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Passenger side, center of damage just in front of the forward seat bolts. The floor is pushed up maybe 1/4" in the center and I can move it a little when pushing down on it. My mechanic noted that the pass seat was a bit loose when he did a pre-buy inspection, but don't know if that was down to loose mounts or this. I was aware of the floor damage when looking underneath, just couldn't see the extent of it. There are no holes, however I suspect water may have come in at some point because of extra dirt in the seat mounting stud next to the tunnel.
Can this type of damaged be patched over with fiberglass, or is there some major structural integrity that may be affected? I read some of the threads where the whole floor section was replaced, others have noted holes can be filled and glassed over. I imagine the 3 sections would have to be pushed down to make the area somewhat level before glassing.
The red lines in one of the pictures is me outlining the shape of the damage.
On the C5s the core of the floor is made from Balsa Wood. It is sandwiched between two sheets of plastic. That makes it very strong but when the seal is broken moisture can damage the balsa wood. If the panel is cracked I think it loses all of it's structural integrity and there is no way you can patch it to get it back. From your pictures, it looks like the floor has been split and interior Balsa Wood opened to the environment so you have cracked Balsa Wood and wet Balsa Wood. If you never have a passenger in the car there is no need to replace the floor. However, if you plan on taking a passenger I would have the floor replaced. The factory service manual has instructions on how to replace the sections of the floor. It looks like Cultrag Factory Parts has replacement panels available;
I am also attaching the FSM Procedure for replacing the floor panels. The procedure lists the materials required to do the job.
Thank you for the detailed explanation Bill. I think the front cross member may also be bent because the floor in that area is slightly higher than the rest. I'm leaning towards a used part from ebay for 100-150 and a local body shop rather than epoxying the cracks. In the meantime, I don't think a passenger will be at risk of falling through the floor, despite the balsa being compromised because of the 2 cross members still being in place. Might be wrong...still learning about all this.
Floor damage - repairable?
