This came to my attention as I drove to or from work(can't remember which) on a rainy day. It made itself plain when I pushed on the brake pedal, heel on the floor, and my heel went through the floor with a bit of a crunching sound. Highly disturbing, I assure you. Especially when I looked down and saw a hole, and wet pavement. Let's say that, combined with other worries, the word 'despair' comes to mind.
It stayed rainy for a day or two, so all I could do was bend a piece of sheet metal to rough shape and put it under the rubber matting.
Once it dried out enough I found that a whole section of the floorboard was rusted out, right under the pedals. The proper repair would be to cut out the rusted section, weld in new metal and coat it. No welder, knew nobody with one, no money to pay for repairs. So I cut and scraped out all I could of the damage, coated the edges and surrounding area with- y'know, I can't remember what? May have been roofing tar- and then shaped that piece of galvanized sheet steel to fit pretty well and used more of the sealant to lock it into place and- hopefully- prevent water from getting inside.
That patch held nicely for the next couple of years, at which time the Courier went away. Short version: was at a point where the cost of getting another- newer- vehicle was much better than trying to keep it running, especially with parts availability being what it was.
Amazing the repairs that come to mind when have to think of something
4 comments:
My dad had a Courier that rusted out a good bit of the driver side floor pan. He knew someone that was about to have a Courier a couple of years newer hauled to the scrap yard. We cut out the rusted area and then cut out the floor pan of the "good" one slightly larger. Some "marine" adhesive/sealant and a couple of rivets for overkill and after putting the floor mats back in you couldn't tell it wasn't stock.
Welding is "nice" but sometimes it just isn't necessary.
I wish I'd known of/thought of that stuff for the fix.
'Course, I had the bucket of other stuff already, so...
My second car was an MGB with a similar floor pan problem. One day I looked up to see a line of cars stopped on the highway on ramp so in order not to hit anybody I elected to go offroad into the bar ditch which was full of water. I guess I somewhat compressed the water because it sent a wave of water through the rotted area that coated the entire inside of my car. And me. Next day, sheet metal and roofing tar.
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