Most of us that are rebuilding, restoring or just keeping our old Holdens on the road will have some rust in the floor pans. This is usually attributed to water leaking in through the rear window rubber that is old and perished. The water gets under the original rubber floor covering and 'sweats' until rust sets in badly.

It is more common to have to replace rear pans, so I have only got them shown here. Sedan, wagon, ute, van all have the same floorpans. The only difference being factory automatic models, which have a slightly different front pan, and the replacement which is for a manual needs to be fitted with slight modification. The basic principles of fitting them is the same for front also, and even for other model Holdens, especially HD-HR. Please remember that the pans are replacement only, and not original pressings, so some patience and skill is required to fit them to the point of being almost undetectable. It would cost about $200 a pan to fit them with overlap at a panel beater, up to $500 a pan if you want a really nice job butt welded and painted

First of all you should assess which pans and how badly rusted they are. Strip the surface on the inside back with a wire knot wheel on an angle grinder and then put a light under the car to see how many holes you have. Poke at the holes with a pointy and see how bad they are. Once the decision has been made to replace, pop your replacement over the original floor, press it down hard and see how much it covers. You may even need to trim slightly at this stage to sit it in neatly along all ridges and the inner sill. Mark it out with chalk or something you can see easily. This is the left hand rear pan in an EJ-EH

Thinking very clearly now, you must make sure your brake lines, fuel lines, wiring, handbrake cable, exhaust and anything else running under you car is removed. Cut the area previously marked, taking care to do the following. Cut only to the edge of the sill, not into it. Cut along the edge of the cross member the back holes of the front seat bolt to. Cut about 20mm in from the back seat cross member, making sure not to cut through the rear spring hanger, and also 20mm in from the line marked along the tail shaft hump. Basically cut less than you have to for now, as it is easier to trim a bit more than adding it back later. This is the cut I did with a 115mm angle grinder with a 2.5mm cutting disc.

This is what it looked like with the pan on the floor. Note the use of a jack stand for safety and to raise the vehicle high enough to work underneath later. Don't throw the old pan out for now. If you are using original type seat belts, you will need to weld the seatbelt retainer nut into your new pan. Also If you are going for real originality, you will need to screw the 'hat' back on the floor pan where the drain hole is.

Once you have done the rough cut, trim the sill side back really neatly, leaving the lower lip if you wish. The new pans have the lip folded upwards, so it does not have to be removed, and if you seal the join really good, the old lip makes the pans look original still. Trim the edge near the front seat cross member back really neatly also. The pan can sit on top of this edge. The bit of floor still attached to the spring hanger has spot welds, and these can be ground off, and the section trimmed away carefully, again not cutting into the hanger. Keep trying the pan and trimming the back edge and the tunnel edge, until you have a 1mm gap on these two sides.

The trick now is to be patient and tack weld the pan in a bit at a time until you are happy it is in the position you require. Check underneath and see it is pushed down low enough to meet the spring hanger. The sill and front cross member sides can be stich welded, that is 1cm weld every 3cm. The other two sides should be butt welded. drill a couple of 5-6mm holes through the pan to the spring hanger and plug weld the pan to it also. Again making sure you have pressed it down low enough to meet it. Don't forget on the right hand rear to weld the tag for the handbrake spring back on. This is the right hand rear

Once they are welded in, you can grind the welds back inside to remove any excess bumps. Underneath you can grind it all back smooth and linish it to get that original look. A bit of seam sealer along the sill and front seat cross member. You may wish to spray body deadener over the whole underneath and inside.

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Again this is a very common panel to have to replace on an EJ or EH sedan. There are a number of extra bits you will need to consider when doing this job. The rear pan has a semi- circular recess for where the original exhaust sits. This can be eliminated when the new pan is put on for a cleaner look. There is also the option of a fibreglass rear pan, and that is explained in another part of this site.

When doing the job of replacing this pan, you will find there will be a considerable amount of inner rust, and if this is not treated, then it will continue to eat away. You can see here where the pan has been pulled down after the original spot welds have been ground back using an angle grinder. A chisel is messy, and can damage the inner panels. I suggest grinding to get the original metal away, then using a chisel just to pry the last bit off. The ends around the corner where the pan meets the quarter panels will need to be cut.

You can see here the new panel ready to fit on. When Mig welding the panel on, you will need to drill a series of 6mm holes to weld through to the inner back panel. Make sure you rust tret the insides before welding the new panel on, and trial fit everything many times. The corners of the fabricated replacement pan will need some patience to make fit perfect, as it is not pressed like the factory one. To make one like that would cost tens of thousands for the die alone.

