I guess you did cover that, with 10 pages already, I didn't want to page thru it all.

Your cheapest way out may be to find a second one with a bad engine but minor rust. The rust up the sides in the back scares me.

As far as force, think of a panicstop and the g's involved. 32 ft per second squared times your weight.

Like walking on a rotted out wooden pier or dock. A rather heavy set temp secretary I worked with years ago in Florida came into work one morning with horrible gashes on both her legs. We asked her what happened. She was walking out on an old dock that was partially rotted. She jumped over a bad area, when she landed, she broke thru the dock. She was trapped dangling with the dock fragments piercing her legs and holding all her body weight.

A neighbor heard her screams and called 911. They had to exticate her very carefully. 250 lbs times 32 ft per second squared = dock failure

 

Because of the current integrity of the panel, or because of what other rust could be hidden?


Yeah I get that. I just didnt think it would be as unsafe as you said (certain death! ) since 3 of the mounts are fine and the 4th, while compromised-looking, is still attached.

 

WELL YOU HAVE TAKEN CARE OF SOME OF THE TYPICAL MINOR STUFF.
You can apply for a junior mechanics position in Savannah's Shade Tree Mechanics Certification Program.

Do not forget to service the tranny, the front swivels, spark plugs, wires, coolant , hoses, air filter, and the reat of the little stuff. Then prepare for the head gaskets and the related things.

Eric took the Master Mechanics Accelerated Certification Course within the first month of his ownership program. But he plans on keeping his for another 10 years or more.

Have fun with it. And maybe you should consider anchoring those seats with some sort of safety cable or something until you complete the rebuild of the structure.

 

Give it the Hammer test to the side panel.

Get behind the seat and push it as hard as you possibly can and see if it gives any. That will be a lot less than what it will experience in a crash or even a full panic stop.

Just providing food for thought.

 

haha, I forgot some of the stuff too. Theres so many little maintenance items that you lose track.

The tranny fluid was nice and red on the dipstick, so I wasnt gonna worry about that right away. Got a nice looking wix air filter from oreilly for $13.

Did the swivel *****, kinda. There was alot of gunk built up on the outside, so I figured they were pretty dry. And they appeared to be from what I could tell looking in the fill hole. Turned the tires out, but could only get about 1 113g tube of sta-lube cv grease in before it seemed like it was starting to force itself out. I believe they are supposed to take 400g, so ill take it for a little drive and see if i can get more in afterwards.

I got new plugs and wires, but I was gonna run some seafoam through the oil and gas before putting them on. Got the NGK wires btw. Cant beat the amazon price.

Coolant looked nice and green with no oil that I could see. There were teeny metal specks in it though. I was gonna drain it, but couldnt get the lower hose off. Since the tires were so bad that I wasnt gonna be driving it, I put that on hold. The few times I drove it down the street and back and one time I did take it out on the road (about a 25 min run), the temp goes to about 8:30 and stays there.

The fan spins on startup, and I can turn it by hand when cold. Have not done a hot test.

 

After looking thru your pictures, I went out and took a closr look at my 97. I tapped the front passengers floor pan just a little in front of the one small hole in it. It gave and now there are two holes. I kept tapping, most of it is still solid.

I went to the back passenger's door, that is where my worst rot is. I have the beginning of a rust thru on my wheel well. I looked very closely, I have a little rust at the seams and behind that bottom plastic trim. It seems that road salt/grime residue must get trapped in there. They could have done a better job sealing that post area.

All in all though my is still very solid with nowhere near the corrosion yours shows. You ever did say where you are and if the Rover was a local one.

Environment really matters with these. Those floor pans are prtty thin sheet steel. They gain their strength from all those formed areas in the floor. But they are so thin, surface rust eats right thru since it has so little area to pentrate before you have a very weak floor.

All those open holes they leave unsealed from the factory and the rubber plugs on the bigger ones do not help either. Very poor corrosion protection on these beasts. You may want to try and find new wheel wells cut out of a wrecked one.

Or you can use that Gorilla Patch stuff with the fiberous stuff you fill the gaps with. Gorilla hair or something like that.

