Holy Rusted Metal Batman!

[FunkyTechMonkey]

Hey Guys, Brand new here and loving it already.

My son was giving his granddad's old Shriners parade buggy they used to drive in Mardi Gras parades. The past couple of weeks we've been tearing it down so we can address any issues with it. To my surprise the floor pans are not in bad shape, rust wise. There is defiantly surface rust but no holes caused by rust.....but holy crap look at all these holes. They are all these perfectly drilled holes where they had a bunch of electronics or whatever it was mounted under the seats. They also cut out a notch on the outside of the pan so they could mount the side bar.

Should the pans be replaced? or should I just spot weld/patch and move on?

[Glenn]

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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

[viiking]

They weren't drilled. Them's good ol' rust holes.

Also notching out the floor pan for the side bars seriously weakens the structure of the pan and should not be repeated when you replace the floor pans.
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1968 1500 RHD Lotus White Beetle since birth. In the hospital for major surgery
1966 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina Coupe - in the waiting room
Discharged: 1983 Vanagon, 1974 1800 Microbus,1968 Low Light,1968 Type 3

[oprn]

Rust holes seldom come out consistently round. I expect most of those were drilled for some purpose or another.

As for holes in the floor pan on an open Buggy... I consider it a good thing as long as the surrounding metal is still reasonably sound. It's called drainage. The floor pans on my street Buggy do indeed have a few rust holes that are normally covers by removable rubber floor mats.

The advantage is that when caught in a rain storm you don't end up sitting in a swimming pool. The water just runs out because the holes are already in the low spots. After the rain stops, just lift out the floor mats and in a half hour all is dry and good. No mopping up, no worry about wet corners and edges, nothing.

I met a fellow next town over that has 2 Buggies he built years ago. He purposely cut slots about 1.5" long in his pans and pounded the leading edge down to make floor drains. Now 35 or more years later the floor pans on both cars are still pretty solid because water has never sat in them.

If I were to put new pans in my Buggy I would do the same.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[lqqkatjon]

what kind of time and money do you want to spend?

proper way would be to replace the pans....

but, if you look up Por15 products. you can fill those holes with Por15 paste and their fiberglass mesh products.