zmasta101

Hey everyone!
I was wondering this floor looks like it is repairable, or does it look like the body is just going to rot?

zmasta101

one more pic...

Ward

iTrader: (1)

Holy crap, that's some serious flintstones-mobile action going on there. You'll need new floor pans (or ones cut from a donor car). It's definitely past the point of patch panels.

GeeJenn91RSV8

Wow! Thats some serious rot. I mean from what I can see not only does the floor look shot but also everything around it. Is it worth putting new floors in? Can you give us some info on the car?

zmasta101

The car is a 1988 IROC-Z

Titan85

iTrader: (1)

I would cut that floor pan out and weld in a new pan on that side. They are a bit pricey at around $250 from classic industries but they are brand new, full length sold per side.

TheScaryOne

iTrader: (3)

That's both sides though. And if he can't weld, that bumps up the price DRAMATICALLY.

That's... Freaking. Horrifying. O.o

I must ask, before the carpets came out, how was the road noise? :P

guamcamaro91

that's gonna cost you a whole lot, buddy.

87cmroiroc305ho

iTrader: (2)

good luck fixing them, if they are in by the trans crossbrace mount area, the frame rails, dont bother, its all integrated. but good luck

joshh44

anything can be repaired. if you have the money and or skills to do it.
but from looking at thos photos. i would just try to sell the car and get different one. if there s that much rust there. i wounder how much rust is in the other parts of the car. you could keep this car and buy another camaro and use this car as a donor car for parts and what not,

TheScaryOne

iTrader: (3)

Yea. And if you do find a new car that's not cancer'd, or even if you repair this one. Either constantly wash the underside of the car, or coat it with POR-15, or something similar.

grthrawn

now my only question if the the floor pans are that bad how bad are the wheel wells? is the car really worth saving when that bad

Kevman

If the floor is that bad, imagine the subframe.. I was lucky like that with my '89 'bird, the rear main seal leaks and it sprays fresh oil underneath daily..

zmasta101

I'm not sure if the car is worth saving or not, honestly. That's what I'm trying to determine. I payed $1900 for it, so if I can't get it back to the standards of a daily driver, is it possible for me to part it out and get my money back. I do have a lot of the interior and such that was in the car...

Frozer!!!

iTrader: (11)

Damn did someone soak this car in a salt bath. Id check the rest of the underbody and throw some more pics of the subframes and stuff and well let you know if its worth it

xbcrguy182x

Ahh!!!! My eyes! That car must have something special for you to keep it. Unless you know how to weld and can get floorboards for cheap, its going to cost you too much to fix it. heck, with that money, maybe you could buy 2 other 3rd gens...or a 4th gen.

Roadkid91

Floor? What floor?

Guro 305

IMHO, it's not worth fixing. Salvage what you can and look for something better.

Less of a headache and more fun. If the engine is still in good shape, then maybe look for a Camaro that has a good body but a crappy engine and do a swap. But no plasma cutter and sheet metal in the world is going to fix that rust bucket.

You may find some joy early on working on it but you'll eventually get sick of it when it starts to feel like it has no end. But hey, the choice is yours.

zmasta101

honestly, I haven't even gotten to the point of really working on the floor, and it already feels that way :| The engine and trans seem good. I am already at the point that I want to cut my losses. Let me explain how I got the car. I was a 16yr old w/o a license craving to get a car, fell in love with this car, and bought it.(Was posted on ebay) WTF that shoulda been the first sign, the horror stories of rust on cars from ebay. I guess I might just have to take it as a lesson learned

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

Actually rule #1 when buying any thirdgen is to crawl underneath and look at the floorpans. It is the first thing I look at. Skip the engine and trans...I can replace those...skip the interior...I can replace those too....skip the body panels...I can repair those...but the floor boards are a different story. Since I don't weld I must find someone that can and has knowledge of our cars. That is a hard find and I am in a large metropolis area. I was down in Arizona in March and the rust free cars there would make me buy a car from the south or west before anything with rust north of the Mason-Dixon line.

