Floor pan repair or replace.

[extremebuggy]

As you can see more floor pans have a few rust holes. Not as bad as some other floor pans I have seen, but nonetheless a solution is warranted. Any thoughts on a repair to get me by for a while. This is for a fiberglass buggy and plan on carpeting the floor, looks should not matter much. What about JB Weld or something? Any ideas? Or should I just cut it all out and weld in new pans?

[jspbtown]

You will be bolting seats to them right?

[extremebuggy]

[Q-Dog]

I would consider a rear quarter pan and fab a couple of patches for the front.

https://www.mtmfg.com/vw/149/FLOOR-PANS-FLOOR-PAN-PARTS
_________________
Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[joemama]

A pretty easy, old school fix, that works, would be to wire brush with a grinder, use rust converter, brush laminating resin over the area, and apply fiberglass matting, not cloth. You can apply a couple of layers, with a couple of coats of resin. When the matting is wet,, you can use a brush to stipple it into shape.. This used to be a pretty acceptable fix. I did this on several cars over the years. Not just junk cars. Makes a rust proof seal.

[oprn]

Mine is a bit like that but not nearly that bad. For the present it stays that way because if caught out in the rain it drains. I also am sticking with rubber mats for the same reason. They can be easily pulled out and hung on the fence to dry.

Another fellow showed me what he did for pan drainage. He cut four 2" slots perpendicular to the shift tunnel at the lowest points in the floor pan. Then he beat the front edge down 3/8" to create rear facing louvers for drainage.

A wet pan will be a rusty pan!
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[joemama]

Yeah. I'm not big on carpet, just something to hold water and dirt. A good layer of bedliner, and maybe rubber mats is perfect for a buggy that sees some trails. If street only, maybe. First buggy my buddy and I built, we went to great lengths to make it waterproof/sealed. We towed it to Florence, Oregon, and then the last day there, and on the way home, it rained nonstop. We stopped at a garage, and borrowed a drill to make drain holes. You could actually feel the rain sloshing around in the pan.

[extremebuggy]

[oprn]

Standard body filler has very little strength. It is only intended to fill imperfections. In larger amounts and thicknesses it will crack, leak water and eventually fall off.

The same is true for patching rust with fiberglass cloth or mat. While it is structurally stronger and doesn't crack it has a different expansion rate than steel so eventually it too will delaminate from the base metal, leak moisture and fail.

Both are temporary repairs with the fiberglass being the longest lasting of the two.
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[sailtexas186548]

Wire wheel, rust converter, wire wheel again, paint (or not depends o. The seam sealer u buy), 3m seam sealer, overcoat with more paint or Bedliner.

Otherwise I would do the full pan. That existing pan is so thin welded in a patch is gonna be more work than the whole pan
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it's more fun loud and dirty

[joemama]

I mentioned fiberglass because it will add structural integrity, specially if you go a couple of inches beyond the bad area. It is temporary. Eventually the edges will lift up and allow water to get in. Using a rust converter first will help seal against moisture.

[extremebuggy]

Yea I agree this would only be a temporary fix. Once I get everything else working well, I will likely jerk the body back off and do a full pan replacement. Thanks for all the great advice!

[extremebuggy]

[MrGoodtunes]

[EVfun]

I would start with a good cleaning up of old paint and rust so you can see what you are working with. From there you can choose what to do. If none of the holes are very large, and the floor is solid enough that there is no concern about falling through, you could just repaint them. You could just do some spot repairs as required before painting them if needed. It's a beach buggy, everything doesn't have to be like new! If you find that you mostly have rust held together with paint (like the old MV Quinault ferry ) then you will have to rebuild or replace them.
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[Q-Dog]

I would get a rear quarter patch panel and chop it up to patch the rear battery area. Use the leftovers to patch the worst of the front damage.

The area around the foot pedals looks bad but you will never put any weight there so it isn't structurally unsafe. But, someone could stand up on the rear floors so I would fix that.
_________________
Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle