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The 24 Hours of LeMons Forums → Other Random Car Stuff → Best lemony material for patching floors?
My daily driver (a 1992 Chrysler LeBaron convertible) has floors that are getting to be rather iffy. I need to do someting about it. I've tried aluminum flashing, held in place with self-tapping sheet metal screws, and it's just not holding (rips too easily). The standard answer, I know, is repurposed road signs, but I'd prefer something slightly more legal.
Thoughts?
Legal? Can't help you there.
We patched up the floors in our lemon using heavy steel landscaping "things" that were left over at a team members house when he bought it. They were about 4ft long, 6in high and sorta interlocked with steel stakes. We had a pile of them. Fixed the floors for better seat mounts using a couple of those cut to fit and welded up.
We used fiberglass to fix ours.
I've patched holes in our lemon with soda cans....
Ohh wait you said good ideas...
My pops had this huge roll of fiber cloth and a can of Por-15 he used on a classic mini he rebuilt years back to do the same thing.
He cuts out some of the fiber cloth to cover the area and as much around it as desired.
He then paints a coat or 2 of it with some Por-15 and it turns really hard, takes a few days to set though. Once it is set dry you can cover it back up with carpet or floor mats.
http://www.por15.com/whatispor15.asp is a rust converter, and prevent. BUT DO NOT GET IT ON ANYTHING!! It will not come off your skin easily if at all, or your driveway. He still has a few patches on his concrete. So cover the ground bellow with cardboard or something, it will drip trough tiny holes in your floor pan, but will not get through 2 layers of cardboard.
We did this in the Spitfire and it worked very well.
Edit - Use a Fiber Glass cloth or Carbon fiber cloth.
I made replacement floor pans for a '66 Pontiac using the sides from a big rack mount cabinet. It was nice heavy steel that wasn't too thick so I could still pound it into shapes. Alternatively any metal thing can be a donor for sheets, think used washer or dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, fireplace, anything made of metal that's not worth using any more.
For that matter, if you have a parts car you can cut holes in the roof or hood or trunk to make patch panels. If you don't have a parts car try a junkyard; maybe they'll sell you a panel that's dented for just a bit over scrap value.
Oh, and self tapping sheet metal screws SUCK because then when you get under it to work on something else you gouge the shit out of your hands. Rivets barely cost more and aren't that much harder to put in. Just don't use aluminum rivets to put steel together as it will corrode right quick. Use steel or stainless steel rivets.
(Or, use sheet metal screws and be careful when you're back under there... that's actually what I did. ;-)
Rivets and old License plates have patched a lot of holes over the years, but NO PARKING signs work the best!
Bacon & fiberglass. Do it.
Undercar snacks? Doug you are a genius. Now I won't feel bad about leaving a team member under there for hours at a time. There is bacon to be had...
the high tensile roadsign stuff works best - doug - throw up a photo from our FB of our new \
floors, if you would!
Your old lady's cookie sheets
Fiberglass resin and newspaper.
The dent, ding, and minor bodywork guy who did work for the dealership I used to work at recommended this for repairing the rust on the bottom of the doors on a '51 Chevy I used to own. "Smooth it and paint it and nobody will know you ever repaired it."
washer and dryer sheet steel. Rather large and flat. You can weld it too.
Where is JThw8? The answer is file cabinets.
Bacon & fiberglass. Do it.
This!!!
I save the sheetmetal cut from the roof/hood of cars I scrap for just such a purpose. I'll be putting pink '61 Caddy hood on the floor of a 1960 Peugeot this weekend. 
If there's a restaurant supply store, you can get huge industrial cookie sheets. They also work for drip pans, and you can get bread pans for cheap to hold loose nuts and bolts in. The used stuff is dirt cheap, and appropriately lemony.
I used the casing of an old house furnace to replace the quarter panel on my Ford. It even has the pilot lighting instructions on the inside.
spray-foam under Masonite, put something really heavy on it while it cures... paint the top-sides
Where is JThw8? The answer is file cabinets.
Yes it is, but that was Eric that built the file cabinet Spitfire.
Oh, and self tapping sheet metal screws SUCK because then when you get under it to work on something else you gouge the shit out of your hands. Rivets barely cost more and aren't that much harder to put in. Just don't use aluminum rivets to put steel together as it will corrode right quick. Use steel or stainless steel rivets.
(Or, use sheet metal screws and be careful when you're back under there... that's actually what I did. ;-)
Good call. I'd for some reason avoided rivets up to this point because I assumed that the tools involved would be expensive. Boy was I wrong.
The 24 Hours of LeMons Forums → Other Random Car Stuff → Best lemony material for patching floors?