Well it is winter in southwest BC so there is lots of rain, I discovered my driver's side carpet was wet, not damp wet. Pulling up the carpet I discovered rust, it has damp under there for a while.

Water entry is above the brake pedal and wiring loom entry point, this is a fix for late spring as I will likely need to pull the left hand wing.

This is a big problem for our Disco's due to the 1 inch of sound-absorbing foam under the carpet, the leak hits the upper edge of the carpet and drains down to the floor pan saturating the foam, but the carpet itself will stay dry until the foam is soaked. It takes over a week of hot for that stuff to dry. To make matters worse there was some "asphalt" anti corrosion stuff on the floor that was old and also trapped water.

After cutting the carpet out, it looked pretty dire, but it appears there was previously hidden collision damage, the worst is at the front edge of the door sill and nice 2 to 3 inch rotten that needs to be cut out,the rest was largely heavy surface rust. The rear driver side also had surface rust just to make my life fun.

Repair is pretty straightforward, 2 pieces of 18 gauge sheet metal epoxied over the worst damage, using automotive panel epoxy and self-tapping tech screws. A small patch put into the hole and epoxied and riveted in place, prior to the primary patch. Then a few coats of paint over the rest.

Pictures forth coming.

 

A few images - front rust, note the torqued metal, the hole is under the flexseal tape.



Front patch panel test fitted, and of course there is a bend



The section along the drivers seat and second patch





More to come

 

I am curious as both of my front footwells need attention. Given its winter and my busy time, I was planning on tackling it this summer. That I can tell, it is only surface rust and nothing rotten through as of now.
Is there no way to take the carpet out without cutting it? I'm curious what your plan for replacing the carpet you cut out will be. Simply reglue and have the seam?

 

@DiscoOslo Hi yes you can pull the driver's seat the computer underneath, then move the carpet towards the transmission tunnel to get access to the floor. In my case where I live does not allow me to do that. Also my carpet was so wet that only way to dry it was removal.

As for reattachment I am using an industrial carpet velcro, so I can pull it if required. And the seam is fine for me, I have a good rubber floor mat that will hide most of it.

 

OK. My brief messing around with it all gave me the inclination that I could do something like that. The frame the seat sits on needs attention, so I figure I will pull the seats and do it all then. But that is a summer project, along with window frame rust. I might be tempted to cut it, as I also have the nice rubber mats, but I can decide that later. Thanks for the info.