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5-28-17

The worse rust on the car is the front floor boards. I removed the seat bottom and cut out the damaged metal. Originally I was going to flange the metal so it would sit down flat, but with the brace there and the complicated bends the metal takes in this area made me change my mind and just overlap the metal. It's not that thick anyway and will eventually be covered with carpet. I had to make a separate patch to cover the area by the body mount hole due to the size of the scrap metal I was using. The fuel line was routed on this side because I have a more modern gas tank in the car. I was concerned welding near the line so I soaked some shop towels in water and draped them over the line. Almost finished the welding, but ran out of welding wire. My welding skills have not improved! Still have to do some grinding and seeing where I missed spots. I hope the passenger side does not need as large of a patch.

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Welding seems to be something every guy picks up with a minimal of effort -- at least it seems that way looking at projects from the majority of guys that are on this forum. My brother welds like a champ and I can't do squat. You and I must have inherited a defective welding gene.

I guess you're right! At least on this car, any welding I have to do will be covered and out of sight. At least the metal is sticking together!

5-29-17

Here I thought the passenger side would be easier and no such luck! Running out of patch metal so I tried to be creative with my shape to maximize coverage. I tried turning up the heat on the welder and my final patch on the drivers side seemed to come out better, but not on the passenger side! I've been experiencing a lot of blow through. I'll have to dial it down some and fill with weld. More rust holes are making their presence known too so that was disappointing.

When I'm done, I'm planning on painting the ceiling and floor with POR15. Anyone with experience with this paint please comment if it will cover any pinholes in the metal I miss? Should I bother to put seam sealer on the welds? If so, before or after paint?

POR15 is fairly thin so maybe it will plug pinholes but not much bigger. It can be used with fiberglass so that might be an option on something larger than a pinhole. The fiberglass in that application won't have the strength ordinary resin impregnated glass would have but as long as the metal is structurally sound the glass would make the seam air and watertight. Unless you also apply POR15 or the sealer to the underside of the patches that would be the place where water could get between the patch panels and start the rust all over again.

Once it dries the regular stuff is rock hard and very shiny. Ordinary paint or much else does not stick well to it -- at least not long term according to the mfg. There is a POR15 primer that can be applied over the stuff which will let other paints adhere..

Once I was done repairing the rust in my floors, I coated the entire floor in a brushable seam sealer. Two coats! This replicated the look of the whatever the factory had down and covered up the non-pretty portion of my welds. Then over that went the modern sound deadening and insuation. (all covered in my project blog)

I would save the POR-15 for the underside of the car where it will be more effective.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I knew POR15 was super tough when dry so I guess I equated that with being thick. I really need something to cover up my poor welds so I'm not against a thin layer of fiberglass to get the pinholes and cover things up or seam sealer if it will do the job. Chasing the small holes in the pan will just lead to bigger ones. Maybe I'll do the underside of the car first with the paint and if there is any left, use it inside. I don't want to have to wire brush and primer the interior as it would be easier to just paint the rust with POR15.

What about something like bed-liner coating??
I always thought it might be good at sealing and also sound deadening some too.

John

7-1-17

Well bit the bullet and decided to clean the interior sheet metal and paint it with POR-15 (eventually). I will also do the underside of the car and hopefully will never have to worry about rust again.

This is a job you just have to jump into and start. I kept thinking about it and that just lead to procrastination because I knew what a nightmare it would be!

I thought it would take the day to remove the interior and I could start tomorrow, but I had the interior stripped in 10 minutes.

I noticed an unexpected pool of water under the rear seat. Everything was dry except for the puddle so I'm not sure where the water is getting in at. Nothing on the seats or door panel. Sucked it up with the shop vac. You can see the rusty floor in the rear seat area pic.

Armed with a face shield and dust mask, I went to work.

The roof wasn't too bad. Most of the tar came off with a scraper. I briefly hit it with the wire wheel and called it done.

The floor was another story.

Ended up taking about 2-1/2 hours and 1-1/2 wire wheels in my grinder. A huge mess that took multiple vacuum sessions to clean up.

I have gray POR-15 already. I'm thinking of using that on the inner roof and buying some semi-gloss black to do the floor and eventually the trunk. Didn't get to that today. Maybe I will paint the inner roof tomorrow.

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Water may be coming from the rear glass and gasket. You might use a water hose on the outside around the edge of the glass and see if you can find a place any water is getting thru. Pay attention to the top edge as it can get under the gasket and follow the channel and contour of the sheetmetal around the sides and then drop down. Another place is on the C pillar. If you have any script or emblems where the gasket or sealant around the emblem or clips is gone water can follow the roof and run in the holes.