Hi there,

I've got a 1968 Firebird which I'm in the process of restoring.

I pulled up the front carpets to find that the floorpans were completely rusted out in the front, with some more superficial rust in the rear.

For the front floorpans, I wouldn't dare stomp on the floorpans, lest my foot go through the pan!

For the rear floorpans, there is a bit of rust, but 95% of it looks to be superficial, although there are some small areas where it looks like the rust may be affecting strength. I didn't hesitate to stomp on it.

In the middle (where the seats are mounted), the floorpans look 100% fine.

What would you guys do in this situation? Replace the entire floorpan (as one piece), or just the front two corners?

How many hours of labor does this look like, and at what rate? I was quoted 16 hours at $100/hr in the San Francisco Bay Area, plus parts, to weld in 1 big floorpan, and coat it with truck bed liner. Does this sound reasonable for the area?


Here's the situation from afar:



Here's the front (obviously needs to be replaced):



Driver side rear looks OK to me:



Passenger rear is the best of the 4 corners:



The middle sections look perfectly fine to me:





Your help is much appreciated!

What I did was keep as much original metal as possible and just patched the bad areas. I got partial floor pans and just cut from that what I needed and double lapped the welds. Then remove the rest of the rust the best you can and POR 15 it. That made for a sturdy repair. And it's all under the carpeting anyway and not real obvious looking underneath. Doing whole floor pans can be tricky and you might be sorry if they aren't really good at it.

Have you inspected the bottom of the car? What do the pinch welds look like?

You could still see the original paint on my floors (no surface rust) and eat off them too. But the pinch welds were greatly expanded from rust.

Your floors at best were swimming in wet carpet. It will be a miracle if you can save the floor. Your front toe kicks are gone so what about the frame support? Right now your looking at least 4 panels. You need to sand blast the affected areas so see how much metal is left.

How about the rear quarters, door and fenders.

What's the trunk look like? Get that puppy up in the air so you can take some pics of the underneath.

See that pic of my car in my sig? That's the before pic! I have done a frame off restoration. Still working on the eventual after pics. lol

Well I replaced both sides on mine from toe kick to just before the rear seat, if I were to do it again I would use a complete floor pan, period. I bet your toe kick before the firewall is pretty thin.

Just to add, your seat supports can probably be reused.

You can buy toe kick panel patch panels too. I went part of way up on mine.

Unless you're doing a complete top to bottom resto, patching the floor is fine. Just make sure the rockers are not rotted out, that will open up a whole other can of worms.

I still believe its easier to drill out the pinch-welds/spot-welds on the rocker panels then to weld patch panels in, but its up to the person doing the labor.

I recently replaced the four (4) sections of floor pan - as rockers, undercarriage, etc. were solid. Interestingly mine rusted from the top down (convertible) vs. from the undercarriage up. I purchased the right and left full length floor pans (from CarID as the shipping is very reasonable) so that; 1. I'd have extra material to work with if necessary and 2. given that the cost for the full length pieces are cheaper than buying the four smaller sections. This job took me about 8 hours including cutting and welding. I also reinforced the transmission tunnel which added a few more hours. I then covered with bed liner to seal them up. I had considered replacing the entire pan but assume this would have been a three (3) day project.

Almost all rust from the inside out, convertible top leaks or window leaks.. BTW butt weld the patches in if you decide to go that direction, however it is more labor intensive.

Lap welds are easier and stronger