I need to address this huge hole in the floor of my 69 vert which lets in a tremendous amount of heat from the engine compartment as well as odors. Attached is a photo with the carpet pulled back to show extent of opening.

I plan to redo the whole floor, carpet, interior and convertible top at the end of the summer when the $$$ rolls in, but in the meantime, is there any quick fix so I can enjoy the summer driving season without my feet being scalded?

That's a wee bit dangerous, structurally as well as a heat and exhaust leaking issue. I would consider the car NOT to be roadworthy.

Get just a new patch panel and rivet and seal it for now.

By patch panel, do you mean the regular driver pan? Or is their some other patch panel? And what do you seal with?

You'll need a whole LH patch panel. It runs up the tunnel. That does not look real safe to reiterate what's been said. I would check the frame mounts in the area, and make sure the seat pan is secure as well.

This is the view looking backwards. Also, does anyone have a link to the "whole LH patch panel mentioned" above?

sheet metal....cut and screw in place temporarily...caulk the seams.

Here's a link to the NPD catalog. Look under body and sheet metal for the floor pans. Any of the catalog restoration places should carry them.

http://npd.dirxion.com/WebProject.asp?BookCode=bir11flx&from=2

Well, I ripped out the carpet and it don't look pretty. Besides the gaping hole, there is already sheet metal riveted in place and the passenger rear floor pan is about to crack through. I will try to post pictures in the next day or two.

Make sure you look under the rear seat , right where the torque box is connected to the frame rails and connected to the rocker panels. if its really rusty there DONT drive it! brace the doors, this is where the weakest part of a vert.

I went over kill on the reinforcement in this area i purchased the whole floor pan as a unit ,it came with all the tourque boxes and vert reinforcements under the seat. it also came with the support for the front seat crossover that the subframe bolts to. Check the h frame that crosses under the front seat, they look to be still solid. The backbone on a convertible is the rockers and the h braces and the inner wheel houses. ask me how i know..lol

how far up the tunnel is the rot ? How is the trunk and frame rails , particularly where they join the front spring perch. torque boxes. post pix if you can.

You might be in line for a full floor pan as opposed to just the pieces.

Yup its easaier and in a vert you can do it from the top!

I will start posting some pics of this mess in the next few messages.

Second set of 5 photos

Third set of 5 photos

Although I really want to do all the work myself for reasons of pride in doing it (as well as $$$), my body experience was limited to some bondo work 20 years ago. How hard would it be to do a whole new floor in one piece? Or how about left and right full lengths if the tunnel is fine? Or how about individual floor pans and some firewall work? How does the frame look?

You need a full floor pan. Your frame will probably need the mount holes repaired (elongated holes due to rust). You should remove kick panels and rear qtr upholstery and anything else that is covering your rockers. If one or more rockers gone you got a big headache coming. What's the trunk like and rear frame rails? Need to see the front and rear, top and bottom of the rockers. Are there any holes or weak spots in the rockers?

I agree with Gus. You need a full floor pan. The key to that job is being able to weld. Not any filler work to be done. You will need to weld in some temp braces to keep everything in place when you cut the old floor out. Find all of the spotwelds and drill them out. Don't cut out the supports, just the floor pan. There is a good chance your rockers have some rot based on what the floor pan looks like. As for your frame, they sell replacement stamped plates for your mounting surfaces. Will probably need those based on your picture. So the common theme here is welding. If you do not know how to weld, or don't have access to a MIG welder, you're best to have this work done elsewhere. If you have the ability to weld and up for a challenge, it's a big job, but can be done. It's a matter of removing the bad metal and replacing with new.

Excuse me while I go cry in the corner for a few minutes! I will try to get some new pics today.

Welcome to the club! The floor of your car looks just like the one in my 400 coupe. (as well as a number of other board member's 'birds) Its best to just fix it right, and then you are done!

I know what your going thru. I bought my coupe in '80 and still have it. Poor thing rusted away the last 20 years to the point of no return. I still have the body but I bought another more worthy of a restoration.

Mine was as bad if not worse. you have a ragtop so it makes it much easier to do than a coupe.couple key questions ;
1) you have a mig welder ?
2) You have torches?
3) you will need to buy a spot weld cutter.

Make sure the rockers are solid and the h brace the goes across the car under the seats. and most importantly the torque boxes the connect the rockers to the rear fram rails.

It really isn't hard , you will need a helper. its a big piece of sheetmetal to handle alone. structurally from what i can see so far, its not bad. crappy not having floors. but in a rag top the floors are really not as load bearing as a coupe. its the rockers and the h brace, and the torque boxes. can you post pix of where the frame rail attaches to the torque and to the inner rocker.

