Thread: Patching Floor Pan on '72 Chevelle

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I've been montoring this site since I joined last year but this is my 1st post as my son & I just got our car a few months ago. We've started working on the car as winter has set in. One issue we'd like to address soon is a hole in the floor pan under the drivers seat. It looks like something crashed up thru the pan & has left a baseball sized hole with jagged edges. Other than that, floor pan is in excellent condition. My thoughts were to straighten out jagged edges & somehow patch the hole.

Any suggestions or recommendations on a repair. Don't really want to weld so perhaps a patch that could be glued on? Any thoughts on what to use as a patch & what adhesive?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cut the jagged edges back to good solid metal,wire brush everything,coat it top and bottom with POR15,cut,shape and fit your patch from 20 gauge non galvinized sheet stock leaving about an inch overlap,paint your patch with POR15. After everything dries use permatex "Right Stuff" to glue your patch in place,clamp the patch or set some weight on top of it and let it cure overnight.
This is assuming you have very solid metal in that area,if not your looking at replaceing the floor pans.

You could also pop rivet the patch down along with some sealant. Not the absolutely perfect way to do a floor repair but you don't want to weld it you say. That hole was probablly caused by someone putting a bottle jack in the wrong spot.

Don

Welcome to CHR! We'll be looking forward to pictures of your progress on the Chevelle!

Just curious, why do you not want to weld in a patch? The "Right Stuff" approach is going to work fine, but a butt welded patch will eliminate the overlap joint which is going to be a moisture trap. Not saying it won't be good with the POR15 and Right Stuff, just wondering since a patch panel, or even sheet stock would not be that hard to do with the seat out.

Originally Posted by rspears

Welcome to CHR! We'll be looking forward to pictures of your progress on the Chevelle!

Just curious, why do you not want to weld in a patch? The "Right Stuff" approach is going to work fine, but a butt welded patch will eliminate the overlap joint which is going to be a moisture trap. Not saying it won't be good with the POR15 and Right Stuff, just wondering since a patch panel, or even sheet stock would not be that hard to do with the seat out.

Just curious Roger.So your saying a flanged patch panel welded top and bottom is a moisture trap??.

Maybe after riveting a patch on, you could use fiberglass over it to keep water from bothering it. It's just like body puddy, but I think it's better. Any parts store should have it. The only problem there is the rivets. Or like they say with that other stuff to glue it on, then use the fiberglass.

Originally Posted by 1gary

Just curious Roger.So your saying a flanged patch panel welded top and bottom is a moisture trap??.

No, my comment was that IMO a butt welded joint is better than an overlap piece glued in place. I did not mention a flanged, welded joint, but IMO unless you do a full perimeter weld on the bottom side of a flanged (overlap joint) patch it will indeed tend to wick moisture over time.

I've patched both ways, welding and adhesives, both work quite well when done properly. When done with the patch, I always coat both sides with epoxy primer, then a coat of seam sealer around both the open and welded joints to prevent water wicking in to the joint.... On a patch that I want a smooth finish, after the epoxy primer I then grind the welds and use a skim coat of 'glass impregnated filler from Evercoat, it is waterproof and won't allow water into the joint. Whether seam sealer or filler, make sure you apply another coat of primer, then some paint over the patched area to prevent rust.

The first one is a 2.5 by 3 inch metal patch. This is the way to do it, but not really that easy. The second one is is going to need a little bit of glass to make it look better. Whatever you do, you only want to do it once.

Looks good to me Terry, and you sure are right on the 'only do it once' deal!!!! Besides, if it wasn't for patchin' up old tin, what else would we do with all our spare time, right????

Yepper. It's either do this or drink alot....more.

Thanks for the replies guys. Since this car will not be driven in wet weather I'm inclined
to go with the adhesive method. Your method looks good hworrell.

Sorry...didn't mean to repost this thread. I would delete it if I knew how...
Just ignore.

I might ask why no welding ? And ad a favorite quote from one of the Metalmeet members...."There are times when you learn a bunch from doing it yourself using some low tech cobbled together methods.
Then there are times when all you learn is how foolish you have been.
The wisdom is in knowing which time it is before you start....

Originally Posted by Big_wave_dav

Thanks for the replies guys. Since this car will not be driven in wet weather I'm inclined
to go with the adhesive method. Your method looks good hworrell.