Or if anyone has any of that structural foam stuff that you apply and it gets super hard.

 

Im up in minnesota. I never carfaxed it, but Im pretty sure its always been an MN car i.e. road salted.

The thing is though, the frame and much of the body are pretty decent with that considered.

Im pretty sure the cause of the stuff I took pics of is mice making a home. Based on the fact these areas are all under or near concentrations of their poop and acorn scraps, I think corrosion that I have pictured was started and/or made worse by mouse **** drainage.

That drivers rear wheel well area had a ton of poo and stunk of pee; lots of debris in that black box for the folding seat latch. The passenger side did not have much poo or smell, and is pretty pristine rust-wise, especially compared to the drivers side.

 

Oh, also, I did give the seat a little test after you mentioned it the first time. Instead of doing the leg press, I did a few shoulder spears into it and it seemed pretty solid

I think you are right though. Regardless of what I do to fix the hole, I should weld something in there to reinforce the seat mounts.

 

I guess that could add to the problem, but after giving mine a close examination I too have the beginnings of a problem with the passengers side rar wheel well where it joins the side wall. Mine has already separated for a length of several inches but still pretty narrow.

That wheel well is a single layer of sheet metal I think. The vertical post at the wheel well door area is the worst corrosion on my entire vehicle and I think the rest corroded under thye factory undercoating. Apparently the steel interior of that post assembly does not have good corrosion resistant coating such as zinc or whatever they coat steel with and LR depended on the undercoating to prevent rust thru. So it corrodes beneath the undercoating out of sight until it rots thru.

I believe that is just a problem area with most Discoveries that are exposed to corrosive environments like you and I both have.

If your floor is totally bad or whatever, that factory replacement panel is one option, not really a show car option but a correct fit. It gains it's strength from the formed slots or whatever you want to call them. Without those formed slots, a panel that thin would be prtty weak.

But like Slang did, you can use a thicker complete piece of diamond plate that covers from side to side if it is supported properly. You do want all the old corroded metal removed as it will continue to corrode if you do not deal with it adequately. A lot of people that have merely covered theirs with undercoating or paint on materials find that they end up with a rotted out floor under the coating.

Another alternative to the two above is one I have seen used on old trucks/vans quite successfully. It may sound unusual, but in the very early days of automobiles, wood was a common floor board.

On the Model A and Model T, Henry Ford actually spec'd the wooden crate that was used to ship engines from the engine plant to the Assembly plant such that the lid for the crate became the floor of the vehicle. The bolt holes in the lid were even laid out such that they were reused to mount the floor panels. Many early pickups and other farm trucks had wooden plank floors. They were functional not decorative like a lot of custom trucks are these days.

You could cut out all the rusted floor. Mount angle iron along the straight sections of wall and lay two layers of a good quality marine plywood with the bottom layer running from the rear to the front edge of the cargo floor. Lay the second layer from side to side, wall to wall, cutting out around the wheel wells. With the two layers well supported and running 90 degrees to each other,m you would have a very strong floorboard. You could trial fit everything, then bond those two layers together and you would have a very strong wooden floor, paint it with a good quality paint and it would be amazing.

You could do the same for the flat area of the front floors. If you are a good carpenter, you could even cover the angle area between the rear cargo deck ad the flat floor behind and under the front seats.

I know a lot of the guy will think that a wooden floor is a crazy alternative, but have you ever heard of The Spruce Goose? Howard Hughes built an entire seaplane body out of Spruce and he flew it himself on the initial flight. It was one of many of Hughes Aircrafts corporate accomplishments.

Think of all the really nice wooden yachts and sailboats as well.
Then you could brace those seats really well also. There are many Hatteras Cabin Cruisers still afloat while many more modern steel boats have rusted away. Quite a few famous sailboats made with wooden hulls and/or decks as well.

But you got some real issues to resolve with those wheel wells it looks like. More food for thought. Let the heckling begin.

 

..a wooden floor is a crazy alternative.

pinky rasta...you aught to do something tot he truck before you reply again!