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Old 12-23-2014, 09:39 PM
leathermang leathermang is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: central Texas
Posts: 17,281
Let me expand on JB3's view...
There are lots of threads in the archives about welding... floor pan replacement and that sort of stuff....
Welding when dealing with rusted automobile lower metal is seldom the proper way to make the situation safe.
The physics of it first.... stick a stick or any real heat... welding rod to already rusted metal and it goes AWAY.... gone .... not to be recovered.... and often will start a fire or make terrible fumes due to the stuff sprayed on it by the factory...
The short version of this advise is this...... find the metal that is good... treat the rusted metal.... and attach to the good metal overlapping with a combination of PLUG WELDS... and SOLID STEEL RIVETS...... alternating if you can depending on access to the backside of the good metal.... you make the holes with a cheap air powered combo offset flanger and a hole punch... that is what you plug weld through... you drill for the rivets...
You use Clecos to hold the sheet metal in place while you start the process of doing the permanent welds and rivets.... they will typically use a one eight inch hole.
You typically find the ' good metal ' by using a ' pick' hammer... it will show really fast what still has strength and what is punk.
These things are discussed in the archives under my name .... telling some really stubborn people that wanted to WELD a 100 percent seam installing a new floor pan... which.. for the record takes away any rust resistance the remaining metal had left...
You are encouraged to rust ' proof ' as best you can after the fix... keeping in mind that some things like fiberglass... or POR15.... will make future fixes almost impossible... and the POR15, while claiming a lot... MUST be applied under very specific conditions to obtain good results...
There are websites in the archives for things like the flanger, aircraft tools for rivet tools, etc....

Ah-kay is not being pessimistic ... being realistic about STRUCTURAL problems ... which affect Safety... is only smart... and while I did describe some metal working realities... remember that I suggested ONE and THREE in my first post... this other was just general rust information.... not for this car given what the OP has said...
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