With the interior of the T-Bird mostly disassembled, it was an easy task to pull the carpeting out this afternoon. I only had to remove the door sills and the seat belts to free them up completely. (The carpeting does not span the transmission/driveline hump, so it’s in two large pieces, one for each side.)
Once up, I was able to remove what was left of the sound insulation in the front floor pans with my hands. When I got the car, it was leaking around the windshield, something I fixed about a year ago. Amazingly, the sound proofing next to the sheet metal was actually still wet after months of dry carpeting.
I had examined the floor pans from underneath the car many times and noted about a square foot of rot on both sides. With the pans exposed from the top, it was clear that both floors were completely rotted out.
I was a little reluctant to take this project so far–quite a lot of the car is scattered in parts around the garage. However, looking at the extent of the damage–and finding that the floors were about to fall out–I’m pretty happy I took the time to investigate.
I’ve done quite a lot of practice welding on 1/8″ steel and have fabricated a welding cart to hold the MIG welder and provide a good place for further practice. Today, I acquired a medium-sized tank of gas so I can start practicing on sheet metal.
Looks like I’m going to have a lot of experience when all is said and done.