The Hidden Rot

27th August
So, as planned we got on with splitting the floor pan from the body. 

Prior to purchasing the car, we checked the body was bolted down.  Unfortunately we checked under the back seat, and in the front up to the frame head but not down the length as the floor pan looked really good.

When we came to remove the body and found half of the bolts missing, we realised after much debate and investigation that someone had gone to the effort of making up repair panels that covered the original bolts (including all the rust and rot), and welded these to the outer cills.

These had to be cut out to release the body from the pan, taking almost 2 days to complete.

If you need some tips/details on how to split the car, check out the you-tube clips from this company http://www.swrnc.com

Here's a view of the newly removed floor pan:

The main floor pan itself is not in bad condition.  If this were a beetle, suitable small repair panels could be found and used.   The next photos show the rear corners, they are bad, but the main frame head is still good.

Front corners are also poor.

And some dodgy looking repair panels over the front frame head.

 

 

 

Decision time......for ease and quality, I think we will purchase replacement pan halves (£140 each).

I will post photos of the heater channels and cills when I get over the shock of how poor they are, and how much the replacement parts will be.