First time corvair owner needing complete floor pan

[terribleted]

I also question the idea of repairing this car. I also think it is very rusty well beyond the floors and under side. If it was me, I would find a much better car to restore. I really hate to put tons of time and money into a rust bucket when I can put the same money and less time into a non rusty car and end up at the same place, BUT, with a solid car under the pretty rather than a patched up rust heap. The difference in cost and effort would be minimal and in fact the project would likely cost less starting with a better car.

Not restoring it, just making it safe. I've got more then a few years of restoring classic chevys and building low riders, static drop, hydraulics and air bags. I've built everything from show cars to rat rods and even did the import thing for a little while but I've wanted to do a corvair for a while and this one was cheap and even though the floor pans are shot the car is solid and had no flex when it was lifted to take the pictures and the doors line up and close with ease so no sagging. The rockers are solid and strong so in my opinion it's worth putting floor pans in.

So you put floor pans in a $200 car and have a car worth $200?

[guru_1071]

just my 2p's worth (or ten cents for you lot!)

this car is shagged, I bet the bulkhead has gone in it as well, but your problems with the floors is that it looks as if the rot extends under the rear seat base, there are no panels for this area and its an utter swine to remake - some very complicated shapes around all the air pipes etc

the clarks pans, although good for 'pan repairs' are just not really designed to repair rot as extensive as this as they are not big enough to deal with problems that extend under the front seat area.

have a look at my blue project here - I was daft enough to make a start on this one (though corvairs are much more rare over here obviously) - the current situation with this one is that the entire floor is done, the frames are rebuilt and back in, but still a lot to do

viewtopic.php?f=52&t=11829 (no photos of the finished floor im afraid - I got sick of photobucket

I got so sick of welding this one I bought a much better one from the states, and although it needed a pair of trimmed down clarks pans to make it right, it was an utter pleasure to do as that was the only area of rot (again, in the UK pop rivets, bondo, nuts and bolts are not acceptable methods of repairing floors, any patches must be seam welded in to satisfy the mot tester)

I think that with the amount of corvairs at your disposal in the usa it would be life affirming to buy a better one!

[The_real_free]

Again I'm not restoring the corvair. I'm building a low rider rat rod out of it.

[The_real_free]

Do you have experience in dealing with a car with unibody construction? A unibody vehicle is an automobile construction technique in which the body is integrated into a single unit with the chassis rather than having a separate body-on-frame.

Yes I've done a few camaros, mustangs and hondas so I do have experience working on unibodied cars and I do know what unibody means but thank you for explaining incase I didn't. I'm sure there are a plenty of people out there that don't know what they are or how important the floors and crossbracing is on them. I will have to try to find the build thread you're talking about just to see the work he put in to his corvair because I do love seeing the progress and completed products. This particular car has never had and bondo or body filler so nothing hidden. I never "half-ass" anything that has anything to do with a vehicles structural integrity because it's not just my life I'd be putting at risk but instead it's every other person on the road and their passengers life that I'd endanger so that being said please understand that I take this very serious and wouldn't attempt replacing the floors of a unibody vehicle if I wasn't completely confident in my abilities to make it as strong if not stronger then original.

[The_real_free]

So you put floor pans in a $200 car and have a car worth $200?

No idea where you got $200 from and by the time I'm done with mine I wouldn't except $10,000 for it. The original patina look might not be your thing but it's actually a very popular trend and I love clear coated sun faded original paint and surface rust. Can I ask you a question? Why are you posting on my thread if you don't have anything constructive to say? Why do people feel the need to try to put someone down or rag on their projects and troll other people from behind the safety of their keyboards? Are their lives so crappy and boring that they have to go online and try to get a rise out of someone to make themselves feel like they're not just a complete waste of space and oxygen? I have no interest in going back and forth so maybe they should go out and buy a xbox so they can trash talk some 12 year old on call of duty to break the boredom of their pathetic lives and pretend they actually matter. Me myself I'm going to just do me and let everyone else do whatever they want and not post stupid shit on their threads unless it's a positive acknowledgement of their progress or helpful advice when they are asking for it because my life doesn't suck and I have no need to try to troll anyone or get into online fights. But hey thanks for stopping by and good luck with whatever you're doing

[The_real_free]

Not mine, just a example of the look I'd be going for with my corvair.

[terribleted]

The_real_free post_id=101972 time=1539397142 user_id=8592]
So you put floor pans in a $200 car and have a car worth $200?

No idea where you got $200 from and by the time I'm done with mine I wouldn't except $10,000 for it. The original patina look might not be your thing but it's actually a very popular trend and I love clear coated sun faded original paint and surface rust. Can I ask you a question? Why are you posting on my thread if you don't have anything constructive to say? Why do people feel the need to try to put someone down or rag on their projects and troll other people from behind the safety of their keyboards? Are their lives so crappy and boring that they have to go online and try to get a rise out of someone to make themselves feel like they're not just a complete waste of space and oxygen? I have no interest in going back and forth so maybe they should go out and buy a xbox so they can trash talk some 12 year old on call of duty to break the boredom of their pathetic lives and pretend they actually matter. Me myself I'm going to just do me and let everyone else do whatever they want and not post stupid shit on their threads unless it's a positive acknowledgement of their progress or helpful advice when they are asking for it because my life doesn't suck and I have no need to try to troll anyone or get into online fights. But hey thanks for stopping by and good luck with whatever you're doing

Dude!! The car you have is worth around $200 for scrap where I am from. If you spend a bunch of time, welding wire, and new/used parts to make a floor in it, it would gain zero value at that point. My quip was only concerning the floors and the value of the car. A car like yours just adds a lot of labor and difficulty of repair that would not be necessary with a better body that I feel could likely be purchased for less than the value of the parts, welding wire and labor of fixing this cars floor. My only desire is to try to make sure you look close and know what you are getting into. Unibody cars are not like body on frame cars, they hide much more internal and, (since the entire body is structural) structural rust.

Around the south east you can fairly readily find and buy similar Corvairs that do not need entire floor replacement and still have a rusty patina for under $500. For around 2k you can get one that does not need an entire floor and tunnel structure and you can likely drive it home. I am not trying at all to put anyone down. Looks like a mistake to me to mess with that particular car. I have owned over 40 of these cars in various states of repair and disrepair (many were rusty parts cars that got stripped and crushed). I have personally ground up restored 10+ Corvairs (including a couple that had bad floors and some structural rust...none looked at bad as your car) as well as multiple other old cars. I have been working on Corvairs and have been doing rust repair and bodywork on them since the mid 1980's. The car you have, unless it is very unusual in the way it rusted, is in very poor condition. It looks like a very high risk for structural and very difficult to repair cowl, rocker, and subframe rust. All I am really saying is to look close and use an icepick or awl to try to penetrate rusted steel in all subframe cowl drain and rocker panel areas so you know what you are up against, before you jump in with both feet and your wallet. IF you proceed I wish you all the luck and would like to see the result.

[The_real_free]

I appreciate your suggestion but the one I have is the one I'm doing. I have a ton of experience and am more then capable of drilling out spot welds and welding sheet metal back together and wouldn't take on this project if I didn't.

[Damon23]

I hope you share your project and start a post.