10/28/2025
Today is a day off from Emma, so blog it is. We really put the hammer down yesterday on the passenger side, but before we get to that – have a look at what a side looks like before we move all that shitty 80s carpet padding.
As it turns out, it’s NOT sound dampener – though it may have a little bit of that effect.
Getting it off is a metric shit-ton of work. Scraping. Goo-Gone-ing.
Then it looks like this….
Yes. I am wearing a mask and eye protection. Big ass clouds of rust.
This is what it looks like after sanding!
And this is what it looks like if you turn out all the lights and put a flashlight under the floor-pan:
Riiiiight…. so obviously we have some work to do.
So what’s next?
Well, part of it’s here:
So here’s what we’re going to do:
- Finish removing the carpet padding
- Finish sanding
- Clean with isoprophyl alcohol all around (99%)
- Cover the entire floor with rust converter – this will chemically convert the rust to metal, adding life to the floor-pan
- Repair those gorgeous pin-holes (there are definitely more on the other side – maybe more with this:
In a perfect world would I buy a welder and tack weld each hole?
Yeah, ideally.
Am I willing to learn to weld and purchase a whole new machine for such a small job?
Nah, not right now.
- Install some professional-grade sound deading foam:
So these back of these panels is highly adhesive. The rust converter has a kind of primer in it that will make this work really well.
We’ll have to cut them to shape, but that’s not a huge deal.
THEN we’ll re-carpet the car.
This may seem like a lot, but with the level of rust we have here, the right thing to do is exactly what we’re doing.
We’re giving Emma another 40-60 years of stability here.
We’re still waiting on some parts, but that’s okay because that driver’s side is going to be a ton of work.
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