Seatbelt mount rusted away (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Oct 13, 2015
Threads
8
Messages
365
Location
Lillington, NC
Pulled the carpet out of my 80 today (it smelled terrible and was disgusting)

When I started to remove one of the seatbelt bolts the carpet twisted with the bolt. I looked inside the fender well and the entire mount had rusted away, the only thing holding it together was the rubber undercoating.

Right now I'm planning on trying to find a patch pannel to replace the entire area, any other ideas to fix this?



 
Going to have to fab a large patch panel and weld it in place.
That's a pretty important place so you want to do it right......
 
Holy smokes! Man! All I can think is welding a repair... Gotta cut away all the nastiness, fab a patch, and weld it in.
 
Yeah I sent Mel Lowe a message, hope he can cut me a patch panel that I can weld in place once I cut away the cancer. The weird thing is I haven't found much rust anywhere else.
 
Yeah I sent Mel Lowe a message, hope he can cut me a patch panel that I can weld in place once I cut away the cancer. The weird thing is I haven't found much rust anywhere else.

Did you fix this? I have the same issue
 
Bringing this back from the dead. Decided to remove the undercoating from my other wheel well and found this.

If you have an 80 series and your mid row seatbelt anchors look suspect I highly encourage you to remove the undercoating for a look. There was no sign of any rust from the inside and the mount felt solid.
5234D438-BC9E-481F-923C-36190DD0E536.jpeg
 
Bringing this back from the dead. Decided to remove the undercoating from my other wheel well and found this.

If you have an 80 series and your mid row seatbelt anchors look suspect I highly encourage you to remove the undercoating for a look. There was no sign of any rust from the inside and the mount felt solid. View attachment 2250777
Just finding my anchor is coming through the wheel well so I'm nervous to look under the carpet. I definitely can't weld so I'm assuming I need to find a body shop for this repair. Did you buy anything else when you fixed yours like a new wheel well? Also...if the rubberized spray on creates moister that leads to rust...what do you put on this once it's fixed or if you buy a new wheel well?

4.jpg


5.jpg
 
Just finding my anchor is coming through the wheel well so I'm nervous to look under the carpet. I definitely can't weld so I'm assuming I need to find a body shop for this repair. Did you buy anything else when you fixed yours like a new wheel well? Also...if the rubberized spray on creates moister that leads to rust...what do you put on this once it's fixed or if you buy a new wheel well?

View attachment 3143042

View attachment 3143043
17496C05-77A8-44CF-B954-5D1D1DD9CA7B.jpeg
109D80AB-ADAE-49CE-8D65-96604465B1D4.jpeg


I didn’t replace the entire fender, just had a patch cut out from a rust free vehicle. The welds aren’t pretty but they are solid.

As far as the rubberized coating I just painted it really good and did a thin layer of rubberized rattle can coating. Seems to have held up fine so far.
 
Thats not good. looks like some cutting and welding
 
Thats not good. looks like some cutting and welding
For sure. I need to look around the rest of the truck to see if there's more. I think as others have said the factory finish is breaking from age and trapping moisture. I'm also thinking of using fluid film or similar to hopefully get into any little cracks and stop further rust.
 
For sure. I need to look around the rest of the truck to see if there's more. I think as others have said the factory finish is breaking from age and trapping moisture. I'm also thinking of using fluid film or similar to hopefully get into any little cracks and stop further rust.
I’m about to get into the same issue, have read several posts and think I have a plan. Did you complete this repair?
What gauge sheet metal did you use?
Where did you find replacement seatbelt mount plates for this or did you just buy generic from auto parts store?

Any help would be appreciated
 
I’m about to get into the same issue, have read several posts and think I have a plan. Did you complete this repair?
What gauge sheet metal did you use?
Where did you find replacement seatbelt mount plates for this or did you just buy generic from auto parts store?

Any help would be appreciated
I think he found a donor truck and cut out a section as a patch.
 
Not sure it was a donor truck, but he did weld in a patch
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom