engine and drivetrain Frame Rail And Floor Pan Reconstruction Help!

[CeeP]

Hi folks,

 

New 1973 '02 owner here and I bought a basket case.  I'm hoping someone who's done a restoration can help me out and answer a few questions I've got after a more thorough inspection of the rust on this car.  

 

The problem areas - the front floor pans are rusted through near the pedal box on the driver's side and near the firewall on the passenger side.  The driver's side frame rail, where it starts to angle up towards the engine bay, is also rusty.  The back end of the passenger side frame rail has pushed through the floor, probably from when I jacked the car up.  

 

I've already ordered some floor pans from W&N, but the more I look at this, the more I'm not sure how I'm going to fix this.  Questions:

 

1)  Driver's side floor pan - If I cut out the floor pan, I'd like to not cut out the section of frame rail that's attached to the floor pan, but how can I separate them?  I don't see a big bead holding the two together - is it just spot welded?  Or am I doomed to just cut everything out that's attached to the floor pan?  Similarly, the rail is attached to the wheel well - can this be separated? 

 

2)  Driver's side frame rail - Any advice on fixing this?  I thought I'd farm this out, but seeing how much it's coupled to the floor pan, I'm not sure if I can do one without doing the other.  It'd be nice if I could just weld in a new rail, but short of that, I was thinking maybe just cutting out the rusty part and welding in a new section.  Again, this depends on if I can separate the pan from the rail.  

 

As far as the passenger side, I figure whatever applies to the driver's side should apply over there too.  As far as the rail poking up, maybe just hammer it down and weld that chunk of the floor back together.  

 

Go easy on me - I overpaid for this car, but I was looking for something to learn on.  I think the first lesson I've learned is wait for a nicer car.  

 

Edited June 21, 2013 by CeeP

[Honolulu]

I will gently suggest it may be best to cut your losses, part the car, then get a runner that is worth fixing rather than going seriously underwater with this one.

[CeeP]

Heh, I was expecting that, but here's the rub - I want to learn to do this stuff, I'm just not sure where to start.  I don't mind sinking a bit of money into this as it's more for the experience than anything else.  I could change my mind not too far in the future .  

[scanner]

Floorpans are attached to framerails with spot welds, looking from inside the car you should see 2 lines of spotwelds for each framerail, attack these with a spotweld drill or angle grinder to seperate. Your framerails dont look good, lots of work involved there. You will learn heaps but it may be uneconomic to repair. Good luck and have fun!

[jerry]

you have the right attitude for this job.  if you are patient, handy with tools and not afraid to make mistakes, go for it.  i have been quietly rebuilding an 02 that any reasonable person would have scrapped.  from your photos, it was worse than yours.  i bought this car and sat on it for 3 years before i finally got the courage to work on it.  in the meantime, i spent a summer cutting and drilling sections from 2 scrap cars which really taught me a great deal and eased my fears.  get yourself a firm spatula and comfortable hammer.  i really liked a stubby 2lb small sledgehammer i have.  i found that spotweld cutters were virtually useless.  the tips break and you are limited by accessibility.  many times you can't get a drill square to the surface.  i bought a dozen each Cobalt drill bits, 3/16 and 3/8 in.  use the smaller bit for a pilot hole and follow up with the larger bit.  in time, you'll learn when to stop on the 3/8 bit so you don't penetrate through the 2nd layer.  spotwelds typically make a small depression.  i use a felt marker to highlight them.  you'll invariably miss a couple, but no biggie.  use the spatula to pry the seam apart. 

 

the framerail is spotwelded to the bottom of the inner fender.  wire wheel the rubber texture off and you'll see the depressions.  on the floor it is a combination of spotwelds and a couple weld beads visible from the underside.  i had to replace mine, but unless yours is completely disintegrated (as mine was), you can do a pretty good patch job.  take the time to do butt-welds, avoid lap-welds on patches unless you are replacing a factory lapweld. 

 

i was fortunate to salvage a bunch of shelving from my workplace which was a perfect match for patches.  practice, does make perfect.  good luck.  post photos when you come across specific problems.  where are you located?

[CeeP]

Thanks for the advice, guys.  I'll go see if I can't locate the spot welds this weekend.  Starting this whole project has been a mix of excitement and dread.  

 

Jerry - I'm in the SF bay area, in the south bay.  From the forums, it seems like there's quite a few 2002 owners around these parts though I haven't seen too many 2002s around.  

 

Thanks again!  

[BeMyWay]

Heh, I was expecting that, but here's the rub - I want to learn to do this stuff, I'm just not sure where to start.  I don't mind sinking a bit of money into this as it's more for the experience than anything else.  I could change my mind not too far in the future .  

 

CeeP

 

What happen...where are you?