MGB: My mortal enemy: ferrous oxide

Well, I decided this was the weekend to pull the carpet in my Magnette. The fist sized hole in the driver's floor that I intended to patch turned out to be a little bigger than expected. Once I uncovered all the fiberglass tape, I opened a real can of worms. Under the tape was a stack of miscellanious pieces of door panel scrap, to replicate the shape of the raised sheet metal filler panel under the driver's heels. Good stuff! Once all that was scraped out of the way, I started investigating with a screwdriver (stabbing through the rusty metal) until the picture below resulted. You can't see all th eholes since is a two-ply construction in some areas. There's a white towel on the floor to highlight the holes. I'm hoping to have a new floor made up and installed by the end of the wekend. We'll see how that goes...

Ouch. I'm going to go throught that soon as well. Not looking forward to it.

That's better than my ZBV was. No floors, just a couple of pieces of plywood. The seat rails were screwed to chunks of 4x4 that were screwed to the plywood. That was fun.

The biggest problem was the floor was gone enough that we had to replace the area where the control rod bracket bolted.

Ouch!!! So I'v emade a bit of prgress - I got a good hour to play with it so far. Now comes the BIG question:

Is it acceptible to weld in a flat 18 gauge floor for a replacement, or do I have to use 20 gauge and roll the original beads into it? I can replicate the original floor pans, but my bead roller is sort of crappy. It'll leaves warps in the flat areas between the beads. Some times it does more damage than good. I'm thinking that flat might be stronger in this case, but does that make me a DPO??? Or DCO??? Tomorrow (Saturday) will be welding day.

Forgot to post my progress. The remainding floor is stick THICK!

I don't think that's really all that bad. These things seem prone to floor rot, mine is probably much worse under that galv. sheet metal screwed in place (haven't got it up in the air to inspect it yet). you'll get it fixed right up I'm sure.
Here's what's left of my trunk floor (after it got caught on the trailer backing it off)

Sorry wrong pic That's mine after I ran the buffer over it real quickly, oop's
Here it is.

I have done floors in a Magnette once. That's why I bought a California car this time around. (Although I am now finding it will be sill time soon)
If you have the option it would probably be a good idea to roll the ribs into the floor. It will make them more rigid, cut down on vibration and make the car look more original.

Enjoy!

Rich

Thanks Rich. I know you're right.
I was just looking for the faster way out. :(
I'll have to go buy more metal in the morning! It gonna take a couple tries to get it right!!! The biggest issue is the offset in the crossmember to compensate for the changing floor pan depth. I plan to heavily sound deaden it all before the carpet goes in. Partially in preparation for the future AC system.

with that floor you dont need A/C

If you are planning on fabricating a new trunk floor, remember to widen the wheel well to accept a wider modern tire. My wheel dimension is 8 1/8" wide, and the 165 r 15 spare now fits.

Jeff, we used plain 'ol flat and I think it was at least 18ga. It's pretty solid, heavier than the floor that was in there.

Well, it turns out I have enough 18 ga to do the job. I got my bead roller back in action, but its not quite deep enough to do the entire job. It may take some creative switching of the rollers to pull this job off. I have everything marked out as well as possible and ready to go in the morning.


Cliff, this is the only rust in the entire floors of the car. The trunk is very solid, except for the spare tire bottom. I'd widen the wheel wells, but they just don't need replacing!!!

Stu, It'd still get too hot in this car even with the floor like that!!! Might feel a LOT better though.... :D

Here's a 1 hour (of actual labor time) update. I have to admit - this is the first time I've used my bead roller for its intended purpose, although I use it almost daily! Not perfect, but most folks will never know the difference!

My guess is that brake fluid leaking down the floor was the cause of this mess. It was a bit oily with no paint or undercoating left. The other side is much cleaner (no potential holes).

