Hi again to my tin knockers metal mending gurus: the rust bucket project is moving forward. Here's the progress and the questions: :D
The interior rear seat floor pan is fit up and ready for welding but have to get main floorpan out first. Rear trunk floor pan removed and pinned in place to the wheelhouses, welding started at rear panel of trunk. All pieces are 1 piece, so there are 3 pans from firewall to taillights. I have not done any bracing because all the body mounts are intact or replaced with new till floor pan replacment is done, then body and frame will come apart. OK guru's the questiuons are:
1.The 1 piece interior floor pan from firewall to rear seat is going to be welded in place last on top of the rear seat floor pan and that will sit on top of the rear trunk pan. Does this sound correct? This is how they came out.
2. With the main floor pan from firewall to seat, I am exposing the original cross members which are rusty but structually sound as well as the rocker panels. During the spot weld removal process some of the drilling went beyond. My plan is to plug weld and clean off to smooth metal prior to floorpan fit up. I plan to descale the surface rust and paint with POR before welding in floorpan permanently. Does this sound like the right way to go.
3. I have to patch in places where the metal has rusted through. I have some galvanized metal of the same guage I was going to use, any thoughts on this?
4. I bought my 1 piece floor pan and was told it will "just go in" from the top. I have no intention of ripping out the cross members to install from underneath. Does this sound doable? I got the trunk 1 piece in without much trouble.
5. I have not sand blasted anything and am doing the metal work that you will not see first because of logisitcs at this time. I paln to rust blast prior to primer. Is this going to work OK in this sequence?

Thanks for the great advice :hurray: Roland in NY :beers:

Hi again to my tin knockers metal mending gurus: the rust bucket project is moving forward. Here's the progress and the questions: :D
The interior rear seat floor pan is fit up and ready for welding but have to get main floorpan out first. Rear trunk floor pan removed and pinned in place to the wheelhouses, welding started at rear panel of trunk. All pieces are 1 piece, so there are 3 pans from firewall to taillights. I have not done any bracing because all the body mounts are intact or replaced with new till floor pan replacment is done, then body and frame will come apart. OK guru's the questiuons are:
1.The 1 piece interior floor pan from firewall to rear seat is going to be welded in place last on top of the rear seat floor pan and that will sit on top of the rear trunk pan. Does this sound correct? This is how they came out.
2. With the main floor pan from firewall to seat, I am exposing the original cross members which are rusty but structually sound as well as the rocker panels. During the spot weld removal process some of the drilling went beyond. My plan is to plug weld and clean off to smooth metal prior to floorpan fit up. I plan to descale the surface rust and paint with POR before welding in floorpan permanently. Does this sound like the right way to go.
3. I have to patch in places where the metal has rusted through. I have some galvanized metal of the same guage I was going to use, any thoughts on this?
4. I bought my 1 piece floor pan and was told it will "just go in" from the top. I have no intention of ripping out the cross members to install from underneath. Does this sound doable? I got the trunk 1 piece in without much trouble.
5. I have not sand blasted anything and am doing the metal work that you will not see first because of logisitcs at this time. I paln to rust blast prior to primer. Is this going to work OK in this sequence?

Thanks for the great advice :hurray: Roland in NY :beers:

I did my one piece floor from the top. I replaced the braces but I put them in first.

As for the patches, don't use galvanized or as least sand off the zinc prior to welding. Metal fume fever and all that. Personally, if the areas you need to patch are large enough, I'd buy a replacement panel and cut out the section you need. That's what I did for the rear seat pans.

The ideal way to deal with the old but sound metal is to remove all the rust and paint with epoxy. For most of us backyard hackers, though, that's not really realistic due equipment and space considerations. For a car that will see limited use, imho it is perfectly acceptable to use a product like POR 15 or RE in areas that will not be seen.