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Windshield Leak = Rusty Floors Need Advice

R

rmstephenson

New member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Location
Burlington, VT
So my "rust free" ebay car really needs to be dealt with. I have been avoiding the issue for over a year, but getting stuck in a small flash flood forced me to pull all the carpets and pad. I knew I had a windshield leak and a soft spot behind the front passenger's seat, but I wasn't prepared for this big of a hole.


photo-1.jpg


In addition to this spot there is a 1" hole in the front passenger foot well along the frame rail, and a few other spots that are pretty superficial (size wise at least).

The root of the problem is a leaky windshield, and there is some small rust bubbling at the windshield base. The car had a front end collision sometime in its recent past, and I think they did a ****ty job with the paint and windshield seal. When I pulled the carpet I found a few pounds of leaves in front of the A/C evaporator and in the frame rails. Any ideas on where those would come from? How do I know I got them all out?

I bought a POR-15 kit to patch the floor and random holes, and I was thinking I would have a go at pulling the windshield to do the same. Any reason I shouldn't do this myself? I have the time to work on it this summer.

Thanks!
 
ive seen a lot of 240s with similar rust. I know my 88 245 had it. It lived in florida all its life and never saw road salt once but it rusted because there was always moisture under the sound deadening mats from a windshield leak....

It was the only spot of rust on the entire car.
 
ive seen a lot of 240s with similar rust. I know my 88 245 had it. It lived in florida all its life and never saw road salt once but it rusted because there was always moisture under the sound deadening mats from a windshield leak....

It was the only spot of rust on the entire car.
 
blkaplan said:
ive seen a lot of 240s with similar rust.
Click to expand...

Yep. That's where they all rust out even if the rest of the car doesn't have any. I've welded in 18 ga. patch panels in several 240's with this sort of damage. It's not easy work. Actually, it's a pain in the ass to get all of the undercoating off so one can weld in new metal and welding overhead getting showered with sparks isn't fun either.

After the patch panels are welded in, I paint the area with Rust Bullet or POR-15 and then spray some black undercoating over it.
 
Sounds like I am not the first one to tackle this problem. I am thinking I'll get a few quotes from local shops before jumping into it myself. Might be better to have fun this summer instead of cursing at my car.
 
I had this on my car as well. At first I was intimidated and discouraged so I went to a shop for a quote. He estimated around $400, which I felt was a bit low since he wasn't really aware of how bad it actually was. Check to see if your rust extends to under the panel the seats attach to. If you know anyone with a welder and some skill with it, and time to have the car down, you would be able to do it yourself. klokkerholmusa sells the floor pans, but if the rust is like mine was, the problem is where the seat panel meets the floor pan and beyond as well.

If you wanna go the shop route just do some more exploration of the floor to see what all is bad so they can give you a better idea of cost.
 
We could handle this at my shop as long as the rust hasn't eaten up the door jambs. Correction: I could fix door jambs, but at some point the cost of extensive repairs exceeds the value of the car. I'm up in Athens, but I get down to ATL pretty often and could meet up to take a look at it. Shoot me a PM and we can go from there.
 
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So how does one safely get the trim off around the windshield? My car gets a hint of mustiness after long rains, so I think it's developing a small leak.
 
that would be a good piece to make patch panels from, you probably dont want or need to replace the entire pan.

theres no reason for a rusty floor to be a car killer
 
MarineTex said:
Extensive process pictures from the website of Alan Auto in Maine, a Volvo restorer, on a similarly rusted out floor pan on a '78 242.

Link: http://www.alanauto.com/1978_volvo_242.htm
Click to expand...

That is some real professional work there. The most important thing they did do is remove the seat pan to get to the damage beneath. I drilled the spot welds out and took the whole thing off, cut out the bad parts of the floor beneath, patched, replaced good junkyard sourced seat panel, done. No where near as nice, but it was doable with a friend with basic welding skills. Just gotta go for it...and probably do some good anti rust/protecting to the seams once its done.
 
Those guys do some awesome work it looks like. Love their Save the 240s page. Loving that almost everything they list to look out for - roof rack mounts, windshield, floors is wrong with my car. Almost want to do the drive to Portland Maine (only 4 hours from my new home in Vermont) and have them go to town.
 
I recently did this to my 240. I replaced the passenger floor pan, the driver's floor pan, the rear passenger floor pan and both rockers. It had eaten up into the inner rockers and the seat belt mounts as well! Needless to say, it is a monster job to do, but when it's done right, you can be relatively sure you're getting more years out of the car. Throw away the factory sound deadening pads as they just trap water next to the floor. We sealed the floor with truck bed liner. We continued the liner up the inner rockers and outside on the new outer rockers so they would be protected as well. Good luck if you decide to go for it. Sounds like yours isn't as bad as mine is. I'll post pics if you guys want.
 
most of the 240 have this because of manufacturing error.
there is no weather sealant under the front seat "island"
you can see it in my 245 build thread - even the 58k cali car was starting to get this.


I had to cut out a part of driver seat frame support to get to all the rust
84 245
p1040608jo.jpg



83 244 58k mile car - the white sealant just stops where the seat frame support goes
p1040648n.jpg



painted result and then insulated
p1040650y.jpg

p1040654qh.jpg
 
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