The Floorpans

As the body was not to be totally removed from the chassis, the floorpans needed to be cleaned up and painted.

There was no need to remove the body, as no welding was required, and it's just another reason to delay progress! I have a habit of taking things too far, just for the sake of it, which is typically the demise of my cars!

Anyway... Once the interior was removed, the floorpans looked like this:

It might look like they were a little rusty, but as with the rest of the car, after some time cleaning, it was nothing more than surface rust. When I say 'some' time cleaning, it was actually several hours with knotwheels, wire brushes, sandpaper, scouring pad, and anything else that we could make use of. It's a very fiddly process, which isn't made easier by the tight corners you need to get in. It came up good in the end though...

After some further prep work, the bare floorpans were treated with POR Metal Ready. The purpose of this is to apply a zinc etch finish, which is an ideal surface for POR15 to adhere to, and it also gives an additonal level of protection against further rust. It's applied liberally, left for a period of time, and then washed away with lots of water. The finish is a slightly tainted steel finish:

They could then have 2 coats of POR15:

The final finish will be a coat of POR Chassis Black, but as I'm going to be clambering in and out of the car, throwing tools about and what not, I've decided to wait to apply that until nearer completion.

The actual finish of the paint doesn't bother me too much, as it will be getting covered with sound proofing, and carpet. It's purely for protective purposes.

(as of March '09)