240z sr20 frame rails and floor

[rosaaen89]

Im thinking of purchasing a 240z that has an sr20det from a s14 . Underneath the seat is rusted and most likely needs frame rails as well. idk if you can just put a cap on it if its just gonna be a street driver . im not gonna track it or race it at all. Anybody have any thoughts on if i can cap the rail or be best to replace them. And how expensive to do rails and floor if the interior is already out of the vehicle? also is 4k too much for the vehicle with a good runnin sr swap and 5speed with the body being in good condition? Any info is greatly appreciated

[BluDestiny]

if the exterior of the body appears straight, and the swap if running in a good enough condition to daily drive then yes that's a great deal. Replacing the floor pans is a common thing (although I've never done it) and you can even buy the floor pans, then bring the car to a welder to just cut and weld the pans in place.

 

I would highly advise against "capping" it. I don't even know what that means. I would fix it right because I have personally seen a car "bend" from being jacked up and the rust was bad enough in the floors and rockers.

[johnc]

Rust never sleeps...  covering it up, encapsualting it, etc. doesn't work.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLwm9P-n194

[rosaaen89]

Ya i figured cappin wouldnt do much good. anybody have an idea how much it cost to weld in new pans if the interior is already out and i provide them with the pans amd rails? the engine does sound good stars up every time just not safe dailying in because the rust is right underneath the seat and the body is pretty good condition no rust on the outside

[morbias]

The problem with aftermarket floors is they aren't an exact fit. When you buy replacement floors they have to be shaped and trimmed to meet up with the transmission tunnel; if you look at the shape of that section you'll see what a pain in the ass that can be. Best angle of attack is to cut the original floors back to somewhere before they start curving upwards (if they aren't that far gone). It's still a ton of work though and will cost a fair bit if you are paying somone else to do them.

 

The other problem is where the floors join up to the rocker panels; if the rocker panels are in bad shape internally then you might find the welder blows straight through them when you go to put the new floors in. If that happens then you suddenly have a much bigger issue altogether, and if you are paying someone for the work then the cost will skyrocket.

 

Not trying to discourage you, but it's something to be wary of.

 

And to demonstrate...

 

...this is what happens when you weld patches over rust. Basically I had to remove 3 outer rocker panels on this side; clearly when the original one rusted through somebody welded another one right over the top, then another over that when it rusted through again. And the rocker panels looked spotless from the inside of the car. In fact the area the floor was attached to is paper thin and disintegrates as soon as you look at it!

 

 

I'm about halfway through reconstructing this section from scratch, it's taken a week so far...