floor pan rust question?
 

Well i lifted up my carpet because i knew i had a pretty bad weather stripping leak and i found some rust not a lot really its just in one area so I'm wondering if i can just grind it down and weld the holes and then grind it off?

Hmmm. The pitting in the toe board area looks pretty severe. If you try welding in that area, you'll blow right through it b/c it's so thin. The right way to do it is to replace it with fresh metal, but that's a call you have to make. What area are the holes in, the floor or the toe boards? I can't tell from the picture.

You could take a wire wheel to it and then paint it with Rust Bullet if you don't want to patch anything, but it's only a band-aid in my opinion. Do it right the first time and you won't have to worry about it later on.

i honestly don't know what a toe board is but the holes are the white specs at the top right of the picture on the raised ridge right above the picture cut off is the pedals if that helps?

The toe boards are the panels right above the seam sealer bead shown in your picture. Here's a picture of mine when I replaced them.

http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_i...0132_large.jpg

here's a better pic

As stated earlier you can't weld up those holes, the metal is too thin. Best thing to do is buy a front floor pan, cut it and weld it in to replace the bad areas.

Don

These could be stupid questions.what about a small diameter wire? and if the metal is to thin how do you weld in a new piece?

I would buy a toe board and a front patch panel for the floor and replace both. You'll see that when you remove the front section of the floor pan, the toe board lip under the floor pan will be shot. Do it right the first time! It will save you a ton of headache later on.

You cut back until you find good metal and tie in the new panel there.

As stated, you need to cut back to good solid metal...if you attempt to weld the thin rusted stuff it will just keep blowing holes. Will never work, no matter the size of the wire or welding settings.

Big question.... what are you trying to accomplish? What is your intention for the car etc...

If you just want to stop the rust from getting worse and dont really want to get into cutting big pieces of you car out, the get a wire wheel....clean it up real good and use POR15 or Eastwood Rust Encapsulator (you can find the stuff via google). That will stop the rust and the small holes will be sealed up since the stuff is thick when you apply it.

If you really want/need the best fix, then cut out the bad metal and replace with new.