Floorboards

[rybaczewski]

I own a 1984 Wagon.  I am disabled and unable to do much of anything to my car.  The other day a flap of metal was seen hanging near the left front tire.  I got into the car and could see the driveway through the driver's side floor when the carpet was pulled back.  What should I do?  Have the patch put back or have new floors put on.  I'm gonna need a new engine, new door seals, new carpet, new headliner, new gas tank and sending unit, and the front seat fixed too.  Should I start the project or sell it now?  Just asking.

[IowaEagle]

You really need to see what other rust might be lurking under your car to determine if it can be salvaged.

[priya]

If your goal is to get a sound vehicle on the road for the lowest cost I'd say sell it and have a knowledgeable person help you find a used car in good shape.  From the sounds of things it would cost much more to get that car back into good shape than it would to buy a car that's already in good shape.

If you're fond of that car in particular then maybe its still a worthwhile project but as Iowaeagle says you need to find out the extent of the rust.  Its almost always quite a bit worse than it looks at first.

[rybaczewski]

I was out of town last week and stopped into a shop to see if they could patch the hole.  I was just told that my frame is rotted - and they (the mechanics) had problems finding a spot to put it on their lift.  Funny - three places here in town here had no problems like that at all - and it's been up and down on a lift many times. 

I don't need a perfect car - just one to drive that's safe.  If the hole can be patched, I'll be happy (just add oil!)  So I ask - do frames rot?  There's only 135,000 on the car and unless he left it parked in salt water, I have a sneaky suspicion the frame is ok.

[Prafeston]

The frames are a very bad rusting point on these cars.

Here are two extremely bad examples from Facebook.

This one caused a complete failure to the front end components and is now a parts car.


This one looks about beyond repair too.


They frame tends to start rusting out just rear of the front wheels. You can easily check those areas yourself and see if you are developing holes.

[MudPuppy]

If you could get it on a lift and post up some pictures here. These guys/gals would be able to tell one way or another that way.


Here's some ugliness from The Mamba...