Here you can see the pan welded on and the weld ground back. These are to later be linished and no filler put in. If there are any holes in the inner pan you will find them easy to replace when the outer is off. Also if you have to replace either of the lower quarter panel sections, then you will need to do them first.

The R/H quarter was rusted a little and damaged around the hole where the bar bolts on. This was repaired before the lower back panel was put on.

The L/H quarter had a new lower section put on, which you will see in one of the other articles. This was done before doing the lower back panel. You can see here where the corner of the replacement panel was cut and rewelded right on the curve to make the fitment just right. It is being a little patient with attention to detail that makes the job look so much better.

Here you see the finished product ready for priming. Only a small amount of filler was required to finish the joins where the replacement panel met the quarter panels.

  Fitting a replacement lower quarter panel section all EJ-EH

With the lower quarter panel section for an EJ-EH, all body styles use the same panel. For a ute or van, you just need to trim the back section off to suit. When you get the panel in your hand and hold it up to the back of the ute or van, you will see what I mean. When you have decided that a replacement section is required, be sure you are confident in welding sheet metal edge to edge if you want to do a really neat job.

After placing the replacement section over the quarter panel and deciding whether to use the whole piece or not, mark where the replacement lies. Cut less than you have to to allow for trimming. If you are doing the lower back panel as well, then remove it before proceeding any further, as the lower quarter goes under it. Clean the deadener out from inside where you are going to weld and make it shiny steel. Same goes for the outside. This will ensure a clean weld. Treat any rust that is showing, and do any inner panel rust replacements now before you put the outer on.

You can see here the replacement and the original quarter were trial fitted many times and carefully trimmed back by grinding back less than a millimetre at a time, until they fitted each other with no gap. The panel has been tacked in place. The edges can be trimmed later.

As the panel is fabricated, the rear corner has a series of cuts. These can be welded in place to ensure the correct curve is achieved. You can see the treated inner of the back panel.

A partial shot showing the welds ground back, and the panel finished ready for the lower back panel to be placed on.

  Fitting a replacement dogleg section EJ-EH

The dogleg panel just behind the rear doors on a sedan or wagon are notorious for rust. It sometimes is hidden by the stainless steel gravel guards. The principle again is similar to many of the other replacement sections. Once it is established that a replacement is required, place the panel over the dogleg and see how much you get and how much is required. Mark it, and cut it less than you marked to allow for trimming. There is a lot of lead placed in the join down the bottom, and you will see that the replacement dogleg has a recess like the original panel to allow for this lead if you wish to do it this way again.
   

Once the panel is cut off, again like earlier, treatment of the rusted areas is important to prevent re-occurrence of rust in the near future.
   

Trim the panels so that the replacement fits perfectly edge to edge, and have the rear door fitted so that it will fit the gap also. trial fitting and making sure everything is cut correctly makes the job look a lot neater. You may have to work the replacement panel to fit perfectly, but the result will be worth it. All traces of lead from the bottom need to be removed or the weld will not be very neat as it will splatter everywhere and not stick properly.
   

The finished job should have lines that curve neatly, and the welds nice and neat without lumps if possible. This is especially important down the bottom where it is very hard to grind in the corner.

  Replacing rust holes with replacement metal.

Here you can see a poor previous repair that was full of bog and had rusted out. This looked really bad, but the surrounding metal was still in good shape. Filler being nearly half an inch thick isn't good at the best of times, but when it is on top of rust, it is terrible.

The area was trimmed back until good metal was found in all directions. The replacement section was made from 1.2mm thick steel sheet, and can be seen sitting on top of the door opening. The sill panel on an EJ-EH is thicker than other panels, as it is part of the chassis structure of the vehicle.

With patience and time, any terrible area can be made good again. You can see there the back door was left on to make sure the gaps all lined up. There was a small bit of rust repaired on the dogleg also. It was not bad enough to warrant replacing the dogleg panel.

After being primed up with two pack red oxide primer (Spies Hecker Red Brown). The repairs are finished off with some fine filler. This is a little different to bog, as it is less porous, and much finer. The average thickness after this repair was done was about 1 millimetre. The thickest was covering where some of the original lead had melted at the bottom of the dogleg. This is a big difference to the hacked up bog job that was there before.

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  Fitting front guard lower outer and inner sections. EJ-EJ

Still to come