Boot floor - nice surprise!

I have had my 95 V8 for eighteen months, gradually working my way through brakes, suspension, engine rough running, endless water leaks, immobiliser etc, all the usual stuff.
I knew early on that the boot floor was in a poor state and that the sound proofing and carpet were soaking wet. Both were removed and dried out and new rubbers fitted to the rear door and rear quarters. No more wet floor but the rust was there to stay.
Finally stripped the rear out today and was pleasantly surprised that the rear arches and inner wings were sound and only had a small amount of surface rust.
Next stage is to change the boot floor and sort out the sides of the panel aperture. The centre seat belt mounts are seized solid despite several applications of Plusgas over the last few weeks. New ones on order from Paddocks at £10 each.

You have been blessed mate, wish mine was in that good of a state.

Progress report.
Old boot floor removed with the aid of a Machine Mart spot weld drill kit; £20 well spent. minimal damage to the remaining metal and cut the job down to less than two hours.
Seat belt bolts were well and truly seized, so new toggles, clevis pins and eyes ordered.
On first inspection, the remaining metal seems salvageable with no welding repairs needed to the boot floor surround.

The one problem that I have is the fuel supply line. The fuel filter hasn't been changed for years by the look of it and the union nut on the pipe from the tank is well rounded and seized at the filter. The other end of the pipe on the pump appears to be equally well seized. The unions on the filter and the pump are both female and I cannot see an easy way to get the pipe unions out without damaging the pump. There appears to be a proper in line union ahead of the filter on the engine side so that may be a route to remove the filter from the feed line.
Short of putting a join in the rubber hose at the filter end of the supply from the tank, does anyone have any suggestions please?

Haha that's brand new compared to my boot floor that I've just replaced!!

Silverbeard50 said:

The one problem that I have is the fuel supply line. The fuel filter hasn't been changed for years by the look of it and the union nut on the pipe from the tank is well rounded and seized at the filter. The other end of the pipe on the pump appears to be equally well seized. The unions on the filter and the pump are both female and I cannot see an easy way to get the pipe unions out without damaging the pump. There appears to be a proper in line union ahead of the filter on the engine side so that may be a route to remove the filter from the feed line.
Short of putting a join in the rubber hose at the filter end of the supply from the tank, does anyone have any suggestions please?

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do you mean the sedimentor inside the rear chassis leg? if so there is an 11mm nut on top, undo this to drop the sedimentor bowl to inspect/clean it. if you want to bypass it, just cut the fuel lines (I used an angle grinder, but its probably not recommendable) and then use a bit of flexi pipe of some description to join them up again. if you dont mean the sedimentor, my bad. ignore everything I just said.

JKx

Thanks for the reply. I think the sedimenter is only on diesel versions; the V8 has a simple filter attached to the offside rear chassis leg in the wheelarch. It's ideally placed to pick up all the salt, mud and corrosion so that it will not come undone.
I am going to take it one step at a time and see what will actually come apart.

Sorted the fuel line problem with some unions and proper rubber fuel hose from Merlin Motorsport which will make changing the filter much easier in future.
Unfortunately the floor side support lips are too far gone and will need repair panels welding in, probably the ones available from Foundry 4x4 look to be the simplest route.
All of the other rust seems to be light surface corrosion so should be easy to sort.

Silverbeard50 said:

Sorted the fuel line problem with some unions and proper rubber fuel hose from Merlin Motorsport which will make changing the filter much easier in future.
Unfortunately the floor side support lips are too far gone and will need repair panels welding in, probably the ones available from Foundry 4x4 look to be the simplest route.
All of the other rust seems to be light surface corrosion so should be easy to sort.

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Try YRM

Wait until your dog can poke her head through the floor...then I knew I had probs.

redhand said:

Try YRM

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+1, would highly recommend there panels.

Will do. Thanks for the heads up.

Used YRM for the side repair strips and the boot support strips. Amazingly quick service and good quality parts.
Now to glue it all together again!

Wow, wish mine had been so easy! I made all new floor supports myself, went a bit overboard but should outlast me! Notice the chassis crossmember that your rear seatbelts bolt thru to, mine was completely rotten so had to replace the WHOLE THING!! Where your dickie seats bolt in look perfect, again on my one you could put both hands thru holes which were only 50mm or so from the seatbelt mounts. Comparing yours to mine is like night and day. Glad i've sorted it now!! Good luck mate!

All back together now without too much trouble and nothing left over at the end.

The fuel filter and piping was changed whilst the floor was up to make it easier to change the filter in the future as well.

Just the serpentine belt tensioner to fit and then replace the power steering pump which is leaking badly. Ordered the reconditioned power steering pump today from Paddocks, so hopefully that's it for a few miles.