Floor Pan ? Repair or Replace

[Spdfrk]

I am in the process of replacing the rocker panels in the 77 resto. We have found that the edges where the rocker panel meets the floor pan has a good bit of rust right through. It does not extend furter than an inch inward but it does cover the whole edge from front to back. Its the same for both the left and right sides. The rest of the floor pan is rust free and just needs to sand and repaint. My question is.. do I replace the whole floor pan or can I use a repair kit that I found from zip corvette parts. It consists of rust remover, paint, epoxy and fiberglass and costs about $120 versus about $200 each for a new pan. Any thoughts??

 

[The73vetteman]

You get rust in the West Indies?

Ok let me make a couple of more serious points:

1. depends on how important it is to be in original prize winning shape. Fiberglass tends not to win prizes. Well only if it's in the places GM intended it to be.

2. my experience of rust (and I'm from England where we know a thing or two about rusty cars) is that if it's there it will come back, no matter how well you think you've prepped the surface.

3. $120 and you'll be doing the job again in a year or two vs $200 and it'll be good for 5 years plus? No contest, I'd say. But then I have a 73 and they dont have floor pans.

Hope this has been some help.

'73

 

[69MyWay]

I think it would be great if you could find a fiberglass floor from an older one and bond it in there.

Otherwise, you have to patch, fill, weld, grind, and pretty much do all you can do.

Then, coat it in POR15 and maybe top that off with truck bed liner spray and let it ride.

 

[Spdfrk]

I was actually thinking of making the whole floor out of fiberglass. The previous owner replaced the forward floor pans, where you would put your feet, with fiberglass and did a good job with it. But I have never seen how the older fiberglass floors were made or where, if any, the supports were placed. We are having the new rocker panels put in soon and so we might just do the whole floor fiberglass and be done with it. I will let you know what we do. Plenty of pics too.

Thanks for the replys.

If it can rust and you bring it here IT WILL RUST!!! Without proper care of course.

 

[eoseitz]

Does anyone know if a '74 stingray has a fiberglass floor? I just bought one and after I got it home noticed the back of the drivers seat isn't bolted down and there is a wood block under it. I'm praying my floor pan isn't rusted out and they rigged it up.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

'74s have a fibreglass floor. The metal floors came out in later years to deal with heat from the catalytic perverters.

Taking the seat ass'y out is easy enough to do to find out why bubba put a 2x4 there.

 

[6880 Mike]

...we might just do the whole floor fiberglass and be done with it....

Use your existing floor as a mold, then lay up the fiberglass for your new floors. Biggest part of the job will be transferring all the various brackets, mounting points, reinforcements, and hardware from the original pans to your new fiberglass panel.

BIG job.

Good luck.