:mad Finally removed my carpet, wish I keep it in place now.... :banghead:

Here is the driver's side of the tunnel:


Here is under the pedal. Looks like there has been a repair there before. :cuss The floor board is loose and looks like it is in layers. Very rusty. Not much holding it together. I think the carpet was holding it together:


Here is a close up of the RHS side under the gas pedal:


Here is a close up of the LHS under the clutch, this area is still "sticky" with something:


So, the big question, now what? First reaction is to reinstall carpet and just leave it.

What materials are these two areas? How do I repair them? Is this a professinoal job? :confused:

 

When rust is that bad, replacement is the only solution. I'd suggest doing it right if you've got the money. You can probably do yourself, just strip the interior and get a new replacement floor from your favorite Vette parts place.

If you don't have the money, or you have to wait for tax time, lay the carpet back over it and hope for the best. But don't wait too long.

 

How would I even repalce the forward portion of the floor? Weld?

 

Doesn't a 69 vette have a fiberglass floor? Why would there be rust in that area? The holes by the shifter apear to have been cut intentionally for access to the shifter bolts. The sticky stuff appears to be uncured polyester resin.
I think just a real good clean-up of the areas and laying down some fiberglass matt would doo the trick.

 

fiber glass.... doesn't rust except on 76 and up with meteal floor pans. :lol:

 

I repaired the rusted metal floor in my '76 by bending sheet metal to fit, tack welding it, and then 'glassed over everything using glass mat and epoxy.

How did you get rusty metal floors in a '69? Metal was not a feature until '75 or '76.

 

We have a boat manufacteror in our area and for years we would go down and have him spray the floorboards of our old rusty floorboarded cars. Might try some one with a "Chop" fiberglass gun to spray it again.

As for the holes in the tunnel. I did not do that, I always used a hole saw and a plug to cover it when I got the shifter back on. lol JIM

 

The floor is NOT metal, it's fiberglass. It is very common for them to crack in the area you've shown. Grind down the glass around the cracks and repair with fiberglass matt and resin. Lay up enough thickness any the repair should hold up fine.

Shannon

 

:eek: Just found a heat-damaged spot on the bottom of my passenger side floor pan after installing my new headers. My guess is your car had severe eat damage from some tight headers/exhaust and you might find the same thing on the passenger side. Looking at the attempted repair with woven cloth instead of original matted glass was a bubba fix. Those tunnel holes look like access holes so Bubba can adjust the shifter too.
Once I get the fiberglass repaired, plan to use some adhesive backed heat barrier cloth by Thermo Tec to protect the floor pans.

 

Yep, fiberglass, get prepared to become a little itchy.

 

I will relook at it this evening when I get home. Is there any resources on the web for fiberglass repair? I thought I had a fberglass floor also....I was not too please yesterday...I did not investigate that much.

 

With holes that big, I'd suggest you have the glass work done professionally unless you're pretty handy with fiberglass. Then you can easily do the above floor insulation and carpet install.
While you're at it, replace the boots at the shifter, clutch rod, and accel pedal. Check the grommets where wires come thru the firwall.
Also install the trans tunnel insulator under the floor pan.

While your 69 is in the shop, have the front frame checked for weld separation and for tears in the front cross member area due to metal fatigue.

 

That's not too good - but not that bad, either.
You've got a lot of cleanup there, before trying to stick anything down.
Luckily, these areas are 'unseen' - so the repairs do not have to be a '10' on
the neatness scale. First scrape all the loose crap out that you can - then clean
the areas as best you can with cleaner/solvent.

Using a disc sander - or by hand, grind back the fiberglass around all the
holes/cracks. You'll want a 1" or more shallow bevel ground around to give
a clean area of fiberglass to stick to. Go but a fiberglass repair kit. This will
come with about a quart of resin, hardener, and a big square of woven or
matte roving (dry fiberglass). Follow the directions on the kit, and you'll
have it sealed and solid in no-time. You'll need 2-3 layers. Feeling ambitious ?
You can get it on the outside, too - for the ultimate repair - but it may be tight
getting to those areas.

Yes - the matte material is preferred - and required for areas that will get
painted. You can use the woven stuff, though - as it will never see the light of day.

Don't forget rubber gloves !!!

You can do it !
:seeya

 

On my 68 there was chunks of the floor actually missing. The good part about this area is that it's a great place to practice your fiberglassing skills...nobody will really see the results.
Just get a fiberglassing repair kit at your local autoparts/hardware store, read the instructions, and go to it. You can't really screw it up too bad...and if you do, it's fiberglass, you can just grind it/cut it back out. :)

 

Oh, yes... resin it is. You can even see they used woven type structural matte to repair it, the other stuff is the crushed fibers stock stuff that GM uses. The woven stuff (bi directional, don't use uni directional, hard to get onto compound surfaces) is stronger and if I were you I'd use that to reinforce the cracks, together with epoxy resings. Clean up the area real good, down to the glass. Degrease with MPA (methylpropylalcohol) or ethylacetate, NOT THINNER or anything else petrochemically based!!!!!

It's not that hard to repair, my firewall was in 3 large pieces with about 20 holes and cracks in it and I managed to repair it too, in fact it's stronger now than it was in stock form. Epoxy and woven matte are your friends :)

before repair:
http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body01.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body02.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body03.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body04.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body05.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body06.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/body08.jpg

grinding it down to bare glass (modded some stuff, chopped a bunch away). The cracks have been V shaped and all loose glass has been removed: http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/firewall5.jpg

after laminating and grinding: http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/firewall22.jpg http://www.crossfire.homeip.net/twinnie/firewall18.jpg

that's about it, after that I painted it.

 

You are correct!!!
The floor pan is fiberglass..........
:yesnod:

 

Thanks for everyone's help...looks like I am about to learn how to apply fiberglass. :crazy:

 

I already have the shifter boot, I will investigate the other gromments.

 

If you do have metal mixxed with your fiberglass from that bubba fix, there were metal splash sheilds screwed to the frame then to the body on my 69, these sheilds are directly infront of the driver and passenger foot wells, It looks like buba used that to lay the fiberglass on and he didnt do a good job at all!


Good luck with it and if you want to practice working some fiberglass with resin to see if you mix it up correctly just take some tin foil make it into a shape and then take the fiberglass put it in a plastic baggie with the resin and close it up and need the resin into the glass it is by far the easiest and cleanest way to get the resin into the fibers! When the fibers are all clear you know they are filled with resin then lay it into your fiol contraption and with a brush soaked with resin brush over it to smooth it out.

let it dry over night and you will see how your work was. it should be hard..

Give it a few tries before you work on the car, fiberglass isnt hard to work with its just itchy! :thumbs:

 

You will need:
a good dust mask or respirator
rubber gloves and long sleeves
or - long rubber gloves
good duct tape to pull the fibers out of your skin
lots of cardboard to mix and work over

have fun :seeya