Boot replacement advice please

[Discostoo]

Hey, please take a look at my boot... I'm in two minds wether or not the boot floor needs replacing or if I can patch it.. what do you guys think. Bare in mind I'm a total novice at this kind of thing.. cheers

[Blanco]

If you are a complete novice then I recommend a couple of hours spent picking through the relevent Classic Car SOUP videos from Shackleton/George on utube, at the end of the day it will depend on how well equipped you are and how much time you can spend on it. The car will be off the road for a little while probably, so a second vehicle would help.

Bear in mind that the visible problem is generally only a part of what really needs doing.

But we love to see people having a go and can usually help with advice, perhaps start by getting a quote for the work and then judge whether or not you could save a bit doing it for yourself.

[Richard Mills]

Hi there,

 

Mine was much worse than yours, holes big enough to put a foot through. I fitted a new boot floor over the old one, mig welded it in place. The hardest bit was getting the seat belt parts out. I took three days doing it and finished off with a good coat of hammerite green paint. It made the world of difference to my Disco.

It's well worth buying a gas-less mig welder and learning to use it, an angle grinder too.

Good luck with it.  

[joe1]

Of course you can patch it - but your patches will end up a few inches up the wheelarches. Whether this matters to you is up to you. The whole area is covered so can't be seen. And then of course other welding will need doing like body mounts or sills. So depends on how long you intend to keep the vehicle etc etc. If you are going to replace the floor though you will also need the Z channel mounting bits - the bits the boot floor sits on. These cost nearly as much as the boot floor if you need four of them (from YRM panels) - or less of course if youve got a local fabricator. Choices, choices....

[FridgeFreezer]

@Shackleton's video channel:

 

Not sure which one covers boot floor exactly but he's been front to back with the welder on the Vogue so it's in there somewhere!

From your photos I'd say you can probably patch it up and slather it in Dinitrol to hopefully stop anything else. Take the main removable floor panel out, attack the rust with a wire brush in a grinder until you've got clean shiny metal, and weld up the gaps. There's nothing too precious or complicated back there.

[Shackleton]

Legend @FridgeFreezer thanks man

@Discostoo Hi mate, you know it'll be worse than it looks right? You've three panels in play there, the inner wheel arch, the rails for the boot floor and the floor itself. To do it right you'll prob need to cut and let new metal into all three in places. But you could just throw patches in and hope they last long enough for you to have the energy to do it again in a few years  

Have a look at episode 26, at about 10:10 there's a shot of how the boot floor rail meets the inner arch. Mind though that you need to look closely to see that the rail forms a double layer with the arch. Anyway the episode will give you an idea of the construction and where exactly to inspect before you make up your mind. Other episodes that might have relevant footage are 13 and 29 [iirc]

 

[Snagger]

The important thing is to cut the rot out completely, as it'll return like a cancer if you don't.  Replacing the lost metal isn't as critical as it appears - this is not a major structural area, so a decent overlap with panel bond or PU adhesive will give a strong joint, as long as the surfaces are scrupulously clean before bonding.  This means that if you can't weld, all is not lost.

Sills and other structural areas do need good quality welding, though.

YRM Metal Solutions are a good source of the panels, and Tiger Seal is a PU adhesive I have used in semi-structural areas with excellent results - PU adhesive is used for some structural bods on combat aircraft, so it's well up to non-structural and light structural applications on cars (just not on major structures and anything involving seat and belt mountings).