Just to camp on the present topic.
Is it necessary to remove the gas tank when using a mig welder.
And other than avoiding them is it necessary to remove the fuel lines.

In other words is there a danger of some kind of arcing in the gas tank if you are doing welding on the passenger compartment floor

not really, unless you have a tank leak. but its really not that hard to take out the tank just to be safe.

No on the lines, just avoid them.

The only thing i might add is measure , measure and measure, take pictures of you measurements, you would be amazed at how things can be "different"
I would remove doors brace door opening, but you proabaly can get away with not bracing just support the car well. remove the h brace with the spot weld bit and dont grind of the little nubs it leaves . that way you can put ot right back were it came from , ditto on the seat supports.

I can donate a set of subframe mounts for the cost of shippin.

My bird had basically no sheet metal in the floors or trunk. it looked OK at first look but the more i peeled away the fiber glass, the more rot i found.i basically replaced everything from the firewall to the tail panel.As i stated before the sheetmetal on the floor has very little to do with the strength of vert. just Make sure your rockers aren't SHOT , the h braces are good and the junction of the frame rails to the rockers , period.
I was going to do the piece meal patch here and there , but in the long run , im glad i didnt. it took less time and the outcome was way better as the full panels join at the factory seams.

BTW Larry nice bird, i almost painted mine red.

Here are the first set of pics. There are some rusty looking areas. But when digging at it hard, it feels solid like I can just sand it off. Underneath the convertible hydraulics, it feels real solid. Most of it was still shiny metal, especially driver side. Passenger side under at rear junction was a little more rusty at its junction.

Under doors, looked solid all the way. As far as under the kick panels (which I could not get off and know why one would kick them repeatedly out of frustration), things appeared solid but my eye is untrained. With the kick panel peeled back, I tried to get some photos. Passenger side looks solid except maybe at front junction. Drivers side has some rusty areas, but again I think they could be sanded off.

Second Set of photos

3rd set of photos

id go for it, it doesnt look bad but do look at the frame rails. theay are cheap.

Looks like the rockers at the rear are ok but the front passenger is in rough shape. It will require a couple patch panels but should be doable. What about the outside "side" of the rockers especially at the front. It's probably weak on passenger side.

One's thing for sure IMO, might as well tear her down completely to locate and fix/replace the "cancer".

You will find your lower cowl and front rocker will be in tough shape once the fenders come off. The bolts that connect fender to cowl will probably break or sit and spin on you because the hidden nut will be fused on.

I think it's definitely worth pursuing but you have to get rid of "all" of the bad stuff or it will just keep decaying.

Here is the weakest spot on a f body vert. make sure the rocker is good and solid where the torque box and the rear frame rail cross over. BTW a new complete floor comes with all convertable bracing except, the h brace.

Can anyone draw a schematic for me that shows the relationship of a) the outer rocker, inner rocker, floor
b) rocker, toe board, floor, torque box
c) rocker, frame rail, floor

Is there a Firebird specific body book that I can see this in? Or would any body book work to show this?

I don't know if I would be able to remove the fender...as it is now, I am in violation of our neighborhood Nazi POA rules just by changing spark plug wires. Removing the fenders would send the neighborhood moles into overdrive! And I don't think I can afford to have a shop do this.

i can , i'll draw up rough one tonight. Then you see why i say the floors in a vert contribute very little structural integrity.
Its mainly the rockers and the h brace, and the inner wheel houses. You see why i said the weakest point is like a showed above.

I will try to do a video so can see the troubled areas on my coupe.  

Id do that too but mine is all fixed! its actually incredible how much strength a roof adds.

I've been there , talked my way out of a $10k fine ( along time ago) for running a car repair business from my home. The zoning for residential in manchester is you cannot service or dismantle any mechanical device with in 50 feet from the property line.

So if you cant do this how are you going to pull it off? You have a garage? even with that the noise from grinding, welding etc will tip somebody off.

You have to be kidding me. Is that true even if the vehicles are titled under your name.

I am in the process of replacing my floor as many know. It's very time consuming and tedious, but to reiterate what has been said, it will be worth the effort in the long run.

I've had to tweak the floor to get everything just right, but overall the fit is pretty good. I braced the car before removing the floor across the doors and from side to side like a box. Also then tied the box to the conv't top mounting braces to be sure it doesn't move. Also a rotisserie would make your life a lot easier for access to everything.

Welding will begin this weekend after all my plugs are drilled and fit is finalized. Good luck and take your time as I am.