That looks great Jeff! Once again you are showing that you are a talented guy or at least a Jack of All Trades!
I would think that the rust on the drivers side is more likely the result of wet shoes going in and out and the felt backed carpets staying wet. Could be that the car seldom had passengers, keeping the carpets on that side dry.

Rich

Maybe a combination of both? There's definitely brake fluid in here. Water too. I need to figure out where the water's leaking in. I saw some dripping into the passenger side of the parcel shelf last time I drove in the rain. Hmm...


Back to welding...

Ok, last post.
The welding's done.
The toe board is fab'd and installed. Or is it a heel board??? The 1" riser panel for your heels.
This pic is pre-paint, but its already seam sealed and painted.
So much for a 1 hour patch job... 7 hours down including cleaning up my mess. Yikes!!!

Ok Jeff after seeing that rust I forgive you now for bringing the Escape to MG2008 - nice work on the floors!

Jeff,
Great work there! Isn't it great to have a nice sound piece in place of that rot?!

Is it a Pexto roller you have? Whatever it is, you used it well. Inspirational, truly.
Mark

That is really nice work and an inspiration. Just not quite enough inspiration to go out in the hot garage after a day's work in a church steeple and work on tuning the ZB.

Looks great.

Thanks guys! Its actually a Harbor Freight Chinese bead roller - one I bought on sale for $50 a LONG time ago. I wish I had a Pexto!!! Unfortunately I can't justify spending 25 times as much for a premium tool in this case! I guess the 10 years I spent in an HVAC shop paid off? LOTS of fab time, but usually just square crap. I almost miss that work. Almost. Ok, not really.


I had NO idea the floor was that bad in the first place. I knew it wasn't right though! After I figured out the LF seat pedestal had broken clean through one of the legs, it started to make sense why I never felt "secured" in my seat. Now that its fixed, I've just ordered sound deadening and my carpet is tentatively ordered - just waiting on a call for how many yards to ship.

Ed, had I driven this car to MG2008, I have no reason to believe the seat would have come loose or gone Fred Flinstone on me, but man am I glad to have it fixed after seeing how much rot was really there!!! And this was a Southern Cali car!!!

Peeled the carpet up in mine and the driver's side floor is a replacement. Also, the trunk floor is same. Both are flat pieces, and the trunk floor has no spare tire well.

Looks like I should get a bead roller...
Mark

This is the one I bought during a half price sale a number of years ago. The total cost was $50 back then:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=34104

Don't buy the optional guide fence for it. You won't need a straight edge anyway - it just gets in the way!!!

Hi Jeff,

Nice work! Looks like you won't be in risk of falling though the floor now. Two places that can leak: First is there are two large rubber drain tubes, they attach to short metal tubes/nipples, one on each corner, up behind the dash, that catch the water from the heater/fresh air distribution box. The rubber drain tubes channel the water back out through the firewall and down along the sides of the engine compartment. It there rusting in the air box water can leak into the passenger compartment as well. The other thing can leak is the windshield gasket. Hope this is of help. Regards, Ed

I already checked out the obvious issues - the hoses are good (and not plugged) and the box is clean as a whistle. There's no gasket around the fresh air vent opengine htough. Hmmm... I assume there should be. The windshield gasket was replaced a LONG time ago, but its still soft and not in too bad of condition. I just recently installed the missing washer nozzles. I also found several other holes in the firewall which were wide open. After getting those sealed up, I'll roll the car back into the driveway and have the wife give it a good soaking while I climb in with a flashlight. Hopefully she won't open a door during the process for a good laugh. That's her style.

Jeff, I did a little looking at my car because the dash is out right now. I also noticed there are two smaller drain tubes next to the outermost points of the demister vents. There are small wells or depressions where the demisters mount under the wood dash and these both have small metal tubes at the ends. There's a small rubber tube on each that makes a quick right angle and disappears through the side and into the box area of front fender right in front of the door. I'm not sure what these drains are for. I'm sure its a good idea to make sure these are not clogged (and connected!0. Ed