Floor Pan Dilemma

[FloridaDaily79]

So I've got a 79 Camaro, it's my daily driver and at the moment my only vehicle. The plan was to build a street/strip project while I daily it, eventually being a race only vehicle for me. When I bought the vehicle I was told (and it appeared) to be very solid and rust free. Long story short I started to look at putting some new seats in and found the mess detailed in the photos.
Do I bother fixing it or sell the car? If I fox it how much structural rigidity would be lost? Would it still be good in a wreck provided it was caged up?
I've never welded in my life and I'm not exactly sure what my best options are. Thanks.

 

[Peck]

Replacing floor pans isn’t the simplest task, and that is exasperated by having no welding experience.

With that being said if they were replaced and the car was caged I would have no worries, even without a cage if properly replaced it would be fine.

My brothers nova has a full aluminum floor pan, tube chassis, and a cage it runs 10s safely.

 

[Scott51]

As long as you don’t do anything stupid like trying to fix it with pop rivets, bondo and chicken wire, the structural integrity will be fine once that’s repaired.

Floorpans are actually a pretty good first project if you’re planning on learning to weld and it’s quite straightforward getting the aftermarket patch panels to fit.

In terms of selling vs. fixing I’d be taking a really close look at the rest of the car. If you find the rest of the floorpan, trunk floor, rear frame rails, cowl area by the A pillars, rear quarters, trunk drop offs and front fenders all need repairs then definitely start shopping for another project.

 

[Zspoiler]

If you want to keep the car .I would get another car to be your daily driver.( found a 1972 Chevelle wagon and now my 1981 El Camino SS)Then you can take your time and not rush fixing the issues you have. My 1979 Z-28 RS didnt have as many issues as yours, But I disn`t like rushing things .As did it as I had the time and money to do so.It was a lot less stress that way,And you get a better quality car down the road,

 

[Huggerorange80]

Bring it up to North Georgia and I'll put new ones in for 1500 bucks. You bring the pans.

 

[Huggerorange80]

But if this is your daily here is what you should do...

1. Buy a full length floor pan, cut out the parts you need.

2. Cut out the old poo and leave a decent sized overlap.

3. Take your overlap to bare, rust free metal.

4. Use 3m panel adhesive and cleco's to draw the panels together.

 

[xten]

I would be worried more about what the floor pan attaches to than the pan itself if you're worried about integrity. That's the main concern. Get the floor pan out and see what you got.

 

[CAMeeks]

I have tried the daily driver project car thing befor a couple of times. There was a lot of days of skating to work because something took longer then expected.

 

[Huggerorange80]

How about the ol daily driver is also a total POS thing?

Laying in the indiana snow at 1am fixing a busted brake line because you gotta be at work at 6am the next morning...

Yeah nope not doing that anymore

 

[FloridaDaily79]

Update time.
It's taken a little while but I finally picked up a 2nd car and tore into these floor pans a little more. After getting the makeshift nonsense out it seems only the pan was rusted out, the under seat support and torque box look okay. Theres some surface rust on the top but all together solid. With a little from a friend that can weld I'm gonna do this myself.
While I have the car out I plan on putting atleast a basic cage in there. Any suggestions, pictures or help on building a cage?