To answer your question you can repair the floors but don't look for a quick fix. And if you do decide to fix check the other rust areas like the wheel wells, firewall and by the subframes. If there is no rust in these areas and you like the car then go ahead and fix. New floorboards are around $250.00. Then there is the labor to weld.

zmasta101

Yea, I do really really love this car. I would like to restore it simply because it was the first car I every purchused.(Unfortunately LOL) I seen on classic industries that you can purchase both sides as a kit for $400.00. I think I might try doing that. And, I have slight welding experience(highschool) but my dad went to school for it and will most likely be doing it. I have access to welders, so thats not an issue. What is an issue, is what precautions do I take beforehand as far as bracing, gas lines, etc? Also, on Classic Industries they sell driver/passenger and middle supports. What would those be exactly? Is that the part the seats mount to?

hot92RS

Does your dad know what he is going to get into? If you're going to ask him to do some welding or maybe all the welding, I am sure he is not going to want to throw good money (or time) after bad. IMHO, save what you can and look for another car. You do want to drive it at some time, don't you? Based on what you have shown us, this will require way too much time and money to fix. Just because it was the first car you bought, doesn't mean you can't learn something from NOT restoring this one. Just think if you get all of this done and you miss something, as you said you are new to this. This is not just a case of cutting a little piece out. Your call though.

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

I don't want to discourage you but those floor pans are a big part of the STRUCTUAL INTEGRITY of the car. Because our cars are put together with two frames (a front and a back) and are not connected the floor pans have a lot to do with keeping the car solid. It kind of takes an expert body man to put those floor pans in. I am not going to say yopu and your dad can't do it. I will say though...DO YOUR HOMEWORK by visiting or talking with an experienced body man. Of particular note is the floor pan rolls up towards the sill plate (body by Fisher piece is on top of it) and that requires special attention.

zmasta101

I will be posting pics of the interior floor once I grind of the surface rust and vacuum it all up so I can see how bad the rust is by the door jams, the body still seems solid running down their. Anyways, here are pics I took today of the underbody and such of the car.

zmasta101

more...

zmasta101

more

zmasta101

not done yet

zmasta101

bump

zmasta101

they just keep going

zmasta101

forever

zmasta101

finally the end!

Frozer!!!

iTrader: (11)

Push it to the curb

xbcrguy182x

WOW....you must have bad luck. If you want another fbody, you should get a newer 4th gen, less chance of rust....lol

Frozer!!!

iTrader: (11)

Thats enough out of you with your 4th gen propaganda! lol

xbcrguy182x

lol, Sorry...r1cer.

IROC212

iTrader: (1)

I'm a champion of saving old cars, but that one is too far gone. I would look out west for a decent shell (assuming of course you live on the east coast) If you do want to try to save it, you'd be better off finding a complete rolling chassis to cannablize it'll be cheaper in the long run. That sucks man, sorry.

TREK

Lesson learned! Sorry dude i know exactly how you feel.

RAD5

Part it out.....it's worth more dead than alive!

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

Oh boy..I am all for saving thirdgens but you got rust in the strut mounts and where the sub frame connects to the floor pan....this is major and even replacing the floor pan won't help...this car set for awhile over grass I bet...find a roller and start the transfer...and think about this...if this is the rust you can see now imagine the rust you can't see in a year or two....

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

If the rest of the car was good, find a roller. An old V6 with a blown motor or something that's allready been stripped down could be had for probably less than the floorpans on this one. Then transfer over all the good stuff like the motor or interior and you'll have one good car.

If you have hangups about killing your first car, think of it this way: If you move everything but the rotted stuff over to the donor rolling chassis, and say there's 75% of your first car and 25% of the roller in the final product, isn't it still your first car then? Lol.

Also... I've been working with rust on my car and had a big hole in the floorpan. Sometimes the hole in the driver's floorpan is caused by wet shoes over a few decades like in my car (really bad metal prep by GM). But that isn't the case with yours. You have a much bigger problem, and I certainly wouldn't want to tackle it.

dark_daku89

looks a lot like my car, swiss cheese floor, rust everywhere... and I agree when everyone says just get a roller with a good body and use all of the good parts from the iroc over to the roller.

zmasta101

Thank you guys so much for the help!

