65 Monza convertible floor replacement

[65monzaragtop]

Hello all looking for a little advice on starting this repair project. I have searched the forums for information and got some good tips. But I have a few questions that needed clearing up. My project is a 65 Monza 110 convertible with very rusty front floors. After removing the interior the left front is gone up into the toe kick. The floor support is basically gone too. The passenger side is not as bad but close. There is some rust in the rear parts too but not as bad as the front. The doors on both sides latch but are sagging down about an inch. So here are my questions. 1. I assume i will need to brace the car before I start cutting out the old floors, so how do I go about getting the car "back to level". Where would I jack it since it bad on both sides. Once I get it so the doors are matched up to the body, how do I go about bracing it. One post showed taking doors off then bracing hinge to latch and then cross brace side to side. I just am concerned about getting everything to fit again once I have repaired the floors. 2. Now for the floors. The supports are gone so I am not sure what order to fix everything. I have bought new floor sections but have not found any floor supports. I bought some 55 chevy supports that looked like I could make work. Just looking for suggestions here. The rockers are not rusted thru but does have some pin holes so I am not sure how bad they really are yet. I will try and attach a few pics to help. Thanks for any suggestions. This is my first Corvair and having fun learning about it. Thanks again

[cad-kid]

Wow! That photo of the driver's side gave me an unpleasant reaction Being a vert, you will need to brace. If you have pin holes in the rockers there is certainly more rot there.

[terribleted]

That looks pretty bad. Are you sure the door is adjusted properly (even gap at the front fender)? If it is even at the front fender and gapped like that at the rear you may have a bad structural rust problem. before spending any time or money on floors inspect the rocker panels and door hinge and striker posts very closely. I would investigate with an icepick and a small hammer. Look for rust hidden under body filler. Jack the car under the front and rear jacking points on the sides of the car one spot at a time and observe door gap growth. How big do the gaps at the top of the doors grow. If jacking at the left rear jack point does the gap in your photo grow? Some small growth is normal, a large change general means structural rot where the rear wheelhouse and rear structure meets the rocker and side structure (area below and behind the rear side window, look for holes in the vertical wheelhouse panel forward of the rear wheels as well as in the inner or outer rocker and door striker post). When you jack under the front jack point does the door gap at the rear grow (jacking here on a solid car will tend to close the top rear door gap with little to no change in the top front door gap). If the door gap at the rear of the door grows alot jacked under the front jack point then loss of structure in the door hinge post and rocker panel is certain. The area below the lower door hinge is a common structural rust location for our cars. It is difficult and time consuming to fix, and even then all you can often do is a big bandaid. Another simple test that will find badly rusted cars fast, Lower top, open door about 6 inches, kneel behind door and grasp bottom with both hands. lift up and down using back and raising side of car slightly. Watch the top corner of the windshield post while doing this. If you can tell the post is moving forward and backward significantly as you do this then the car is very soft (rusty). Movement should be up and down with very slight flexing for and aft maybe. I have seen cars whose floor look like yours flex over an inch.

Jacking and bracing for repair. Jack the car under the jack points until a good door gap is seen in the front and rear of both doors. This would be easiest to accomplish with 4 jacks, but with a little tinkering you can do one side at a time and use jack stands or wood blocks to match the support level needed (the wheels may or may not be off the ground) depends on how flexy your body is, just jack until the gaps look right in each corner and stop. Go around the car and recheck once all 4 corners are supported. Adjust your dunnage (stands) as needed until the car is at a happy alignment. Apply a jack to the center of the front crossmember to sure it can not flex down (do not jack it up just support it). Remove both doors and hinges . Fabricate some metal plates 1/8" steel is excellent to mount in place of the upper door hinge and the door latch striker. Carefully cut a piece of heavy tubing or pipe to fit closely between your now mounted plates and weld in place. Do both sides of the car before changing any jacking, you can bring it down when done. I further like weld in an X brace of pipe between the left and right door opening support pipes from the last step, particularly on very rusty cars like yours as it helps a little with twist.

From your photos I would suggest that perhaps you have a parts car and should find a better body to rebuild. I would not spend the time or money to repair a car it the condition of yours. There are too many much better bodies around for reasonable prices. Once the rust gets into areas that yours is rusty in it can not really be realistically fixed. There are multiple layers of support between the rear of the wheel opening panel, the door hinge post, and the rocker panel. From your photos it appears that most of the support pieces are compromised as well as the more visible outer panels.