that one channel

[71swb4x4]

I don't think it's bad. If it was mine I would clean it all up with a wire brush on a drill. If you have thin spots I would have those small portions replaced. Then I would prime and paint and drive the wheels off it.
I really think what you have is very minor. Are there other spots besides that one next to the seat that seem thin?

[Dball]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

I don't think it's bad. If it was mine I would clean it all up with a wire brush on a drill. If you have thin spots I would have those small portions replaced. Then I would prime and paint and drive the wheels off it.
I really think what you have is very minor. Are there other spots besides that one next to the seat that seem thin?

Another smaller hole towards the front of the truck. Not really sure how to fix it? I've already cleaned it all up I'll treat it with some kind of rust preventative and POR it.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

I don't think it's bad. If it was mine I would clean it all up with a wire brush on a drill.

a small 4 inch angle grinder spins at a higher RPM than a drill, at least in my case and is also a good tool, you can get a wire brush cup or a wire wheel for it, the smaller the better, my Harbor Freight $15 angle grinder is a work horse and has spun for many hours and removed a ton of rust

you really don't know what your rust situation is until you start removing it, I like to give it a one two punch, that means using both abrasives like sand paper or wire wheels, and chemicals like Etch n Prep Phosphoric acid from Home Depot $5 bucks a gallon (use in full strength not diluted) after you remove all loose rust with wire wheel

good luck, shoot us some progress pictures

see how I tackled my floors in this post

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=645440&page=3

[Dball]

You're absolutely right Gregski. Looks like there's a lot of good steel left, and amen on the angle grinder. Posted from my phone don't know how to quote.

[Dball]

There goes my seat cover and carpet kit money $219 for the welder kit, $50 for the cart and I got a $50 gift card out of the deal. I really wanted the Hobart handler 140 but I didn't want to cancel my kids Christmas this year what's that old saying "learn to weld with a cheap welder and you can weld anything" .....it's not an old saying I just made it up to make me feel better

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Dball

There goes my seat cover and carpet kit money $219 for the welder kit, $50 for the cart and I got a $50 gift card out of the deal. I really wanted the Hobart handler 140 but I didn't want to cancel my kids Christmas this year what's that old saying "learn to weld with a cheap welder and you can weld anything" .....it's not an old saying I just made it up to make me feel better

LOL, yeah I want the Hobart as well. Listen Dball I am too lazy to research this Mastercraft, but if it is Flux Core only, take it back don't even open the box, and get yourself a real MIG welder. Flux core uses a special shielded wire and no gas, which means it spatters like a pigeon with diarrhea (ask me how I know). A MIG can do both, but don't waste your time pushing flux wire through it, just buy yourself a small tank of gas argon/CO2 for sheet metal welding

[old Rusty C10]

the holes id go find some sheet metal cut that small area out and patch that weld it in again rust treat the whole area and por 15 it .. where I am that is like mint condition for one of these trucks

[Bears63]

I am amazed you still have that area of your floorboard at all! Around here you just look down and see ground! Clean it up good, patch the open holes and treat it with por15 or something along those lines. You can easily save that floor with a little work so tackle it before it gets worse.

[Speeding Dakota]

Again being in North East like Old Rusty, that's almost considered NOS (lol). POR-15 has a product called POR Patch that you could use on the smaller holes then cover with the regular POR-15 and top coat you should be good.
http://www.por15.com/POR-PATCH_p_53.html

Good Luck

[Dball]

Thanks guys for the encouragement. I'm located just west of Toronto and believe me we have our share of rust up here as well. I was both disappointed and kind of impressed that's all that I found....on the drivers side anyways, still haven't got to the passenger side yet. Thanks Speeding Dakota I was looking for a miracle in a tube and you found it 😉. I was thinking of some sort of seam sealer I'll give the POR a try. The paints too damn nice and I'm too poor right now to get into a full on body job I'm just trying to slow down the rust where I can.

[sgr60]

Agreed with all above - it's really not bad at all. Definitely give the POR15 a shot - it's really great stuff, I've used on a couple of projects. And in the places where you it's actually rusted trough, just cut out the hole and weld in a patch - you'll be good as new in no time.

[Dball]

Well I got around to the passenger side today, I have one very small hole in the same area. I did however find an issue with the floor pan. looks like I'm going to lose one layer but it hasn't rotted completely through. I just can't believe that someone before me wouldn't have cleaned this up....said everyone whose ever owned one of these trucks So I'm cleaning everything up the best that I can, I'm going to use POR patch on the holes and then POR the rest of the floor. I was also thinking about either undercoating or using truck bed liner to help with sound? good idea? Lizard skin and dynamat are pricey.

[Axle]

Do you weld? If not, now you have a reason to learn.

looks like I'm going to lose one layer but it hasn't rotted completely through. I just can't believe that someone before me wouldn't have cleaned this up....said everyone whose ever owned one of these trucks

We (everyone here) are probably the only ones that actually would look. Everybody else sees the nice paint and assumes everything else is as good. That said, my old 83 that I'm stripping down, I have rusty floors, no surprise there that I've kept an eye on, but in taking out the seatbelts, I discovered a very thin spot when I ended up twisting a ring of floor out when unbolting the driverside seatbelt. That was something totally unexpected, bit disconcerting too considering the importance of a seatbelt, especially on todays crowded roads.

Alex.

[Dball]

Originally Posted by Axle

Do you weld? If not, now you have a reason to learn.



We (everyone here) are probably the only ones that actually would look. Everybody else sees the nice paint and assumes everything else is as good. That said, my old 83 that I'm stripping down, I have rusty floors, no surprise there that I've kept an eye on, but in taking out the seatbelts, I discovered a very thin spot when I ended up twisting a ring of floor out when unbolting the driverside seatbelt. That was something totally unexpected, bit disconcerting too considering the importance of a seatbelt, especially on todays crowded roads.

Alex.

Actually I'm surprised that's all I found, I'm just not sure about how to address the rot underneath? which looks to be a cab support. I don't weld and will probably have someone put a patch in for me it'll be hard to justify the cost of a welder at this moment.

[Axle]

Keep an eye on the TSC flyer, they seem to put the little Lincoln (115v flux, and mig capable) on sale once or twice a year for a couple hundred off the regular price. If you have other projects in mind, the welder will pay itself back quick depending on wether or not you have hookups to do the odd welding job for you.

Alex.

[74CustomK20]

I have a harbor freight el cheapo one and it does good for what I paid (50 used) did my k20, ranger exhaust with it and a couple Biddy's for beer. Its only good for 3/16 at most it says but for thin small stuff its hard to beat.

[dieseldawg142]

welding patches is not hard, unless you have a tig, or are reeal good at welding & not burning holes, your just spot welding. work your way around the patch spot welding 'till you have a solid weld all the way around. seeing how it's the floor, you dont really need to dress the welds, just level them down with a disc.
or could redneck it & pop rivet or screw a patch over it with some seam sealer to keep out fumes.
personally i think por is awesome
before....


....after


was lucky, only rust hole was by the door bumper. had to buy a replacement rocker for just the curved piece, had to make the bumper bump as it was'nt on the replacement

[Dball]

Nice job, I'm a dumb ass because I had a relatively small split in the floor. I started cutting back good floor because I didn't know what I was looking at. The cab mount below the floor is what's in the worst shape. Live and learn I guess I'm definitely going to have a patch panel welded in. I've done a few pop rivet and roofing tar floor jobs on some older 4x4's it works for what it is.

[dieseldawg142]

Originally Posted by Dball

I've done a few pop rivet and roofing tar floor jobs on some older 4x4's it works for what it is.

hey, nothing wrong with that
i'm a roofer & some of our work trucks over the yrs get a little thin in the floors, we torch in a piece soprema 250 torch-on down on the floor...

[motornut]

Yup done those pop n tar patches too.
even self tappers
Even when I'm going to weld them a couple of pops help to hold them in place,creates a good contact too.
I've actually drilled holes for drainage in the floor ,and paint it with tremclad.

[sgr60]

If it makes you feel better, here's what mine loos like. I don't plan on tackling it until the spring - working on the mechanics first over the winter. All just a matter of getting the new panels and welding them in!