Floor Pan Rust Question

[farmtruckman]

Starting restoration of 1967 F100 LWB Custom Cab and opened up about a silver dollar size hole in outer edge of right side floor pan, about where your right foot might rest. What is acceptable repair? Seems too small to replace entire pan. Rest of pan can be cleaned up and coated with POR-15. I was thinking of glassing in a patch and cleaning it up on both inside and out with bondo/paint combination. Any suggestions? Caveat Emptor!!!

[heep70]

I would weld in a piece of steel. There is a chance that water will trapped inbetween the glass and the pan.

Stop by the "welcome mat" and intro yourself and your project. We like pics if you have any. Watch out you will get buried with welcomes.

[fordman]

for rigging porposes only you can use a stop sign. but doing it right would require welding in a piece of steel.

[FORDification]

I agree. Especially if you're planning on coating the floorpans with POR-15, spend a few minutes and just cut out the rusty piece and weld in a patch panel. For the floorpan area, since it's going to be hidden and appearance isn't as important, you could just do a lap weld. You'll be glad down the road that you took the few extra minutes now.

[fordman]

one thing i seen a guy do was to keep a few hoods off of different cars for cutting flat patch pieces out of for his auto body side work.

[farmtruckman]

To everyone, thanks for the response. I picked up a sheet of steel today at a salvage yard similar guage. I am using a Lincoln 110V wire feed set up which hopefully will run cool enough to keep everything from distorting too badly. I have enough metal to practice with unless someone knows what settings work well enough. Hopefully, I have enough good metal on the floorpans to get the weld to adhere to.

Once I figure out how to post pictures, I can post what the floorpans look like. I also drive a '03 4x4 Supercrew. Makes me want to lift the carpet to make sure things are dry under there. My F100 was mfg. in San Jose, special ordered to Seattle and was owned by some farmer in Kittitas. I assume it sat for years on his farm collecting dirt before I bought it from a neighbor who picked it up from the estate. This is my first project since moving from CA to WA so now I have something to do when snow comes.

Thanks again.

[heep70]

That Lincoln will blow holes in that metal. Just do small spots around the edges. Let them cool and continue tell they connect. I used the same welder on my firewall. It turned out good.

[jzjames]

For a silver dollar sized hole in the floor with nothing structural on the underside of it, I would forget the welders for now, and pop rivet a nice patch right over the top of it. Use the 1/8 in grab <steel> pop rivets, and before you rivet it on, smear both contacting surfaces with some good roofing tar material. With the ooze out of the tar, smear it all over your work both above and below. Effective and quick. jz