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johnnyboy666

Anybody Replaced An Entire Boot Floor?

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johnnyboy666

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...

 

 

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scbond

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.

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johnnyboy666

14549987360_9902dd20f8.jpg

 

14550022459_6cf5d8b3e2.jpg

 

14736361762_23e228deca.jpg

 

14756495523_ea18a133e4.jpg

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johnnyboy666

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

 

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

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Tom Fenton

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.

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Clapton_Is_God

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.

 

 

post-25004-0-56953400-1406268831_thumb.jpg

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Juttie205

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.

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johnnyboy666

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!

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Juttie205

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

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johnnyboy666

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

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johnnyboy666

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...

14571819330_c2f90f6235.jpg

 

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

 

14571837589_483bfea750.jpg

 

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!

 

14571793600_dd96545513.jpg

 

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.

 

14571812669_848d226046.jpg

 

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)

 

14778306443_bd5115172e.jpg[

 

14571812669_848d226046.jpg

 

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!

 

14571753540_f72832932e.jpg

 

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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.

 

14755389491_837d8778b3.jpg

 

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

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welshpug

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.

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Tom Fenton

Agree with above, cut a neat plywood load liner.

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johnnyboy666

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!

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welshpug

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

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johnnyboy666

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 :D

 

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

 

 

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post-9599-0-57743300-1423782915_thumb.jpg

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johnnyboy666

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

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post-9599-0-77835000-1423783314.jpg

post-9599-0-58513300-1423783423.jpg

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johnnyboy666

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

post-9599-0-17807000-1423783615_thumb.jpg

post-9599-0-76924300-1423783674_thumb.jpg

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