74 NovaMan's 1992 Camaro RS Convertible

[74NovaMan]

I'll have to look but I'll bet I have the fuse cover.. anything else you need..
This one would be from a 82 or 84 or 88 but should be the same

Thanks for the offer James! The Classic Industries website lists one for 90-92 so I'm not sure they are interchangeable. If you could post a picture that would be great.

[DanStokes]

If you can find a local sheet metal shop you can make a panel and have them roll in the beads so it looks pretty much OEM. Faster and cheaper than buying and cutting up a whole floor pan. If you really don't want to weld it in (I do it all the time by pulling the battery cables - no issue so far) you can bond the panel in there. There are systems available with structural adhesive as is used to build a number of modern cars and it bonds FOREVER. You'll need to make your panel about 1/2" or so bigger all the way around and get the floor and the patch clean down to bare metal. You can fasten it with sheet metal screws while the adhesive sets then fill the screw holes either with more adhesive or body caulk.

Just to be clear - you would cut out the rusted areas just like you would for a welded-in patch but make your patch about 1/2" bigger as mentioned. I reread my comments above and it might sound like I was suggesting that you adhere the patch OVER the bad spots - not the idea.

I have the Lord FUSOR system and would be happy to lend you my application gun if you want to go that way. You'll have to buy mixing tips (about $1.00 ea. IIRC) every time you make an application - the adhesive comes in 2 conjoined tubes that dispense and mix thru the tips which are only good for one use. The materials and adhesive will be found at your local auto paint supplier.

Dan

[JOES66FURY]

My opinion....fix it right....but...it is easy to spend other peoples money....

maybe find a car in salvage cut out the parts you need....

I wouldn't do a whole panel...just the affected area....

[JamesMayberryIII]

I'll have to look but I'll bet I have the fuse cover.. anything else you need..
This one would be from a 82 or 84 or 88 but should be the same

[74NovaMan]

The floor metal is stupid thin to begin with. I'm currently weighing 3 options.

1. Clean it up, POR15, Duraglass (or similar product) and top coat (undercoating on the bottom)

2. Clean it up, use panelbond to adhere patches to the affected areas, POR15, Lizzard Skin (or roll on bedliner) the tub areas and undercoat the bottom

3. Get a replacement pan, cut out and install the needed patch (welder), POR15, Lizzard Skin (or roll on bedliner) the tub areas and undercoat the bottom

Option #1 seems like the wrong way to do it although it did take 24 years to get to where it is now. If I can actually stop the rust, It should be the same in 20 years. Obviously, this is the quickest fix.

Option #2 seems like the least intrusive way to fix the problem and a reasonable long term fix. Seems much closer to the "right" way to fix it. I also like this one because we won't have to use a wire feed while the dash and wiring are in place (I'm not willing to take them out at this point)

Option #3 seems is arguably the proper war to repair it but also the most intrusive. Concerns are welding as noted above. Also could snowball into a lot of work on the underside to make it "right". Edit - Replacement pans are full length and about $275. I have not been able to find any patch panels.

Another consideration is that we are planning on leaving 4 weeks from today with this car for the Power Tour.

If you've taken the time to read my ramblings above, I would appreciate your thoughts on the options.

[74NovaMan]

Next up is the issues found with the drivers floor pan. I'm still working out how I want to fix this. An 8" x 8" patch would take care of it. Bottom and top respectively:

[74NovaMan]

There are 6 patches of some type of adhesive (4 large ones in the front and rear footwells and 2 small ones under the rear seat) on the floor that the jute backing of the carpet stuck to when we pulled out the carpet. As it turns out, they are sealant for the drain plugs and are very firmly attached to plugs and floor. This is as far as I got removing one of them before I figured out that it was not for holding the carpet down. Plan on these is to remove the jute and leave them in place.

[74NovaMan]

I went out last night to hit the rusty spots with a wire wheel in prep for the POR15. Prep:

[trukluvr]

Looking good man.

[74NovaMan]

We got the new carpet a couple of weeks ago and laid it out (instructions say to get it out of the box ASAP so that the the carpet will retain its shape). I covered it with an old sheet because I knew this would happen:

[74NovaMan]

Forgot to mention the manual I got from the Convertible Top Guys. It was about 10 pages and $20. I was not terribly impressed, but it was probably worth it in the end.

[74NovaMan]

Removal went about as you would expect it to. I will say that getting the console out is a bitch. Floors look decent. We have just a little bit of surface rust to take care of on the drivers side. I'm hoping to pickup some POR 15 today.

[74NovaMan]

That wraps the top install. Next up: Carpet!

Out with the old:





Looks really disgusting when you get it out in the light!

[74NovaMan]

Wow!

Thanks - We are pretty pleased with how it turned out. The way we drive the car, the top is down 99% of the time anyway.

Last Saturday we went out and installed the new "Metro - Super Soft" weartherstriping which went fairly well. I was looking for some decent online info for the different weatherstrip manufacturers and settled on Metro mainly because of price, availability and the not finding anyone saying it was junk. Classic Industries had it in stock.

We also installed a new one of these as our old one was pretty severely cracked in 3 places. I was also very surprised these were available.



That piece covers up the bottom of the front bow. We got this piece from Hawk's Motorsports FKA Hawk's Third Gen.

[74NovaMan]

Shortly after that, I stretched it and latched it.