TreadingLight
La Liebre de la Muerte
I'm going to build a bed / platform and insulate the floor in my troopy. Before I do, I'd like to make sure the floor is cleaned up and as protected from rust as I can reasonably get with basic tools.
I pulled the carpet out and cleaned everything up so I could get a sense of what I'm working with. Overall the floor is pretty solid - just a bit of surface rust.
But I did find a few issues.
I'm guessing that some heavy gear was attached to the floor in it's history. That would explain the deformed areas where there are holes drilled and rivets are found in the floor and the pillars.
I plan to put down some butyl rubber adhesive vibration dampener on the floorpan. Once I do that, it will be a lot harder to do any body work. I need to work out the best bang-for-my-time in terms of repairs / rust prevention. Right now my plan is to remove surface rust with some rust dissolver and/or wire wheel, prime any bare metal, and put a few coats of rattle can Toyota white paint over the floor surface.
I pulled the carpet out and cleaned everything up so I could get a sense of what I'm working with. Overall the floor is pretty solid - just a bit of surface rust.
But I did find a few issues.
- There are a lot of holes in the floor. Some of them are, I assume, factory. Most of them have plugs, but some of them will need to be replaced.
- A number of these holes are filled with silicon, and have a pop rivets around them.
- This really confused me, until I looked at this captive/insert nut on one of the pillars. At first I thought it was for seat belts, but then I saw the rivets. This doesn't look factory does it?
I'm guessing that some heavy gear was attached to the floor in it's history. That would explain the deformed areas where there are holes drilled and rivets are found in the floor and the pillars.
- I also found some oddly textured paint on the left-hand rear quarter panel, and a little bit of rust visible around the wheel well. I'm guessing this panel was repaired and painted/coated at some point in it's past.
I plan to put down some butyl rubber adhesive vibration dampener on the floorpan. Once I do that, it will be a lot harder to do any body work. I need to work out the best bang-for-my-time in terms of repairs / rust prevention. Right now my plan is to remove surface rust with some rust dissolver and/or wire wheel, prime any bare metal, and put a few coats of rattle can Toyota white paint over the floor surface.
- Should I drill out the rivets? If so I assume I'd have to weld/fill the holes. Hoping to avoid that as I don't have the gear.
- Thoughts on a good source for gromets/plugs to replace the ones that are missing/worn?
- Any recommendations on other steps I should take while I've got it open?