Anybody Replaced An Entire Boot Floor?

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Following in from my thread regarding rain getting into the xad, and apparently sitting there for many years, the boot floor is in very poor condition.

 

Has anybody ever removed and replaced the entire boot floor?

 

It has a £2 coin sized hole (which would get bigger if I poked it enough) within 30cm of the rear beam mounting.

 

It is also coming away at the rearmost seam (where its just bonded together). The rest of the boot floor is scabby, with a few little holes here and there.

 

From underneath it looks as if the underseal has either been removed at some point and replaced with poor quality stuff, or was put on when the metal had already started to rust.

 

If this was a normal shell, I'd be tempted the throw in the towel, but with it being a van, I want to try and save it. I'm going to see if the I can get the hole patched up to get it through the mot, then replace the whole floor for next year.

 

I have a complete boot floor which a guy up the road kindly cut out of his scrap shell for me. Its not in great condition, but it'll be handy to cut patches out of perhaps.

 

Few pics to follow...

 

 

[scbond 15 1 Cars]

I've not done it but I imagine someone has at some point. If you can cut and weld confidently then there shouldn't be a problem as I'm sure there's worse welding jobs on a 205 to have to do.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

 

 

 

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

My main problem is I cant weld.....

 

Or at least I have never tried to weld. I have however invested in a welder.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Cut out the rotten bits make neat repair sections and weld in. Doing the entire floor is a massive job, don 't forget about the crossmembers underneath.

[Clapton_Is_God 21 1 Cars]

When doing repairs to mine a guy I used to work with told me had done several back in the day as insurance repairs, so it is possible.

 

I cut out a section above a rotten crossmember (not sure what I was thinking) and the whole floor was flapping about and a right faff, spot welds everywhere.

 

Like Tom says, it's a massive job and if you have your heart set on it I would get some welding experience under your belt or get someone that has to tackle it.

 

 

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

I was planning on doing this on my dimma but after removing one from a car in a scrapyard and found out how it gets attached in places will be very hard to refit so I decided just to cut out a repair patches on mine and its coming out ok.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

doing patches sounds like the way forward then. I'll have to get the wire brush on the grinder and dig in, and see how it looks after that. Wish me luck!

[Juttie205 123 2 Cars]

If you look at my dimma thread you will see you can get quite good results by doing patches.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

That's a really handy thread cheers! Looks a little bit daunting, but I think if I do baby steps it should be ok.

 

Unfortunately I think I will need another spare boot floor in better conditions than the spare one I've got. As on further inspection, most of the edges are on the way out. I'll still try and recycle as much of it as possible though.

 

Just need to order gas for this welder, and try and get as much practice in as I can :S

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Right, I got out there with the wire wheel on the grinder, and a screwdriver to get going on this.

 

first thing to do was to wire wheel the 'little bits' of bubbling to check if they were surface rust or worse. Some were ok, so I gave them a dab of hammers*ite to keep them out of the elements, and some where the tip of an iceberg.

 

This bit originally looked like somebody had spilled paint stripper on it, and then left it in the sea. Some grinding and sanding later and it turned out to be pretty solid still. I think I need a flapwheel to assist with this project...

 

This side was not the side that failed the MOT, but after some digging, was much less structurally sound than the other side. I need the cut that rusty bolt off along with the rusty bit of metal its holding on, which is the same bolt that holds the bumper support bracket on. This is presumably for strapping things down in the van.

I need to grind more away in this corner, but its tight in there with the grinder, so might need to think of something else to use

 

 

Below are the holes following the spotwelds, After realising they were all following the crossmember, I got underneath and gave it a right good stabbing with a screwdriver. Luckily the crossmember is very solid, except for some peeling underseal. This gave me a little bit of hop, as I dont think I could manage to replace that by myself!

 

 

Below is the offending MOT failure. In hindsight, maybe I shouldve patched that before prodding around with everything else, but if a jobs worth doing etc.

 

 

spare wheel, cage and towbar came off. I had to take the bumper off to get at two of the towbar bolts. What a pig that was! got a little impatient with the bumper (its scrap anyway, I've got a new one to go on)

 

[

 

 

Kind of pleasantly surprised that the side bumper mounts were still solid and the rear panel isnt as bad as I was expecting. I've seen worse!

 

 

 

 

One of the bolts that hold the centre bumper bracket on sheared off whilst undoing it But I had to take it off so I can soak it in vinegar and repaint it.

 

 

Overall, not too bad. But as you can see, when the car was resprayed, they didnt do the inside, so I may as well consider this an opportunity to sort that whilst I'm at it

 

With this being a van, I intend to use it as such, for carrying parts about etc, so I think when Ive done all the welding I might use some sort of heavy duty underseal type stuff on the inside to protect the floor a little bit, which will hopefully keep it preserved for another decade

[welshpug 1,657]

I wouldn't put underseal inside the car, its horrible sticky s*it, better to bolt down some ply.

 

the patches needed there don't look too bad at all, certainly not worth replacing the whole panel.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Agree with above, cut a neat plywood load liner.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

I was planning to ply it out anyway covered in carpet, but I fancied something hard wearing underneath, maybe just some sort of hardwearing primer instead?

 

agreed on the patches, not nearly as bad as I thought it might be, will no doubt still be full of challenges for a welding novice!

[welshpug 1,657]

just a few coats of primer then a colour top coat will suffice on the inside.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Well, this turned out to be a bit more involved than I first thought.

 

I don't claim to have done the tidiest job in the world. In fact probably the opposite, but I had a damn good go, and managed to finally get the old girl through the MOT on Tuesday

 

It turned out, that the more I poked and prodded, the harder it was to find anything decent to weld onto, so a few sections I just cut out completely and started fresh

 

 

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Replaced the rear panel with some thicker sheet (later had to make slight adjustments for the fog/reverse light plugs!)

 

Did the same with the rearmost edge that butts up against the rear panel, as the spare floor I had was rotten here too.

 

This made it a bit of a jigsaw puzzle trying to find bits of spare floor that would line up and meet the flat bits

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

And then plenty of small patches, again not pretty, but they should survive until I've got a bit more welding practice under my belt

 

And the finished article

 

Next on the to do list is rip out the carpet and seats as they're mouldy as hell after so much dampness, and stick a gti carpet and some leathers in. Then paint up a front valance to match the rear