Rusty GTV floorboards

[daveydog]

Moving over to the right side of the car, something had been bothering me in the back of my mind for a while now. I knew there had been a lot of rust under the sheet metal on this side and I knew there had to be rust under what was left of the outer rocker panel.



When in doubt, cut it out! You can see that there was some rust prevention coating sprayed in there by the PO, but it didn't work it's way down to the spot welds where the outer rocker meets the middle rocker. And as the saying goes, "Too little too late." By the time he had the rust proofing applied, the car was already being eaten...



Lots of corrosion was happening down here sight unseen, especially to the thinner guage outer rocker. Fortunately the middle rocker only had some surface rust with very minor indentations.



Unfortunately that can't be said for the condition along the bottom of the outer rocker.Deep rust penetration and small perforations, although it didn't look too bad from the outside. It just goes to show you that some rust is eating your car from the inside out, and one never knows where it will pop out next.



The middle rocker cleaned up nicely with a wire wheel and I managed to get some Metal Prep and a coat of paint on it before Happy Hour with the missus.

[PSk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveydog ... and a coat of paint on it before Happy Hour with the missus.

[gigem75]

all in all it doesn't look to bad, coulda be a hellva lot worse and you are addressing it well, gotta be a good feeling! keep it up!
might as well start looking for another car.... when you're finished you'll have all this time on your hands and nothing to work on

[1750GT]

Yup I agree Pete it does become an obsession but, that's better than kicking yourself later for not having opened up the area at this stage and taking care of the problem. Luckily in this case that mid sill looks solid!....now you can sleep peacefully Dave.

[daveydog]

Yeah Pete, the Happy Hour concept was the wife's idea. She says I'm spending all too much time with the metal mistress and I kind of think she's a bit jealous. And lonely... Too much fun time in the garage will equal a proportionate amount of hell in the house. I didn't know it at the time that I started this thread about the rusty floorboards that it should have been titled "Rusty GTV" and leave it at that. Chasing rust has become an obsession but hopefully I'm coming to an end of that chapter. There's just a few more spots I want to look at heh heh heh...
Gigem you're right, it's not looking too bad now and I can see a small dot of light at the end of the tunnel. Or is that the spots in front of my eyes from arc flash and grinding dust?
There is something wrong with my right eye at the moment. I seem to have a small dot of either metal or grinding wheel grit embedded in the iris that's causing my eye to water like crazy. This morning I woke up and the eyelid was glued shut with dried tears so it's off to the medical clinic soon to get it pulled out. What a PIA, but it's my own fault for forgetting in my exuberance to put on my safety goggles.
Rossano it really is a good feeling to know that I've chased down most of the rust issues with this car and one by one, conquered every obstacle that's come along. Like you, I've been trying to get his car ready for painting but with Winter coming soon it looks like that will have to wait until Springtime I reckon.

I managed to get the whole outer rocker cut off and the new one welded on. The new replacement rockers are sure thinner guage than the originals, but at least it fits easily in place. I wonder why they've been made thinner? All the other new panels I have are original thickness.



Lots of spot welds to make it look original. I even drilled a few holes on top to allow some rustproofing waxoyl to be sprayed in.



Ahhh... looking good if I do say so myself. Time to check off another job from "The List".

[1750GT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveydog ...The new replacement rockers are sure thinner guage than the originals, but at least it fits easily in place. I wonder why they've been made thinner? ...

[gigem75]

Davey, did your replacement rocker panel have enough bow to it to match the door? the one I got took quite a bit of massaging to get it right, glad you didn't have to go through that!
She's really looking good, very impressive!
sounds like you've used up all the credits from the trip

[daveydog]

Rossano, no spot welder actually. I probably used the wrong terminology when I said spot welding. What I really did I guess was tack welding the lip to the middle rocker. When I drilled the old lip off there were about 20 small indents where the drillbit had gone through the outer rocker lip and slightly into the middle one. I matched the lip of the new rocker with these indents and used a 1/8th inch drift and made small indentations to try to match the factory's spot welds. Only about half of them are actually welded though, the rest are just the indents. I think I got kind of anal after working on this piece for a while because I used a small grinder on my dremmel tool and ground them down as best I could. When I was finished I came to the sudden realization that these welds were going to be covered up anyways by the stainless steel door sill so that was time well wasted I guess.
It's too bad the new rockers aren't the same thickness as the originals though. When I rapped on it with my knuckles the sound was a lot tinnier sounding than the original on the left side. I'll definately be using some rustproofing in the cavity and along the bottom edge to protect that thinner sheet metal.

Mikey, other than the thinner guage metal, the replacement outer rocker panel is an almost exact copy of the original. I bought it from one of the UK vendors along with the four wheel well patch pieces. Those four pieces by the way are original thickness metal. The rocker panel just slipped into place no problems and was actually, for me anyways, one of the easier jobs I've done. But welding upside down to attach the lower edge to the middle rocker is a bit of a challenge. Had a few weld splatters burn through my sweatshirt but I finally got it firmly in place, welds ground down and I even smeared some body filler over them and sanded them smooth. You can't even see where the welds are now! And yes, it came with the bow to match the door. Seeing what trials and tribulations you went through with your panel made me want to get the full length one... One with no hassles... Shipping from the UK to here took about a week which for some reason is way faster than shipping from the States. Go figure.