86blackiroc

iTrader: (12)

Other than the lack of floor pans, I have seen much worse than that. The floor supports, main rails and rear wheelwells look OK, which is amazing considering what the pans look like. The battery tray area, lower core support, rear impact bar and rear wheel arch aren't that big of a deal to fix, but when you add them all up... it's a big project. In agreement, find a solid shell and swap everything over.

Codename 47

iTrader: (4)

You can buy a solid thirdgen for 1k bucks or less. My buddy is giving me his 88 IROC roller for free. It's from georgia, it's rust free and even has a roll cage. Good deals are out there.


This isn't a 69 Z28. It's a 3rd gen. They made 1000000000000000000000000 of them. Just be sure to be **** about the under body. If it's got corrosion pass it up. Surface rust is cool, but corrosion/rotting is not acceptable. You'll find a good one, trust me I found mine for 3k bucks (the picture has the IROC rims that I added after I bought it). I'm up in Wisconsin: big time rust belt action. It was stored winters. Took me a year and a half to locate it though. (I was looking for a 85-90 Z28/IROC 5 speed ttops only though, so I was a bit picky) It's not quite a show car, but looks better than 95% of the thirdgens out there.



Good luck buddy.

dark_daku89

beautiful car... They are really nice and cheap over in the states, but where i live (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) people tend to over price their cars and its really hard to find a rust free body for a price like you've mentioned.

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

I agree, these cars are very hard to find in the rust belt in good shape. Not expensive, but hard to find. I also sort of like the idea of bringing cars back to life, so a bit of rot I'm willing to deal with. But the pictures above, I would not. That car died a long time ago

Guro 305

These cars are starting to become hard to find anywhere. So much so that T/A Creations has jacked up the price of thirdgen parts that are not compatible with fourthgen parts.

I spoke to him awhile back over stuff I needed that I usually found quite easily from him or some junkyard and now he's even telling me he's having a hard time getting thirdgen stuff regardless of where it comes from. Unfortunately, we must look to little brother the fourthgen for parts now. Eventually I think we'll start seeing alot more thirdgens with fourthgen-type interiors.

It's true though, cars out west have no rest. Apparently rust doesn't grow in the dry arid climate so any car from West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Southeastern California will have no rust. Cars down south are in better shape then up north and the midwest but us on the coastline have to worry about beach rust instead of salt rust. Although the salt air doesn't screw up the bottoms as bad, if you hang out at the beach too much and don't rinse the bottom of your car off.........same problem. It's like owning a boat. Once you put it on your trailer outta the marina, you gotta rinse off the saltwater.

But in no way have I seen beach rust do what salt rust does. Sorry brother, I think I was the first one to say it but I will say it again. Save what you can, and get yourself a nice donor car and swap it all out. I have the same feelings you have for your car that I have for mine(although it was the second car I ever owned but first one I actually bought). However, my scenario was different where the body is tip-top since it lived in a garage covered with dust but over time the interior has turned to yellow dust as some of you have experienced.

The interior still looks similar to when I bought it since I've done a good job replacing part for part, but in all reality, it's not much of my original car anymore. But..........it's still my car!

redltcamaro

First of all that rust is horrific!!, second of all yes if you know how to weld it is fixable. Make sure you put 2 inch inserts were needed if you are doing the work. and make sure you use weld-on primer. and undercoat the floor pan. make sure you get rid of all the rusty floor pan as well. If you know how to weld you will be fine. just remember that that is really thin metal and to try not to warp it

camaro_boy123

Good Morning,

It really depends what you are interested in doing. I had the exact same rust, i even think mine was worse. I replaced both side floor pans in the end. You must keep it as straight as possible because it will flex. But before you cut it. Brace the car on jackstands and then go at it. Drilling out all the spot welds. Its accually really fun to do. I have pictures of the whole job. from when it looked like your to when i was completely finished. I must of used enough sand ( sandblaster ) , that i could replenish the beaches today lol. If you are interested, email me and ill send you the pics of it all.

Good luck and have fun

Douglas

douglas.whiteing@gmail.com