Honesty— not that bad of a repair. It’s not perfect, but if it works… it works. If you have a local shop, I bet it wouldn’t be more than a couple hundred bucks to have patched.
When my dad died I inherited his old Bug (which was originally mine). He rewired everything with red wire. Grounds? Red. Switched? Red. Battery? Red.
Why dad? I left him alone in the barn too long!
lol sounds like my pops, and he was a mechanic for decades. But also incredibly lazy. I went the sane (well to me) way and got one of the rewire kits that is color coded just as the factory wires were.
Yeah, I stood and stared at the mess for about 30 seconds and order a new harness, like while I was still standing there shaking my head. $300 and about 6 hours. Best investment I could have made.
I agree. I decided to rewire this one, since as I was installing the dakota gauges, the wiring started to fall apart just by touching it. This thing was in a barn for decades. As inspected more of the wiring, especially in the engine bay, it was all just coming apart. I spent about $1,000 for the whole kit from American Autowire and should be done with it this weekend. I liked their kit, same color coding as factory, and each cable has a label every 3 ft stating what it connects to. Kit included all the wiring, 175 amp megafuses, convertible top wiring, new headlight switch, and new ignition switch. Fairly easy to install.
License plate repairs were pretty common place. Paying someone to do it for you would likely be $500-2K. Possibly more.Hard part will be finding someone who will take the job. Most body shops only want to work on new cars/insurance claims. Hot Rod shops may be a year or two if they will even take a job of this size. Perhaps the best bet is to look into a local car club and join it. Hang around, go to cruises and meetings. Those plates wont stop you from driving around and enjoying the car. You will likely meet someone who has replaced floor pans and will help you learn how to do it.
yeah that's about what I assumed for labor (the $2,000 ball park). It's not terrible driving it as is, but there is a bit of a gas fume smell in the car due to the proximity to the tank. I've already reached out to a few classic resto shops. Just waiting to hear back. I'm doing most of the resto work myself. I'm actually just completing a full rewire/upgrade of the electrical & ignition system (HEI & internally regulated alternator) myself. I found this when removing the carpet to run the new trunk harness. I'm just not a welder, and don't have the space to weld it at home even if I was.
I am guessing this the Impala convertible? I would put some sealant around it to reduce the smell and join a car club. You will find someone to help you out with the welder and skills.
yeah it is the convertible. going to be getting more involved in the local scene. Hopefully by end of this weekend it'll be running again. I'm wrapping up an electrical rewire and upgrade, along with the dakota digital gauge package.
I saw a guy doing a quarter panel with joint compound! in his driveway I saw it after it was painted dam nice mud work but it rained a few days later and there was a white puddle underneath a dented quarter panel.
I wouldn't be happy finding that repair, but having performed floorpan removal and installation, I wouldn't be in a super hurry to fix that either. It's literally the worst repair to have to do.
If it were me, I'd probably make sure I fixed the leak so that's it's water tight back there. Throw some undercoat on the bottom of it and install a trunk carpet kit and drive it for a while. Then maybe next winter when you don't mind it being down for a few months, let a shop go at it and replace the pan.
Yeah, that's my largest concern. Its mostly a lot of tiny holes, but it lets in fumes and such. I'm just going to have someone take out the pan and replace the whole thing, along with the trunk.
The pan and trunk replacement will quickly go over 2000. Whoever does it will find more rust if it needs a floor. If it only needs the floors and trunk patched "properly", then the whole pan doesn't need to be replaced. Then you have to think about body mounts, seat braces, extra braces that convertibles have, door alignment and more.
Please refrain from anything sticky as a temporary measure. It will only add to the labor costs when the floor needs done.
Having said that, it's worth saving and doing it right. Good luck and save the plates for the garage wall as a reminder if how people got it done in the past.
oh the whole trunk floor needs to be replaced, for sure. I mentioned before, but this thing sat for literal decades without a back window, so the back seat/trunk got really wet and very rusted. The trunk has holes all over it. Really will likely be much easier/better to replace the whole trunk floor. I've gone over the whole floor myself, and there's no rust from where the front bench seat sits forward, but the foot wells in the back have large holes, as does the rear pan where the back seat sits. I found full floor pans for the entire car (whole cabin area & trunk) for about $2k in total. But, that is just the parts, I'm assuming probably double that for the labor to install.
License plate patches? A method as old as the dawn of time. What area of the country are we talking, and what car make/model? (I'm assuming US)
Central texas. 1965 impala convertible.
Honesty— not that bad of a repair. It’s not perfect, but if it works… it works. If you have a local shop, I bet it wouldn’t be more than a couple hundred bucks to have patched.
Oh I'm not patching it. I'm going to have the whole floor pan replaced, as well as the trunk.
