Patching the Floorboards - 1954 Pontiac
The original seats were removed (they weigh a ton!) and the floor was wirebrushed using my grinder and painted with rust protecting paint. When done, the floor looks like new except for the rust!
The drivers side floorboard under the pedals was very rusted which is typical for this age of vehicle. I cut out about a 12" x 18" section and then found that the two body frame supports under the driver's feet were severly rusted and required rebuilding. Out came the mig welder, sheet steel and some plate and I went to work. There were also minor rust holes on the passenger floor side.
I lap welded in the plates from the inside so the inside of the car looked great. Unfortunately, most people forget about the exterior. Underneath the floorpan, there was the rough cut floor with a nice new piece of sheet metal lying over it. After wirebrushing the underside and painting with rust proof paint (Armocoat or Tremclad), I fiberglassed matting over all the exposed seams. This way dirt and water can't get trapped and start rusting again. Once the fiberglass cured, another coat of paint and it was done.
Welding underneath the car
For those of you who have never welded upside down, it is very difficult to weld the floor supports and the quality of my welds shows it. I tried mig welding at first but the gas doesn't flow up well and the welds basically stunk. I switched to a gasless wire and the quality improved but it is very difficult.
Fiberglassing underneath the car
This has to be one of the worst experiences that you could possibly endure. Fiberglass sticks to everything and no matter how hard I tried, it just would not run up hill for some reason. Avoid this like the plaque if you have a choice. Sometimes, like in my case, I had no choice. Maybe if I butt welded the joints, I wouldn't of needed to fiberglass. Or if I purchased my lap jointer earlier, it would of been easier.
Lap jointer
I purchased a lap jointer attachement for my air chisel. It supposedly makes a lap joint on sheet metal. I don't do lots of sheet metal work and thought it might be sufficient for my purposes. It only cost $15 Cdn and seems to be reliably built. I'll see how well it works later.
I plan on putting down sound deadening material and heat insulation padding plus black carpet over the floor. This will be one of the last things to do.
Bad News! While working under the car, one of my friends noticed that I was missing a frame to body bolt. I looked around and found out that almost all of the frame to body bolts were missing and 4 of them were broken off. The only way to get the broken bolts out was to remove the frame from the body! Only two studs (no nuts on them) at the firewall and 4 bolts at the rear were holding the body to the frame. About 14 bolts were missing. This explained the strange creaking noises I heard when I was puttng the car on jackstands. Doing a body off of frame restoration was not what I planned to do at all.... :-( But now that it was done, I'm very happy about the results.