Below are a few pics of the floor in the '68 Chevelle that I'm restoring with my son. The car will be a driver. As you all can see, the floors are pretty rough. Can these be repaired (suggestions) or do I need to buy a welder and learn to use it to replace pieces of the floor? Also, I have heard that the toe boards are a bear to replace, any input on this?

Front Driver Side Floor and Toe Board -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/driver_side.jpg

Front Passenger Side Floor and Toe Board -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/pass_side.jpg

Rear Floors -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/rear_floor.jpg

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. If any additional pic/angles are needed, please feel free to let me know.

Where has this car been sitting?

Lord knows ... I only have had since Mid January 2005. Picked it up MD. I believe that's where is lived most it's life. The body is in much better condition. Just wait till you all see the trunk :rolleyes:

From what I see they can be restored. Unless I'm missing holes the pics aren't showing I'd clean them up and use either POR 15 or Eastwood's Rust Encapsolator.

Does it look just as rusty on the bottom? If not it's a good sign they're solid. You can use a small hammer or screwdriver and tap around on the worst spots. If you go through there was nothing left to save.

Good luck

Ray

Ray -- I thought about the Por-15/Eastwood angle. The bottoms don't look over the top bad ... IMO. Here a few additional looks:

Passenger Side Bottom -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/f145923d.jpg

Front Driver Side -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/a5d27b64.jpg

Another Passenger Side View -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/error3b/chevelle_pics/f5403091.jpg

They look very surface rusty but not all that bad structurally. I would suggest you wire brush the heck outta them and POR 15 i would also tap around with a hammer and find where the weak metal is and repair it. Where yours is rusting through (metal overlaps) you can cut a rectange from sheet metal and patch it in. which is what i did. good luck

Tom

Get the seats out.

Put the frame on 4 jack stands.

From underneath, follow the floor braces across to see if they are rusted out where they are welded to the inner rocker on each side.

Poke at it with screw drivers. If you find thin metal you ought to get a MIG a learn to weld. Floor pans are very forgiving for first timers as no one sees them after you are done.

Take a wire-wheel or a sand laster and clean those floors. A wire wheel may knock enough down so you can see the bad spots.

Check to make sure the lower edge of the windshield isn't rusted out which may have caused the water to lay on the carpet.

It looks worse than it probably is (I hope).

Check the body mounts under the cowl, if they look solid I'd put floor boards in it. If you're going to spend any money, I wouldn't recommend POR 15, do the floor boards first.

Obviously the windshield must have leaked big time, make sure to find that problem also.

I can see the holes now. The one hole where to firewall meets the tunnel/floor is gonna suck. I have a hole in that same area. Even a small patch of sheetmetal will be a pain because of the bend.

Circletrack is right about the cowl. My floor rusted cause the cowl area and the lower windshield channel was completely gone. Makes the holes in the floor look trivial when considering repairing that area. Might be time to pull the windshield to get a good look at the extent of the problem.

Not recomended for a beginer. Below are pic's of what I did. The whole shell was powdercoated afterwards.
http://img98.exs.cx/img98/9452/convertible1135gn.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
http://img98.exs.cx/img98/4751/convertible1096fw.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

Thanks for all the advice. It's much appreciated. If anyone can think of anything to add ... by all means, feel free.

540cultaSS -- that new floor looks great! Good luck with the project.