CELEBRATING 20 YEARS!

Quick, change the main brake line while the floor is out

With that much rust the line might be on borrowed time.

It interesting the way your floors are rotted, on mine I assumed it was coming down from the a pillar because of the t tops, but yours looks similar like the water got in down the inside of the door jamb and made its way to the floor, I'd have to think it's from cracked seam sealer at the bottom of the windshield.

Looks like your making good progress

Got that area cleaned of all the chunks of rusty back seat and sandy mud lol. Thx for the suggestion about the brake lines i will look closely at them today. I wont pull the main floor till i have the back seat in place as its a bidy mount . I have to remove the front of the car so i can replace the floor and the front body mounts . My plan is to leave the outer piece that over laps the rocker by lower door hinge and remove the rockérs from that spot with the floor. Im hoping i can slip tje replacemwnt in between the door jams and under theat piece like replacing just a rocker. Will have to make some kind of support stands to hold the firewall /windshield area so the mounts with the floor can be stuffed in lol. I think passenger side was dumping water from the heater core and the floor mats had algae growing on it . The heater drain was plugged and still is with crap. Car was in a bush .that is a spot to keep clean or it will rust out a car fast. Driver side i think just started rusting from infrint if seat and cancered its way up. The driver firwall seam is good so thats why i figure it just spread from below . Passenger needs the part of heater box opening and floor flange replaced which i have replacements to choose from. Suggestions are welcome on how to supoort the front . Was thinking use the door hinge mounting spots to bolt something to it . Pisses me off kinda how far this car was neglected . If u have rust starting get on it or u will be doing the same in no time. That heat shield for the cat is a nice little spot to have rust hiding that will eat the floor up.

Got the floor removed up to center brace . Body mounts tjere to supoort the front half while i get the back finished . This way i can sit on the ground and not on the car and replace the the 15" of inner outer rocker beside seat pans that i disnt have with the floor i got. This way its more simple and i dont have to remove the body from the frame . It will expose the frame rails to the firewall.have to do the brake line to the rear from prooortion valve and prob fuel return and supply. Gonna remove the vent hard line and just run a hose off it and have a vent in the rear. The po cut the brake and vent line when he attempted to fix the rust ... be extremely careful doing this stuff . Hes lucky he didnt cause a explosion
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Also got the wiring to heaterbox labeled and now the work is under the hood to remove it. Lots of cleaning on the frame and welding and trimming in the next little while.

Removing front clip as a whole unit today. All unbolted just have to pull it off . Will post pics when its off

Got the feont end removed and the harness for the heater and engine side. As well as the ecm harness. Next up heater box removal. I must say removong the whole front clip made way less work

Well heater box is off and now she is showing the extent of rot. The heater core was leaking for sure and pouring water down the firewall which doesnt help . My floor i have with rockers as ome unit will be a nice revive for tje car.

So front clip and heater box removed now. Glad i cut the floor the way i did so i can replace the rot. After floor is in i will reppace part of firewall from floor seam up about 6" or so on each side. Buddy of mine workin on his car.

Ls1 monte i know where the water was coming in now. Fro. The door hinge where it bolts to the body. Po tried replacing hinges at one time and didnt seal the hinge plate properly and let water run down the inside of jam. Also at base of windshield where the hood seal goes that plate that overhangs in engine bay . It got in where that plate meets the firewall . Once i have the floor swapped i will remove tjat panel with the spot welds and clean and fix the area.

Right on, thats good you were able to find it. It looks like you got a regular g body repair facility there

Lol i love the montes.ya im findimg the spots .pretty obvious

Most of that floor rot was caused by rain water leaks in the firewall, pretty common problem. Lucky I caught my leaks before any rust holes formed. There are a few spots on the firewall that were poorly sealed by the factory.

Yes that is very true they could have done better in alot of areas. As bad as it looks now once i get basically the bottom of the car replaced it will be a car again lol instead of a wagon . The bottom of a pillar where it sits on side of door jam and femder bolts to is a big gap between the metal where the factory just mushed in some seam sealer and called it good.basically every car i seen has that. The sealant dries out then its a waterslide into the car.going to post some pics of tje floor im cleaning up soon. Its in great shape. The body mount pockets in the front are still factory sealer grey inside. Has some very light rust in only couple spots .. Salvage yard dented the back foot well a bit so i have to pop that out . I wasmt going to give up this floor cause of that .

Here is a shot of the floor amf back seat.i have extra bacj seat material that will be removed when it all goes in. For $40 i cant complain .
lol

Got the doors off yesterday. Im building the supports for the body . Using some steel tube and a few other scrap pieces i have laying around . Basically stands that come off the upper door hinge to the ground which will be adjustable at the bottom . Have pieces connect to door striker back to the front stand .piece going under car to suooort the front uprights from spreading . Still dreaming up rest of supoort as i go. Any suggestions .i will post pics of the begining of the stands . Imput would help make it quicker so i can get this frame built . Then the worst part will be cut out and the car will be reborn.talk about reconstrutive surgery lol

Damn, that's a nice floor and great price.

Ya it sure is .pretty stoked to get it in the car.here is the supports im making . Any ideas are welcome. I am basically teying to figure out a way to add to supports and still be able to swing the main floor in place .thinking about adding supoort lengthwise to the door strikers but need to have space to swing the floor in . I had ti lift the body like 3/4" it was hanging since body mount is so toast

Got the ding out of the floor pan on drivers rear drain hole area beside seat belt mount.little bit of cleaning and then spray some paint and undercoat the inside

Thats neat. the braces look pretty good, were you planning on adding gussets in the future?? To the bottom, if i knew how much steel i didn't need i could've given you some for that

How is your trunk in this one, you could support the front like you have and lift the rear by the trunk latch on the body

You mean take the body off the frame in the rear? If u look in the begining of the thread i dis the trunk in it. I am hoping to slip it in bacically in the position its in. Lower door jams are going with the floor so wont be much in the way there

Hello "84ss355*4spd
I haven't been at this site in a while, but popped in and saw your "85 Rusto". I apologize; I barely skimmed this ( because I should have been asleep by now), but I have to ask you - Are you getting rid of the seat material??
The cloth?
Most of the guys in here can tell you I've been "here" for years, and I'm the original owner of an 85 SS, with the grey int. And, I'm FINALLY going to be starting and getting it finished; I totaled it back in the early 90's and have been waiting, and waiting...
So.... if you are planning on upgrading that interior, PLEASE let me know? Oh, and I apologize if you had said what your plans for it were; like I said, I lol, just looked at the pics ( I have to be up in 4 ish hours, yay!) lol. Thanks !
Dee

Ya im keeping that stuff. Car isnt getting a complete resto. Almost but not quite lol.

Yeah I see it now, just reread this one it's staying on the frame. I'm just wondering if the rear floor pans will be too deep to slide in that will be tricky but you'll not know for sure until you try.

Really worst case scenario you have to loosen or remove the trunk body bolts, take off the wheels and lower the frame. Hopefully that won't be the case though

Ya i guess i will find out soon enough lol. The back seat pan i was going to put in seperate not sure if u know that. I might put that in first then the rest of the floor . It kinda meets up at the door opening .