XJ floorboard holes

Fiberglass is rigid and will separate from the metal, holding water against the metal, and then you will have a worse situation than you have now.

Welding is best. Pop-rivets may be acceptable, depending on the nature of the holes and skill of repair. Forget about fiberglass and get some seam sealer from a body shop supply. Acceptable replacements are available at Home Depot. Urethane in a tube is great.

Earle

To be perfectly candid, all of those repair suggestions are kinda half-assed and will cause you problems down the road. It depends on the value of the truck and what you want to spend in time and money. The ONLY way to get rid of rust is to cut out the rusty floorboards and spot weld in new panels. Any sort of patch job is guaranteed to rust again.

tw

Spot weld the plates in, it doesn'ttake much to shrink to the point where the door won't close. God Bless America, Bill O|||||||Omailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

just did mine a few years ago. Be carefull as you clean/ grind the areas mine was a disaster!!!!!!!!!! More rust than first thought!! Get 20G steel from local sheet metal place, rent , borrow, or (this is a good excuse for a MIG welder purchase, how I justified mine to my wife). Make cardboard templates and then cut the sheet metal and fit into place and spot weld in best you can (tough to weld all of the area but possible). Get some SEAM SEALER and go over welds and seams top and bottom. Get some POR15 and brush on top and bottom after sealer dries and good to go. For some reason the passenger rust out bad compared to driver with moisture still present, check tube that extends from door to body with the wires in it and make sure no water gets in behind cowl. Good time to remove all the carpet and padding and give a good cleaning. Watch out if using cutting wheel and or grinding that the sparks damage roof liner and or any glass like the windshield doors etc...

Good luck about 3 beers *** skill level..

Thanks for the info... My *next* question was going to be concerning the appropriate gauge sheet metal to use... I was at a commercial construction site today and they were doing the interior walls with the sheet metal 2x6s... They were cutting off pieces from 4-6 ft in length and throwing them in the dumpster... Seemed about the right thickness, so I picked up a couple of them... At the very least, it will give me plenty of metal to practice on before I go burning holes in the floor pan of my XJ...

That 3 beers per hour, right?

I'd be picking up all the scrap they have to offer just for that reason alone. Throwing a good weld is all in the practice. especially with gas where you can blow through thin metal. Thankfully MIGs are more forgiving. :)

Of course now you will need a good plasma cutter. ;)

I may be wrong but I think those steel 2X6s are galvanized. If you are going to use them for welding make sure you have reallly good ventilation. Don't want to poision yourself!

John C.