Floor Pans Part 2

I set out with my angle grinder and took away the most affected areas of rusted metal. I started by marking out the area with my marker so that i would not hit the chassis member. Then cut around so I have two rectangle shapes and with the middle piece I grinned down the metal where it was overlaying the member so that I could see the welds. Then drilled out the welds with a small drill bit. Then after I cut out the floor pans I measured out the floor sizes and transfered the sizes onto card cut outs so that I could use it as a templates on the new floor pans.

Removing The Dashboard

I have removed the dashboard in the viva but it was not an easy task, the dash is bolted on. Your best bet is just to have patience with it.

The best approach that I found was, that under the dash unscrew every cross headed screw you can find. That should then open some of the storage compartments. When you get them out you will be able to get to the back of the dash where the bolts are. I think they are 10mm, trust me it helps to know because it is such a fiddly job.
When the dashboard was out I was able to take out the rest of the wiring loom. So now the only wiring I have left in the car is that around the steering wheel. Which I am glad I did . Because when I started to cut out the floor panels the amount of sparks that flew up would of set fire to the wiring for sure.

Floor Pans Part 1

Now that VIV is in her new home its time to get to work on her floor. So I plan to cut out the old floor pans and weld some floors pans in that I manage to get from an astra. So I go under car to check where the major chassis rails are. and start to mark out the where I need to cut.


Now all marked out I start to cut out the floor with my angle grinder, the two lines down the middle are where the chasis rail is running. So I start to cut but as I am only wearing a t-shirt the hot metal is being bounced of the foot well onto my arm and I am getting burnt so it will have to wait till tomorrow now so I can go home and get some more suitable clothes. Hence the slight bit cut out on the top line. sad ay (be a man)....

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.

Cleaning the Contacts for the Wiring

Knowing the exterior was all fixed up i moved onto the interior/wiring.
So i started taking apart the interior i took out the steering surrounds and half the dash board so that i could get to all the wiring. I cleaned up all the contacts for the lights and steering as the lights were not functioning properly. Cleaning all the contacts with I.P.A. and an old toothbrush(not mine) seemed to fix them all up good. Things get old and contacts corrode.

Knowing that the interior wiring was good I move onto the earthing to the straps to the car. This was simple, just unbolt clean if can be used again -bolt back on, if they cant be used just fix on a new one(can be bought from any good car shop). The key here is to recycle everything.