I know it's been awhile but I've been pretty busy what with school & all. Anywho, I just had a couple real quick questions. I priced a couple of places to put a complete new floor pan for me & they were all around $1500 (that's not counting the cost of the pan). Now, I don't know if that's a good price or not, but I do know it's out of my price range for now. I had someone give me a couple of ideas though on what I could do for now just to get it goin'. The suggestions were:
1: Sand off & cut out the rust spots & the put the woven fiberglass on the spots.
2: I had the idea of maybe going to a body shop & seeing if they had any scrap metal from a floor pan that I could have that I could just cut out my rust spots & then weld it in.
I know that option 2 in the long run would be better & probably cheaper if I can get the scraps for free. But, if I can't, then is fiberglass okay to use? Would it last for around 6-8 months? I don't have that many or that big of rust spots, & I aam going to try to get pics if the inside either this evening or tomorrow morning so you guys can see what I have. If any of you have any better suggestions I am all ears.

 

I would clean off the floorpans, figure out what you *need* to repair and buy some patch panels from one of the many Mustang part places. I know NDP sells pans for each side for the front 1/3, the front 2/3, the back 1/3 and full length. Just buy the smallest pan to cover the spots you need to repair, cut out the patches and weld them in. Although if it were me I would just buy the full length pan for each side. Either way you're going to spend less than $60 per side, which is more than worth it considering the hassles you'd have trying to weld scrap metal in.

 

Ya, don't use Fiberglass for a floor pan. Can you say Flinstones?

 

What I did was go to a "you-pull-it" yard and found a rust free pan. (they are easier to find down here) I cut the thing out myself and they charged me $35. Guess no one has done that before cuz they diidn't know what it was, I had to explain it to them. (the look on their faces was....priceless) So, I replaced the whole pan in a weekend for less than $50.

The car gets a lot of its strength from the floor pan...so, not a real good place to be taking short cuts. My car used to twist as it lifted when I hit the gas due to all the patchwork in the floors. Now, when I hit the gas, the front lifts pretty evenly.

 

Remember too that your cowl is probably bad. Any money you put into the floors is a waste IMO until you fix the cowl.

 

Could someone please post me a pic showing where the cowl is & what it looks like. Sorry if I sound really dumb, but I am not sure what you are talking about. Thanks in advance, Quin

 

Guess what! I just talked to my brother & he said that I could bring my car down there for him & his father-in-law to work on. All I have to do is supply the parts & they will put them on for me! They have experience in bodywork so, I'm not worried that they will mess it up...lol. They even have a guy that they know that will primer & paint the whole thing for me when they're done. They said that they didn't want any money for doing it but they did suggest maybe some beer money...lol. So I think I can work something out...lol. I am going to keep the engine with me so I can at least have something to work on...lol. Also, it will make he car lighter to haul (Austin, Tx). I am pulling the engine out this week (hopefully) & will post pics. I know I was supposed to post pics of the inside but my internet went down & won't be fixed until Friday (go figure...lol). Anywho, needless to say, I am estatic right now!!

 

That thing hes lifting up is the cowl vent panel, and the cowl is under that.


PS: Check out those sweet mutton chops.

 

The cowl is the part just in front of the windshield that has the slots for the fresh air intake for the passenger compartment. There is the part you see on the outside of the car and also another part underneath the outside part. The hidden part, or bottom of the cowl assembly, rusts out and the water gets in and runs into the passenger compartment. It then soaks the carpet and rusts out the floor boards. To replace it you drill out the spot welds holding the upper cowl and remove it (requires windshield removal). Then you remove the lower part and replace with a reproduction part that is available for most of the suppliers of mustang restoration parts. Replace the upper cowl and that fixes the cowl. It is a pretty big job, but as with most things, if you take your time, think it through and get help if you need it and it can be done.

As for your floors. Do it right the first time and be done with it. Fiberglass won't work . Cutting small patches and welding them in is better, but in the end, if your floors are as rusted as you describe, you will eventually be replacing the whole floor. In the long run you would be better off just doing this from the start. You can get a full length floor pan for $65 each side. Scrape up the money and do it right the first time. Be sure to look underneath at the front frame rail extensions too and see how they look. They are probably shot too.

 

this man actually looks like he's having fun doing that ?!