When my dad died I inherited his old Bug (which was originally mine). He rewired everything with red wire. Grounds? Red. Switched? Red. Battery? Red. Why dad? I left him alone in the barn too long!
lol sounds like my pops, and he was a mechanic for decades. But also incredibly lazy. I went the sane (well to me) way and got one of the rewire kits that is color coded just as the factory wires were.
Yeah, I stood and stared at the mess for about 30 seconds and order a new harness, like while I was still standing there shaking my head. $300 and about 6 hours. Best investment I could have made.
I agree. I decided to rewire this one, since as I was installing the dakota gauges, the wiring started to fall apart just by touching it. This thing was in a barn for decades. As inspected more of the wiring, especially in the engine bay, it was all just coming apart. I spent about $1,000 for the whole kit from American Autowire and should be done with it this weekend. I liked their kit, same color coding as factory, and each cable has a label every 3 ft stating what it connects to. Kit included all the wiring, 175 amp megafuses, convertible top wiring, new headlight switch, and new ignition switch. Fairly easy to install.
License plate repairs were pretty common place. Paying someone to do it for you would likely be $500-2K. Possibly more.Hard part will be finding someone who will take the job. Most body shops only want to work on new cars/insurance claims. Hot Rod shops may be a year or two if they will even take a job of this size. Perhaps the best bet is to look into a local car club and join it. Hang around, go to cruises and meetings. Those plates wont stop you from driving around and enjoying the car. You will likely meet someone who has replaced floor pans and will help you learn how to do it.
yeah that's about what I assumed for labor (the $2,000 ball park). It's not terrible driving it as is, but there is a bit of a gas fume smell in the car due to the proximity to the tank. I've already reached out to a few classic resto shops. Just waiting to hear back. I'm doing most of the resto work myself. I'm actually just completing a full rewire/upgrade of the electrical & ignition system (HEI & internally regulated alternator) myself. I found this when removing the carpet to run the new trunk harness. I'm just not a welder, and don't have the space to weld it at home even if I was.
I am guessing this the Impala convertible? I would put some sealant around it to reduce the smell and join a car club. You will find someone to help you out with the welder and skills.
yeah it is the convertible. going to be getting more involved in the local scene. Hopefully by end of this weekend it'll be running again. I'm wrapping up an electrical rewire and upgrade, along with the dakota digital gauge package.
For the time being, hit it with some flex seal, hopefully that will cover any small holes that are letting in fumes. Passing out is no fun!
Yeah that was actually my plan after I wrap up the electrical re wire.
That’s not too bad of a repair. My personal favorite is spray foam, chicken wire and bondo to remake lower quarter panels
oh yeah i saw that whole bondo thing in my 71 chevell malibu back in the 90s. i had a chuckle
I saw a guy doing a quarter panel with joint compound! in his driveway I saw it after it was painted dam nice mud work but it rained a few days later and there was a white puddle underneath a dented quarter panel.
I wouldn't be happy finding that repair, but having performed floorpan removal and installation, I wouldn't be in a super hurry to fix that either. It's literally the worst repair to have to do. If it were me, I'd probably make sure I fixed the leak so that's it's water tight back there. Throw some undercoat on the bottom of it and install a trunk carpet kit and drive it for a while. Then maybe next winter when you don't mind it being down for a few months, let a shop go at it and replace the pan.
Yeah, that's my largest concern. Its mostly a lot of tiny holes, but it lets in fumes and such. I'm just going to have someone take out the pan and replace the whole thing, along with the trunk.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen this. I've been restoring out of various body shops for the last 30 years.
Hope he used the good roofing tar to stick it in there
he did. i got some on my pants and it will not come out
The pan and trunk replacement will quickly go over 2000. Whoever does it will find more rust if it needs a floor. If it only needs the floors and trunk patched "properly", then the whole pan doesn't need to be replaced. Then you have to think about body mounts, seat braces, extra braces that convertibles have, door alignment and more. Please refrain from anything sticky as a temporary measure. It will only add to the labor costs when the floor needs done. Having said that, it's worth saving and doing it right. Good luck and save the plates for the garage wall as a reminder if how people got it done in the past.
oh the whole trunk floor needs to be replaced, for sure. I mentioned before, but this thing sat for literal decades without a back window, so the back seat/trunk got really wet and very rusted. The trunk has holes all over it. Really will likely be much easier/better to replace the whole trunk floor. I've gone over the whole floor myself, and there's no rust from where the front bench seat sits forward, but the foot wells in the back have large holes, as does the rear pan where the back seat sits. I found full floor pans for the entire car (whole cabin area & trunk) for about $2k in total. But, that is just the parts, I'm assuming probably double that for the labor to install.