I drove my 71 today. I came back into the garage I was looking under the car an the floor board is seprating on the seam. Anyone had this problem? An if so what is the best way to fix this under the car. With out taking the carpet up? are can it even be done that way?
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Re: floor board
I would not attempt to fix it without taking up the carpet. Everything must be clean and oil free. I am thinking of two seams, the one that run along the front near the heater box and pedals and the one's that run the length of the car near the doors.
It has probably been slowly going over the years. Chances are that it has been seperated for a while and there is all sort of road crud in the oldest area of the crack. I would wait for warm weather, take the carpet up and clean it real good with something like simple green. I would then rince the heck out of it with water. After that I would wash it with laqure thinner to pull the oil and moister out of it. If there has been a leaky master cylinder that will make cleaning it extra fun. Then, I would sand the inside of the crack with coarse grit sand paper and blow it out with "dry/filtered" compressed air. Then, I would buy some original formula adheisive and glue it back together. You may have to use some screws to hold the seam together. I would use them sparingly. Be careful not to over clamp it and squeeze all the glue out. Sometimes I put little pieces of fiberglass in the seams to prevent overclamping it. They did that at the factory when they were trying to control panel alignment and fit. You can always go back and fill the screw holes.
I would do this when it is warm out or in a well heated garage. You want everything nice and dry and let the whole thing sit for a week before you get in it again.
Make sure your clutch and brake pedals are not bottoming out on the firewall. That can cause the panel to seperate along the front floor board.
If you fix it right, it will hold and last. If you try to short cut it, you know what happens when you do that.
You will need to remove the seat, carpet, sill plate, kick panel. That should get you close enough to seeing what is going on. Also, find where the crack ends and put a screw in where the seam is still held togeter. That will keep the crack from running down the seem while you are working on it and prying the seam apart to get glue in it. Try to use original formual glue because it will give you more time to work with the speed of setting off. I am not sure if your car is SMC or not but you need to use the right glue and it needs to give you time to work it into the seam. You need to get it into the grain. I use vinyl gloves and a putty knife and massage it into the panel. After it is clamped together I use a flexable plastic spatula to clean the seam up and make it look original. I also use laqure thinner to clean the places where I got too carried away. You can use wide masking tape next to the seam. I found that to work nice. Make a big mess...when you are done just pull the tape off and most of the mess comes with it. Then use the spatula.
Just my opinion. Terry -
Re: floor board
Terry has a lot of good ideas so let me expand and add some of my own.
I would use acetone as a final cleaner not lacquer thinner. Careful not to get it on your hands. You need to relieve the stress and you need access so forget about patching it underneath. Remove the seats and carpet and clean it with hot soapy water (both sides). Look for the cause of the crack to be sure its not from an impact. As Terry stated you need to have clean working surfaces. Try supporting the floor with sturdy board on a floor jack. Use wax paper between the board and the floor. Raise the jack only enough to watch the seam go back to its natural position and check it. If its just a separation of the seam it could be just the years of flexing on a voided seam that let it open and then travel. The glass may now have taken a "set" to the distorted position. The two part epoxy for SMC will work and adhear to pressed glass for a good bond. If I remember my 71 it looked like the factory floated a lot of extra resin on the inside of my floor on the passenger side but yet I saw no signs of any repair or prior collision. You can use strips of cloth or matting that extend to both sides of the seam for added support in a laminated fashion. So far all work is being done on the inside of the car. Once everything has everything has cured release the jack and clean up the exterior so the repaired seem is undetectable. Carpet and interior will hide the repair to the seam.
1. Remove interior for access.
2. clean the area on both sides.
3. support the floor to close the seam and relieve the stress.
4. repair the seam using a two part epoxy for SCM or glass resin
5. once cured sand area and laminate strips of glass cloth or matting over the seam. Make sure to work our the air and get full saturation.
6. Once cured you can remove the jack and clean up the exterior of the floor.Comment
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Re: floor board
I was wondering why you prefer acetone? I have avoided using acetone because it is recommended for cleaning up resin and it seems to really do a number on resin that is soaked with it. It seems to dissolve it really fast. IT may actually improve a bond by softening the resin and allowing it to stick better.
Something interesting I have seen and wondered about. Last summer I ground a panel to be bonded and looked at the grind up close and all I really saw was a rough surface. But the last time I was working with some fiberglass I ground it and then rubbed it with a clean cloth lightly soaked with laqure thinner. I then let it dry and looked at it. What I saw was thousands of little hairs sticking up all over the place. The laqure allowed the resin to be removed without grinding the little hairs off with it.
I think I could get a very strong bond by using this process and then glueing with resin based glue. Because the panel resin would be softened and the fiberglass strands would be better exposed. Just a thought. TerryComment
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Re: floor board
OK Thanks where can you get this type glue?Comment
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Re: floor board
You can purchase the adhesive for bonding SCM at your local body supply. The two part tube will have a "swizzle stick" that allows the two parts to mix evenly so you have consistant mix.
I prefer acetone for cleaning because it drys clean and fast.Comment
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