Cargo floor rust holes

[licketysplit]

Hey all,
Need a little advice for a newbie doing my first bus project. Starting on the cargo floor. Typical rust on the sides of the floor and at the base of the bulkhead on both sides. Otherwise floor seems pretty solid. So I purchased both 11" cargo floor side sections from KFAB. When I started grinding the rear portion I came across some more rust holes. They don't make this section for replacement, so wondering what my options are to fix this area. I really don't want to replace this whole rear portion of the floor, or the whole floor itself, and not doing a show quality restoration. Just want it to be safe with no holes.

Can I just do small patches made from floor pieces I cut out?
Should I actually replace the rear section?
Can I just weld these holes up?
Combination of welding and POR15 putty?
Anyways, thanks for having a look.

[theKbStockpiler]

Use as much as the repair panel sections as much as you can obviously. If you use a Automatic Center Punch to remove the scale ,it will either knock off the scale or put a hole through the places that need attention. It will be much better to clean up both sides by either blasting or using a wire brush on a rotary tool and cleaning it up with acid.

If the area is difficult to replicate and is really thin ,you can use the method for butt welding sheet metal with a big gap to give it some strength. A copper spoon underneath should help but I have not used that method yet. I would lead or solder up whatever remains.
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[licketysplit]

Thanks for the response Kb

Yes, I am using a wire wheel on an angle grinder, and I do plan to use acid after that before POR15
Forgive me if I dont fully understand what you're saying due to my lack of experience, but are you suggesting that I make small patches for the floor and weld them in place?

How does the lead or soldering work for filling holes?

[theKbStockpiler]

I'm assuming that the corrugated floor patch panels are the same as factory so you just have to cut out a bad section and weld in the new piece.

led or solder is used much the same way as body filler but should not be used for a structural part of a vehicle.

If you don't plan on using the factory seats or mounts cut them out and replace them with a regular floor section.

Do you want to keep the seat mounts? The issue with that is vw sunk that area down , so the floor would be mostly flat with the seats removed. If you ever want to use seats in the bus and keep the floor flat you will have to mimic that area as closely as is necessary for the seats to both reach the mount and for the mounts to be below the surface of the floor. It should not be real hard to shrink part of a corrugated section down with map gas and a hammer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-BUS-FLOOR-SEAT-MOUNT-B...2115837980
_________________
My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[Eric&Barb]

Could be you can just replace sections in the back. Problem is we can not see if the rust was from the top only, or also the underside is rusted up badly.

Might try putting up a WTB ad, just in case someone had all the rust up front, So they might have the rear half new section collecting dust....
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[licketysplit]

Thanks Eric,
I’ll do some grinding underneath and take pics and post them here, and post the cargo floor rear section in WTB.

Appreciate the help!

[spacebiscuit]

I cleaned my cargo floor and started out with a wrirebrush on my drill. I later switched to sanding discs on the grinder, I found it sped up the process significantly.
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1972 Type 2 1600cc
1990 MKII Golf 1.6 CL

[Eric&Barb]

Just be careful with the sanding discs. Pretty easy to just grind down metal till too thin to work with. Phosphoric will leave more of the metal.
_________________
In Stereo, Where Available!

[theKbStockpiler]

The coarse wire brushes for grinders work well if you press moderately hard with them. HF has them for like $10 a set and they hold up good.
_________________
My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.