With most of our Chevelles now being 25 years old or more, replacing rusted and rotten floor pans is almost a given. Unless, of course, you're fortunate enough to live where it seldom rains and the only time you see salt is on your McDonanld's french fries. Even here in the "South," floorboard failure is quite common. Leaks around windshields and the rear glass allow moisture to collect in the footwells, under carpets and in the carpet padding, where it goes largely unnoticed until one day you look down and see the road passing beneath you. That's what happened to our '68 Chevelle.
1. That is what typically greets you once you've removed your Chevelle's floor covering. Although rusted through completely in some areas, our floorpan was still intact at the seat and seat belt attaching areas.
2. We probed the suspected area with a sharp pick to determine the extent of the damage. We then measured the area needing replacement, and transferred those measurements to the new floor pans.
To properly repair your Chevelle's floor pans, Year One, Inc offers complete left and right side replacement panels, reaching from the firewall to the rear seat. If, how-ever, your rusted areas aren't extensive enough to warrant full-length repairs, they also have individual right and left front, and right and left rear repair pans.
3. Rather than using a full-length pan for each side, we opted for individual replacements. Doing so allowed us to retain the original seat and seat belt attaching points, rather than having to measure and mark locations, then weld nuts to the backsides. With our measurements transferred to the replacements, we trimmed them using an air-powered nibbler.
We elected to repair only those areas that required attention, and ordered their individual pans. Doing so would allow us to assess the extent of rust damage and concentrate only on those areas. It also allowed us to retain the original weld-nut locations for the seat mounts and seat belt attaching points, as well as the floor shift opening. Our involvement with the support braces underneath the floor pans would also be held to a minimum.
4. With our replacements trimmed to size, we laid them in place, then painted around the edges with white paint.
A die grinder with a cutoff wheel allowed us to trim accurately a half-inch inside the painted lines, then remove the damaged floor pans.
While effecting your own floorboard repairs can be accomplished in the comfort of your own garage, having an assortment of power tools (air or electric) and a MIG welder can significantly simplify and expedite the procedure.
We used a sheetmetal nibbler, a die grinder with a cutoff wheel, and an air chisel to remove the offending sheetmetal, as well as to trim the replacements to the proper dimensions. We also accomplished what we consider a "middle-of-the-road" repair; while we ground all our welds flat before sealing them with sealer, we didn't go as far as using body filler to make the repairs completely undetectable. After all, our Chevelle is a driver and the repairs will remain hidden beneath the floor covering, anyway. If you're going through a full restoration or are building a show car, however, you may want to consider the body filler trick as the final step in your floorboard repair.
5. Here's what we ended up with after completing our cuts. We minimized our involvement with the under-floor bracing, although an air chisel made quick work of the spot welds attaching the pan to them. We'll attach the new metal to the braces with MIG welds.
6. When MIG welding, avoid warpage by welding only in 1 or 2-inch increments and moving your weld area around the edge of the pan. Once pan is completely welded in, you can grind the welds flat and they'll be virtually undetectable.
7. To further ensure that our repair remains weatherproof, we ran a small bead of paintable latex sealer on top of our welds. It was smoothed out using an inexpensive plastic putty knife.
8. Spray can primer covered our work quite nicely and was much easier than dragging out our paint guns and mixing primer. Our repair not only looks a lot better, it restores our Chevelle's structural integrity. Year One's replacement pans feature stamped stiffening ribs just like the originals.
9.The drain plugs were installed next, using our paintable sealer again. Contrary to popular opinion, the plug is installed with the raised center portion up.
Speaking of floor coverings, finding an original replacement rubber floor mat for our 300 Series sedan proved to be quite an undertaking. We'd all but given up the search when we happened to notice that Metro Moulded Parts, Inc listed them in their catalog. A quick call confirmed the application, but also that they were temporarily out of stock. Now, here's where the story gets good. My call was ultimately transferred to Doug Hajicek, the President of Metro, who shares our appreciation for old cars. We chatted about his company's product line of moulded rubber products such as weatherstrips, grommets and gaskets, and agreed to try his products on our Chevelle. During our conversation, Doug let on that although the computer showed zero inventory at the time, he thought there might be one rubber floor mat left on the shelf in the warehouse, and if he could locate it, he'd send it with the rest of the order. Our order arrived about a week later, but without the floormat. Oh well, we thought, it was a good try, anyway, and got ready to order carpet instead. But before we got around to it, another package from Metro showed up, and it contained the much awaited floor mat. Thanks, Doug! You're a classy guy with a classy company, and excellent products, too.
Try to keep up with us now, as we put our sheet "metal" to the test!
10. Metro Moulded Parts, Inc really came through for us in a big way with their moulded rubber floor mat. Shaped just like the original, it features jute padding, a hole for the dimmer switch, and slits to accomodate seat mounts. Nice piece!
11. Once the mat is in postion, the shifter opening mount can be reinstalled using the original screw holes. Trimming the mat for the shifter opening is now easily accomplished using a sharp knife.
SOURCES:
Metro Molded Parts, Inc PO Box 33130 Minneapolis, MN 55433 (612) 757-0310
Year One, Inc PO Box 129 Tucker, GA 30085 (800) 950-9503
Electronic pages by: Al