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Rusty Floors...Need Advice

G

Glen1978

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Mar 6, 2016
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Location
Buena Vista, Colorado
Ill start this with Im from Texas and dont know about rust.....it scares me. Ok, thats done. I now live in Colorado and its something I will have to deal with. Bought a 89 K5 and the driver side kick panel, inner rocker and in front of rear tires is rusty. Same on passenger side but not near as bad. The drivers side is ate through in a couple places (finger size holes up to a baseball size hole in front of driver rear tire) and the passenger side is just pretty severe surface rust. There is no carpet in this thing, Im not trying to restore it just dont like rust. What are my options here? Id like to at bare minimum stop it. Ive read that the rust converters (whatever they do) arent what they used to be.

My plan was to spray/roll/whatever bed liner in the floors and then put some heavy universal truck bed mats down to quiten the interior from road noise some. No plans for carpet as we will be leaving the top off of it during most of the summer and we get frequent 30 minute rain showers up here. I appreciate the help!
 
I'm doing some rust repair in the floors now. It's been a pain in the ass, I decided to just patch the holes, but the rust has thinned out the floors a bit at points and even w/ the welder turned down low it burns right through... If you have flakey floors just replace them.
 
Where's a good place to order floor pans from? Passenger side of mine is half gone, there is no rocker on that side anymore, drivers side has holes in it, and that rocker is half gone.
 
Just dont use aluminum signs or roof flashing--it'll make a "battery" out of the floor,electrolosis will eat up the remaining floor in record time..

I bought a truck that someone had patched the floors with aluminum roof flashing and aluminum pop rivets--nearly every rivet had pulled loose from the hole it was in,the rivet "ate" the steel away ,and also made a large hole around it where it touched the flashing,like acid was poured on it...everywhere the flashing touched unpainted steel,it was all punky.

I ended up tearing all that out,cut back the weak sections to good unrusted metal,and used galvanized 16 gauge steel panels from a old freezer unit to patch it-- and used nuts & bolts and drive screws to hold it in place...tried welding and brazing it in,but the floor was thin,and it tended to blow holes in it,and I got the zinc chills from brazing it...
I like bolting,pop riveting or drive screwing panels in better,and I can put roofing tar or caulking between the panel and floor to resist water intrusion better--cant do that with welds..(be careful with silicone,some will eat steel !)..

The 73-87 floors are fairly easy to make patches for--the 67-72 and older trucks are more difficult,the floor has many curves and takes more "doing"...I'd buy repair panels for those trucks..
 
Um, yeah, I definitely riveted roofing flashing to my floor, fortunately, it's steel flashing. Don't know about the rivets, though. I would just make patch panels and burn them in, but I have to replace (or in my passenger sides case, install) the rockers, and want everything to go together the way it's supposed to. Not trying to make a show truck out of it, just want to pass it on to my future kids.
 
I use mostly galvanized sheet steel,like you see for heating ducts or furnace smoke pipe,or old above ground pools--its easily obtained for free often and it'll outlast the rest of the truck...the only drawback is the zinc if you want to weld it,the fumes can make you very sick for a few days...as in liquid poops and upset stomach & more !..

Another good source of steel that resists rust well is the sheet metal used on things like kitchen stoves,fridges,washing machines,etc..they are epoxy painted steel that is a bit tougher to bend because its "springy",but if you install it by riveting or screws and leave the original paint intact it'll stay rust free a long time..the local dump's metal pile always has tons of scrap appliances to cannibalize here..
 
diesel4me said:
I use mostly galvanized sheet steel,like you see for heating ducts or furnace smoke pipe,or old above ground pools--its easily obtained for free often and it'll outlast the rest of the truck...the only drawback is the zinc if you want to weld it,the fumes can make you very sick for a few days...as in liquid poops and upset stomach & more !..
Click to expand...
Sounds like Navy ship food!
 
Beastk577 said:
Where's a good place to order floor pans from? Passenger side of mine is half gone, there is no rocker on that side anymore, drivers side has holes in it, and that rocker is half gone.
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tapco... made in the usa floor pans
 
Please elaborate. Are you talking about the difference between blazers where they went to a footwell for the rear passengers? I think the chang happened when the k5 went to a half top....

I am trying to restore a 74 body to swap out for my rusted out 73 body. Neither of these has the footwell for the rear passengers.
 
mofugly13 said:
Please elaborate. Are you talking about the difference between blazers where they went to a footwell for the rear passengers? I think the chang happened when the k5 went to a half top....

I am trying to restore a 74 body to swap out for my rusted out 73 body. Neither of these has the footwell for the rear passengers.
Click to expand...
for the 78+ tabco has two styles for the front floor. One style goes up front more where the feet are and the other goes more back.
 
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