Flimsy Floors

[Jonathan Annear]

I can’t tell you all how helpful everyone has been with getting my old Duchess on the road after over a decade of storage.  I apologize though for flooding the board with all of these questions. 😕  The underside of my car looks almost new but due to a hole in a garage roof, the car was subject to filling with rain water repeated.  The passenger side floor is still in tack but is flaky and rusty.  The driver side floor has a decent hole that I was going to attempt to patch.  The only disturbing thing about both sides is that they are rather flimsy.  I can pop them up and down rather easily.  Has the rust eaten away on both sides and destroyed the integrity of the floors to the point where they are solid but flimsy or is indicative of VW floors in general.  The pans were replaced 25 years ago, so maybe they just used a cheap aftermarket replacement.  Ideas?

[Mike Schumacher]

http://www.cip1.com has replacement floor pans if nothing else works out for you. Good luck – Mikejuneybug2013-06-06 19:08:32

[edward ericson]

If you can move them easily with your hand then I think they might be due for replacement. Anyone disagree?

There are thicker vs thinner (cheaper) floor replacements. If I were doing it I’d probably spend the extra $50 or whatever for the thick (i.e., 19 gauge factory thickness, or thicker) ones. Our cars don’t have the structural rigidity of the original Bugs, so every little bit probably helps.

Also, I’m told the thicker sheet steel is more forgiving of novice welders. 

[crash55]

from my research the Danish floor pans are the thickest. J.C. Whitney has them the brand name starts with a k, klor some thing.

[Jonathan Annear]

Does the whole body really need to be pulled to work on the floors?  Every thread I see regarding floor patching and replacement references removing the body.  Seems like quite the undertaking.

[Paul Mossberg]

I guess it would depend on how close to the body you will be welding.

Fiberglass will burn. And it is likely the rubber body mounting gasket is n place between the body panels and the floor pan.

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[edward ericson]

Pull the seats and carpet and take a look. (You’ll probably need carpet anyway if the floors are rusting).

New pan halves are the right way to fix VW floors, but for a little hole in an otherwise solid pan you might be able to finesse a patch.

Authenticity be damned though: metal is better than wood.

[Jonathan Annear]

So will the heat of the pans burn the fiberglass?  As for authenticity, I’m not particularly concerned for now.  I just want the car to be solid enough to tool around in for the summer.  If I can finagle some garage space in the winter, I might tackle the project of removing the body.  How difficult is it?  How many mounting points on the body to release? 

BIGBAND392013-06-14 12:09:49

[crash55]

its not hard I took off the fenders & running boards. becarefull of the heat tubes underneath.also the hood sides

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