So, what's the best thing to remove rust from floorboards (aside from cutting them out)? Is a wirebrush too harmful? What about a wirewheel on a drill?
From what I've read on POR 15, it sounds like it's not necessarily the best bet. So, I may just clean it all off, go over it with some sort of rust remover, then prime and paint.
The area in question is the area behind my passenger seat and the infamous smubgglers box, there are a few pinholes where it has rusted through.

Surface rust? Or gaping holes?

If you use a wire wheel on a drill, wear a long sleeve shirt. When I finished my floors I looked like I had been attached by 10,000 mosquitoes. I pulled out more tiny wires from my left bicep than I could count.

The cup shaped wire wheel threw less wire than the more common flat wheel.

I used a wire wheel on my drill...alot of work. My floorboards just had some surface rust and I was going to replace the carpet..that's it. Well, once I pulled the carpet, I started cleaning...and cleaning...and cleaning. Anyway, I used POR-15 on my floorboards. Maybe it's better than primer/paint, maybe not, but I think it turned out good.

There are some pics on my "bodywork" link below.


Hope this helps,

JR, that's a nicely documented job on your web site. Simple, quick to download, lots of pictures. Nice job. Ed.

Originally posted by YenkoChevelle69:
Surface rust? Or gaping holes? Pretty much just surcace rust, though the more I remove, the more I find. The metal is thin in some small areas. But, I've only seen 2 holes that were about 1/8" across.
Since I will likely be putting some sort of a plastic bottom in the smgglers box, I 'm not to wrried about it, and the other area is behind the passenger seat. I think this is where the spare tire is supposed to go. Eventually, I'll likely replace that floorboard. But, it's not a priority now, I just want to stop the rust.

I just finished doing my floor. I had to replace a small section but for the rest I simply went over the floor with a RED 3M abrassive wheel (looks like a sponge dipped in reddish paint).
Sweep or air blast clean. Followed that up by wiping down the floor with "Wax and Grease Remover", let dry completely. Painted the floor with POR-15 black and it looks awesome. Remember that you only need to remove the loose flecks of rust, not remove ALL rust. This is alot easier than it sounds. The abrassive wheel scuffing goes really quick. You will need to plug/patch those holes of course. You should be able to do this in an afternoon graemlins/thumbsup.gif

You say that you want to stop the runst. Well I hate to say it but once rust has startedthere is really no way to stop it. If this part ofthe p[roject is only temporary, or you are not planning on ever doing a full blown restoration on her, then I would say use the wire wheel method and then prime and paint with some good quality stuff. However if you are doing this one time and for keeps, then if you ahve thin spots or holes there is no way around cutting it out and welding in the new. POR is expensive, hard to use and will not stop rust, only cover it with a nice tough coatingthat will look nice until the rust works through somewhere else.

Originally posted by ELLI:
You say that you want to stop the runst. Well I hate to say it but once rust has startedthere is really no way to stop it. If this part ofthe p[roject is only temporary, or you are not planning on ever doing a full blown restoration on her, then I would say use the wire wheel method and then prime and paint with some good quality stuff. However if you are doing this one time and for keeps, then if you ahve thin spots or holes there is no way around cutting it out and welding in the new. POR is expensive, hard to use and will not stop rust, only cover it with a nice tough coatingthat will look nice until the rust works through somewhere else. It's kind of both A and B. I'm not too worried about doing a full resoration now (I have other much larger problems I want to fix before I patch the floors).
I just want it to be somewhat solid and look decent for a year or so until i can fix it right. I am going to carpet over both areas after I clean em up and prime and paint. I am not going to glue the carpet down or insulate it behind the seat, that way it won't be tough to pull it back up in the future.
The main thing I was concerned with is if you guys think the wire wheel will eat up the thin metal that's left. I have a brass one. That should be a little easier on the metal.
Actually, the idea of POR scares me since you are supposed to leave the rust on there. Seems like it's just putting a shield over the metal that's rusting beneath it. I want to remove as much rust as I can!

Actually, POR is not just to go over rust. Go to the POR website and you'll see. You can use it on new metal, you just have to prep it correctly with their Metal-Ready product. I cleaned my floorboards to where there was NO rust at all. I then prepped the floor, per POR's instructions, then used the POR-15. I didn't cover any rust, it's just a topcoat. I doubt it's worse than a high quality primer/paint...I believe it's better, but what do I know :D I surely feel it's as comparable as a good primer/paint and I don't have "paint capabilities" other than just spray cans. I think I would be hard pressed to find a "paint" I could spray that would come out looking better than the POR-15 brushed on....

If you look at my "bodywork" link in my signature, you'll see what I mean...I just used a brush and small foam rollers to do mine...

Just my .02. Good luck in whatever you choose.

Originally posted by ELLI:
You say that you want to stop the runst. Well I hate to say it but once rust has startedthere is really no way to stop it. If this part ofthe p[roject is only temporary, or you are not planning on ever doing a full blown restoration on her, then I would say use the wire wheel method and then prime and paint with some good quality stuff. However if you are doing this one time and for keeps, then if you ahve thin spots or holes there is no way around cutting it out and welding in the new. POR is expensive, hard to use and will not stop rust, only cover it with a nice tough coatingthat will look nice until the rust works through somewhere else. It amazes me how a company can develop and market a product like POR-15 and have thousands of satisfied customers discussing how awesome the product works and someone can come along and make it sound as if it is as useless as spraying rattle can primer over rust.....You will need to cut out and replace the areas that have degraded to the point the metal has lost it's integrity like ELLI said, but I would hesitate to cut out a chunk of floor every place I saw some rust like ELLI said graemlins/clonk.gif I still recommend the POR-15 method obviously. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

like neil young said rust never sleep

Depending on where the rust is located and how visual it may be to the onlooker, you may be able to cut out and piece with a small sheet of flat steel. I ended up doing it under my back seat area because I didn't feel like paying for a floor pan section when a 4"x4" piece of sheet metal costing a few bucks will do the trick. If you arean't crazy about that idea, try the basic starer kit that por makes its $15 on ebay and I think it'll work better than you think. I am hooked on the stuff myself. Now, I am not saying put it over metal that is rusty I don't have THAT much faith in it. I just think that for bare metal, it is a really thick and tough coating that will prevent moisture and worse yet anything else that promotes oxidation. Also, if you think the metal might be too thin (we can't tell without visually seeing it ourselves) then maybe reinforce it with something.
There is a balance in this art, some purists and some recreationalists. Fashion over function or function before fashion is really what needs to be measured to fit YOUR personal satisfaction.
I personally would rather cut out and weld in fresh ever where I can rather than plug up, but others may not have the resources or abilities to do so. This is when it helps to have friends with tools! graemlins/beers.gif

I'm sure I'll get some criticism, but for floorboards with surface rust, pin holes and thin spots, I've always used fiberglass resin and cloth or mat. As long as the holes aren't large and there's no issue with structural integrity with the thin spots, the fiberglass works real well. It gives me a hard, smooth covering which I believe to be waterproof.

I never get good results from wire wheels, so I use those black paint remover wheels (probably similar to the red 3M wheels) to get off the surface rust and clean with thinner or acetone before laying the fiberglass.

Well, i picked up the POR-15 starter kit and an additional quart off of eBay. We'll see how it works.

You'll be good to go then. Clean, prep it, coat with POR and if the metal still seems a bit too thin for your liking I too would agree with 68 ELKIE when I say fiberglass resin can be used in some areas as "reinforcement" and does sand as smooth as a baby's butt. I think it'll turn out really well for you!

Cool.
I'll fix it the correct way in a year or two, after I get all of the other stuff done.