Floor Rot

I have just taken up the carpet and found that I have a few nasty surprises waiting for me. I have just found that I was half a millimeter away from doing a Fred Flimstone in my car.

So moving on... I am going to have to remove all that nasty rust that has been caused by the underlay of the carpet holding all the water so that the rust could form. So I have gone and got myself a decent wire brush. My plan is to rub the floor down to the point where the rust has gone and then treat with rust and metal paint. Then cut away all the rusted areas and re-plate the floor and all the other areas......

So about two hours later I have done one foot well out of two. The underlay had fused into the rust and it was just hell to get it down and out. I now have dust up my nose and all over my hands are cuts from the jagged floor. If you have to do this I suggest wearing a respirator.

After several hours of going at it solid I have cleared a lot of the worse areas. Now I plan to coat the areas in rust treatment paint until I can get new floor panels for the viva. I have not gone crazy just quick two coat with paint.As you can see from pictures this is not going to be an overnight job. Anyway I have now completed interior rot apart from two areas which I am most upset about. In the corners of my interior on my wheel arches I have noticed the sides have got black tape on them.
So I take a big breath and remove the tape to find some idiot has put tape over two majors parts of rust. instead of sorting it they have put tape to hide it. What do these people think, that bodge tape cures the problem of rust.
How about this for an ad.......
Never mind spending money on expensive metals and work hours on welding up those nasty areas of rust. Just bodge it with my miracle bodge tape. IDIOTS.
Anyway so I set out again with my wire brush to get it all out. Which seemed to take me forever. so job jobbed I cover it with the paint.Please remember for those of you that dont know this is not a resolution this will have to be cut away and a new part welded in.

Removing Seats & Carpet

After some time off to think about what I am going to do with the car. I started to remove the interior to make room for me to get to the transmission tunnel. first of all I started by removing the seats. To do this you have to lift the carpet by the front doors and locate the tunnel which the seats sit on. You will have to have a set of thin spanners else you will not be able to get to it. The other bolts are simple just use half inch spanner on the bolts and there is one alan key need for back bolts. I found the best way was remove the seats and then remove the runner legs after because the bolts are in at weird angles.
The rear seats are even easier. Just three half inch bolts on the front underside of the seat where your legs would go. Remove bottom part first by lifting at an angle and out of the hooks. Then the top bit after i found two bolts in the boot that held it, Then just lift out of hooks.

The last thing to remove before you can get the carpet up is the seat belt holdings. Easily done though just four bolts in total for seat belts. You will need a socket set that goes up to a large size because you may not get enough purchase on the slim head bolts. The seat belt catches are easy just one on each. Its best to remove them else it will rip the carpet. Heres my stack of bits.
You should now be ready to lift the carpet up.

Now the carpet is up. Under the carpet is an underlay. Unfortunately my came out in bits because the underlay was sodden. The only piece that survived was the center piece which is in the picture below. I have kept all the bits so that one day when I put the new carpet it I can use it as a template.

My next BIG problem is the amount of hidden rust that was under the carpet. I have now discovered that i have big floor rot. so big in fact that i was half a millimeter from doing a flimstones.