Pulled carpet..now what?

[jeepthrills01]

So OE carpet is out...floor is in really good shape...but very minor edge surface rust in some low spots.

So...rough it up and epoxy prime? Use one of the POR15 type chemicals?

Will eventually be a tribute or custom...so looking for nothing but maintaining and improving structural integrity for longevity.

Thoughts?

 

[0DegreeEngineer]

Help us help you, please add some photos so we understand what your level of minor is

 

[69L48Z27]

Sounds like I would put carpet back in. Car won’t rust to death on its own.

 

[gkent]

Just hit it with some "rust converter" and paint it. Don't over think it !!!

 

[Hilljack68]

I just did the floor on my Charger yesterday. I like the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Plus:

Wire brush all the rusty areas, vacuum, degrease the floor, hit it with the Eastwood Pre-Paint aerosol, then brush it on (they also offer a spray version). I did it as a spot treatment, as there were a many areas of the floor which still had nice bronze paint.

POR15 is thought to be a little better, but I don't think the extra cost is worth "a little better".

 

[AR67GTX]

I used Corroseal Rust Converter on some surface rust on my floorboards. Seemed to work well and to be highly regarded. Then I brushed a coat of Rustoleum over that.

 

[NHRoadrunner]

Scuff the whole thing down, wire wheel or sand the rust, epoxy prime, then paint. That's the only right way to do it.

 

[jeepthrills01]

Help us help you, please add some photos so we understand what your level of minor is

More to come

Driver side

Driver side rear footwell

 

[Hilljack68]

Wow, "minor" is right. You could eat off that floor!

 

[jeepthrills01]

Wow, "minor" is right. You could eat off that floor!

Arizona car it's whole life...except for 2.5 years as a garage ornament in Houston.

Too bad it's a 440 model originally 318/904.
Strangely though...up market seating in cloth with extra padding, 11" manual drums and an 8.75 SG.

Side bar...anyone have a spare split bench bottom spring?

 

[Ron H]

My ride lived in CA for 30-years and garaged here, never finding salt as it was never driven winters and kept in a heated garage. After many years, finally did a complete restoration. I thoroughly cleaned the cab and trunk floor finding just a few areas with surface rust. Wired those areas down. I applied a heavy coat gray primer, brush application, as this was during winter in my garage and didn’t want the overspray hassles and vapors. Over that after a few weeks moving along, dyno-matted the floors. Inside the doors and a couple of hard to access areas, used Eastwood internal frame coating spray, think it is same stuff mentioned in a post above. I believe the primer I used was a Rustoleum product, though I don’t have the can anymore. Have some in white I didn’t use and think it is the same stuff. If you are interested can give you the product info. Photo shows the primer coating while laying in the mat.

Good luck with your project!

 

[0DegreeEngineer]

Wow you were not kidding, take off the rust and por15 it looks really good for its age.

 

[ynst]

Is it actually "rust" or is it excess primer that the baking oven caused to boil and bubble up when the body came out of the primer tank?

On the production line the bare metal bodies were suspended from a conveyor and got dipped into a series of tanks that included a cleaning/etching solution then primer tanks before being run into an oven to bake on the primer.

The bodies had a slight tilt when they went out of the primer tank and into the oven. This tilt allowed the excess primer to run off and drip back into the tank before the body entered the oven. Some of the primer remained and settled in those rolled stiffener dimples in the floor where the oven caused it to boil and dry out looking like a pile of tiny bubbles. The bubbles will be more prevalent at one end of each stiffener rib and all of the puddles will be orientated in the same direction, depending on the tilt angle of the body.

Seeing these bubbles when you lift the carpet is a good indication that you are looking at a factory floor pan (or trunk pan as well)

Sanding them out and painting over the bare metal makes it look like Mark Worman has been in there "restoring" it with AMD sheet metal patches.