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Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:51 am

Hey all. I was wondering if you could help me out. I am building a Baja and have been working on prepping the pan. Along they way I found some rust and would like to know what method I should use for repair. Something like All Metal, brush it over with POR15 and hope it fills, cut out the area and replace, fill in with weld etc.. I have limited knowledge and a small amount of fab skills, but with the internet and this not being a show car, any type of repair should be possible.

As you can see there is some surface rust that when grinding away shows pitting, but still seems structurally strong enough as I can stand and move around without going through.

This is the type of stuff I am finding on more affected areas. When using a pin its not hard to find the little holes all over the area. I realize this is not very much, but when searching the forums all it shows is people repairing areas, not "with this type of damage do this and with this much damage do that".

If you think I should post full pan pics to see if the rest is good enough or the whole thing should be replaced let me know. Thanks all.

Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:37 am

Full pan pictures sure will help in making an assessment of what you got.

From these pictures, the rust isn't "that" bad. But I'm in the rust belt. Some folks on the left coast might deem that "beyond repair". :lol:

As you have "limited knowledge and a small amount of fab skills,,, and this not being a show car," here's what I'd do.

First, I'd wire wheel, wire brush the heck out of it; removing as much rust as I could. For those holes, I'd weld/solder/fill them however I could. (This thread could help with that: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629233&highlight=luggage+tray
Then spray w/ Rusto, or other brand rust converter, then paint.
That's if what you show is the bulk of it. If there is more, let's see.

Fri Oct 30, 2015 3:48 pm

Ya got the body off already . . . you've got the hardest part of full floor pan replacement done!
At this point, it will take probably just as much work to treat what you have VS. installing new floors.

If money is a concern . . . Freshly painted rust will save ya only a FEW dollars over nice-new pans.

Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:24 pm

haha, thanks. The body off wasn't an issue as it was already cut for baja, the wiring almost non existent. So it was really just unbolting the pan bolts and a buddy and me walking the body off. Body rust is beyond what I want to try and tackle so I picked up a much cleaner, non cut one for $100.

New pans aren't that much, but the "not much" tends to add up if you keep adding on.

Here is the rest of the floor pics. Looking at it like this it doesn't look so bad. The PO's did replace the rear passenger quarter already, IE the battery area.

I'm in CA so new rust isn't a big issue. Away from the coast enough to not worry either.

Don't know what the PO did there. Cut it, pulled it back, fiddled with the inside, then just pushed the metal back into place. Ahh the things you find.

Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:51 pm

Personally I'd be dressing it right back and finding a friend who can weld, if you can't. Get them to use the copper pipe method for small holes. Although if there are several small holes in an area you would want to cut a patch out and ask your friend very nicely to patch some fresh metal back in. :)

ps, if LOADS of holes all over, it's new pans time

Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:58 pm

The heavily pitted areas should be replaced with patch panels but would not offer a benefit over replacing the whole floor pan half.

Edit: The patches previously made worked well for the last job but that was then. Now the whole pan should be replaced.

Fri Oct 30, 2015 8:53 pm

www.masterseriesct.com silver & black does a pretty good job of filling pits & protecting from future rust on pans etc. Much better than POR15.

Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:01 am

If your baja is going to be a toy you may beat up on, or take off road and have fun with, id just weld those hole shut and move on. Maybe even just duraglass them. If its going to be any sort of show car or something your going to keep for 50 years, then replace the pans. As was said, you already have the body off.

Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:49 pm

Thanks for the advice all. I picked up a copper bar and will try my luck at filling in the holes and see if it's not too thin to do that. There are a bunch of other various size screw holes as well so those will need filling in also. After I get them filled in I'll look into that MasterSeries Ct to finish it off.

As Buguy stated this is just a driver to go have fun in the dirt with, but road capable. Never a show car.

Sun Nov 01, 2015 10:56 am

If there are a bunch of those pinholes, I think I would just get a quart of some fiberglass reinforced body filler and fill em with that. It will save you 100 hours of welding and grinding. I like Evercoat Duraglas. Its strong and waterproof. If you have some bigger holes to fill, just put some tape behind it first before you spread it. Also give it about 2 minutes to dry, then sand it with some 36 grit to get it close. It will save you time. You want to sand it before its fully cured, but not so soon it starts to peel. This stuff is tough to sand, so dont just slop it on.