Here's my next rust-chasing project, the rear section of the right rear wheel. This will be my first attempt of fixing a rust spot that is actually visible when the car is put back together. All my other welding projects to this point have been under carpets, hidden behind panels, or covered up in some way that can't be seen, so I thought I'd start small.

[gigem75]

nice macro work! You do such good work I'm sure it will be better than new. I had some old leather from my long hair days (never throw anything away and cut two circles about 20 inches in diameter and sewed them together except for about an inch and filled it with sand then sewed the rest of it up. It makes a great surface to make small compound curves in sheetmetal with a plastic mallett.

[GoldCloverLeaf]

Yeah i bought a leather shot bag on ebay, about 40cm in diameter, I filled mine with granite sand, works great.

I also hear a tree stump works well, as you can carve into the top to form different concave shapes to hammer against.

[daveydog]

Yes gents, both good ideas for forming shapes in sheet metal. I've found using soft jaws in my vise and bits of wood laying about also work for smaller pieces. Even the sides of the workbench and a fence post in my back yard have seen metal bending and forming duty!

Yeah gigem, for a cheap little $100 digital camera it does have a nice macro function. I find myself doing the macro thing as well. When my regular eye glasses don't have enough magnification to them I've found myself placing another stronger pair over top of them (six eyes?) for that really BIG close up look at what I'm working on. You know, magnification upon magnification?

Cutting around and peeling back the skin shows the lip of the inner wheel well to be okay. Phew! Didn't want to start pounding out compound curves again. Just a bit of tinworm dung around the perforation:



I cleaned up the area and although I didn't take a photo, I then painted it.



Here's the new patch welded in. This little area probably took me over an hour to weld in place because the patch was so small and the heat buildup around it might warp the surrounding metal. Plus the fact that I wanted it to be flush with the outer skin so zap! with the welding gun, put it down and pick up my hammer and screwdriver to tap and adjust the next area, put them down and pick up the gun, zap!, put it back down and do the same routine over and over again. Patience is really the key to a job like this. This piece is not hidden under carpets or trim so appearance is important.



After grinding down the welds and keeping my fingers crossed it ended up looking like this. Look at the thickness of bog on the lower edge! Looks like the PO had the body shop just slather on the body filler and a quick coat of paint to cover up the rust damage:



I even managed to get the flair that surrounds the rim of the wheel well in the outer skin to taper down to flush! There's a tiny bit of a jog in the lip area that I can bend out with pliers and my trusty hammer but at least it's solid metal again. A skim coat of filler and you'll never even know there is a patch here.

[rafael]

great work.

Why didn't you weld it also to the inner metal lip?

[GoldCloverLeaf]

You should try one of these 40 grit flap discs for grinding back welds. They work about one hundred million times better than the traditional grinding wheel and this is not an exaggeration!

They finish the weld flush and smooth and take a LOT less time. Sure they cost a bit more and don’t last as long but they are the best by far. You also save more time because you will most likely not need to finish the weld with body filler when it comes time to paint.

No I do not have shares in the product… its just that much better than the other option

[PSk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldCloverLeaf You should try one of these 40 grit flap discs for grinding back welds. They work about one hundred million times better than the traditional grinding wheel and this is not an exaggeration! They finish the weld flush and smooth and take a LOT less time. Sure they cost a bit more and don’t last as long but they are the best by far. You also save more time because you will most likely not need to finish the weld with body filler when it comes time to paint. No I do not have shares in the product… its just that much better than the other option

[daveydog]

Hi rafael, You're right , I didn't weld the outer patch to the inner lip. Just to the fore and aft of the patch are the original factory welds and I figured that would be enough. It's only a small patch area.
I did find out why that area rusted in the first place. The PO (isn't this always the case) had totally covered the wheel wells with brush-on undercoating, and in doing so had created a kind of "dam" in the inner wheel well lip where the perforation occurred. All the dirt and sand that sprayed up from the tire got lodged behind this dam and the moisture worked it's way into the metal and fed our mutual enemy rusticus horribilus. We all know the end result...
I stuck my head in there, found the cause and with a screwdriver and hammer and a sharp pick, chiseled out the blockage. Then painted the whole rim where the inner and outer steel are welded together area with POR15. That seam is now closed to moisture from the outside world. The whole inner lip will now be able to send all the muck down and out from the rim without obstruction.
And thanks for the grinding tip GoldCloverLeaf. I've seen these discs in the local tool shops but have never bought one to try it out. It looks like this is a tool worth buying! I've somehow managed to develop a very light touch with my 4 1/2" disc grinder and dremel tool with a cut off disc attachment but I can see the wisdom behind the flap disc you mentioned.
I had an hour after work tonight to work on the GTV's doors. Some surface rust needs to be addressed. Pics will be forthcoming. Ciao.