Hello,
I took the carpet out of my 84 GL sedan today and I realized I have rust in my floor. In fact, it has eaten a hole in the floorboard about the size of a golf ball. Upon inspecting the underside, I found that a section of the underbody about 12" x 6" has been affected. I have no real knowlege of body repair. I had hoped to keep this car on the road for many more years. I realize that I have to stop this rust or it will eat my Volvo up. Can anyone give me some advice on how I can stop it and possibly repair it? I dont mind if the repair isn't perfect, as if I were trying to restore it. I only want to stop the rust so I can keep on loving my car. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ken

1. Best way, cut old rusty metal out and weld in new metal from a rust free car. Structural rust, ie frame rails, rockers should be welded for strength if very rusty, slight rust can be POR'd (see below).

2. Almost as good, look up POR-15 and check out the fix I did on my '85 which had serious floor rust. http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/Rust.html

3. Non structural rust can be patched with many different materials, some look better than others. The main thing is cut out all cancer and treat all surface rust with metal ready or similar.
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Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'63 P-210
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages

First get a grinder and grind all the rust from the area. Then prime the bare metal with tremclad or equivalant. Place a sheet of metal to caver the hole from the bottom ( so water doesn't get in) or put one on top and one on the bottom. Screw or rivit in place. Then use outdoor caulking and seal the seams. Prime all of that. Get a can of rubber rocker guard. Put 2-3 coats of that on the top and bottom. Make sure you get all of the surrounding areas. Then put 2-3 coats of tremclad again.

I did the doors of my 245 like this 5 years ago and it lasted. This year I had other rust holes so I did it again. When I stripped off the old stuff it had not rusted again.

Check this out.