[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]
Ford Donald [and wife] wrote: > > We just aquired a 1971 Squareback and are planning to fix it up. Today > we tore out the front seats and carpet, needless to say we found some > rust. > > The battery pan is completely gone. There are 2 fist size holes in the > floor behind the front seats. The areas of rust give a warped appearence > to the metal. > > We want to replace the pans and were wondering about the fiberglass pans > by Innovations in Fiberglass. > > > Has anyone tried them? What do you all think? Thanks for the input. Hi, T3 friends! That was me, writing to the group for help. I'm sending this to the Karmann Ghia mailing list as well, for much of this info may be of interest to them. Many replied and the general consensus is this: 1. Fiberglass, being a material that is not metal, may [will] be difficult to install in place of the missing metal. Generally speaking, fiberglass is a funky material to replace metal with in an all-metal car. 2. It may [will] be difficult to reattach other items to it after installation, like the jack mount and the plate that holds the auto tranny's nose in. It may or may not be a strong/rigid/quiet at the metal it replaces, depending on the quality of the install. 3. Don't install a replacement piece that requires touching the seat rails in any way. Having to reinstall the seat rails so that they work again will be a bigger hassle than the pan work was ever worth. 4. The rust may not be so bad as to require replacement [except in my case, where it is]. Have a body shop guy [person?] give it a once over, then go get a second opinion. 5. Other areas of rust [inside wheel wells, around gas tank, rear deck at engine cover, exterior damage] may [will] make pan repair moot. Look to the long term. 6. If you do decide to do this kind of repair, contract with a knowledgeable body worker who is familiar with rust repair, and budget for a full day's worth of his work per side. At $50/hr standard shop time, that's US$300-$400 plus parts. 7. Do the pan work before installing any new interior items such as carpet. Have this work done with the body off the pan if at all possible. 8. No one manufaturer makes a Type III replacement floor pan out of metal [that I found]. One trusted source suggested using a Ghia floor pan of equivilant year [aprox. US$80]. A skilled body worker should be able to make it work. Don't forget #5. Thanks to all that wrote in... your input has been invaluable! I'm sure we'll be writing again soon as we continue to disassemble this Squareback. -- Ford Donald mailto:fordd@macconnect.com http://www.macconnect.com/~fordd/ Web Design for Fun, Profit and Job Security - Internet and intranet web pages assembled, boxed and shipped complete! '64 Ghia Coupe with no heat, radio, back seat... '71 Squareback automatic- my current big-hole-to-throw-money-into