What were the folks at GM thinking? Rant!!

My 60 Belair orignally came with just a vinyl flooring with carpet covering just the tranny hump. I wanted to install some sound deadener and a nice carpet. So tonight I pulled the flooring out and my floors are rusty as hell. I will have to replace the drivers side front floor pan, The rest can be saved with some POR 15. Man am I bummed out.
It seems the jute underlayment has absorbed water at some time and with the vinyl over it, the shit never was able to dry. What the hell were they thinking at GM when the decided to do this??? I guess no one thinks of cause and effect when it comes to designing this stuff. Sorry for the rant, but I was not expecting this. Easy fix just a pain in the ass. Their goes my extra xmas money!! Todd

 

What were they thinking? Really? It's called "planned obsolescence"...

 

GM nor any other car manufacture ever planned for or wanted their cars to be on the road for sixty-one years. They were hoping everyone would buy a brand new car every few years.

 

Yep, if a 1960 lasted forever they would never sell a 1961, or 1962, or..........


Don

 

It had 50+ years to absorb water....yeah, you're lucky there's anything left at all.

I'm working on a volvo about that old, same problem.

 

Cars were not made to last 8 years in a salt road, wet area. The outer body parts usually rotted first, before the floors did..

Even when they were 6 years old, cars back then were almost worthless in any area, dry or wet, so who cared about floors...I sure didn't.

 

A guy walks in a bar, he's bitching about how bad his shoes are. On and on about the crappy design, the poor workmanship just no end to it. No end until the guy with no feet starts bitching . He carries on in the same manner until the guy with no legs starts.
Get it ?

 

just put new floors in my '91 plow truck, looked great from below, except for one little soft spot. pulled the mat and jute backing out to reveal...well...nothing. vacuumed up what was left of my floorboards.

 

Wow you have to replace one floorpan...... Ain't life a bitch?

 

I don't know why, but '59 and '60 Chevys seem to be very prone to that type of behavior! I bought a '59 El Camino about ten years ago that looked like it would be an easy fix for a floor pan and ended up replacing EVERYTHING below the door handles... after all that, I lost my mind when the roof came off with the chrome outer trim! All of it was hidden down layer after layer, and this was a Nevada car.

What typically happened out here in the desserts was the windshield and rear window rubbers would shrink in the heat, crack and let water in to settle into the same jute your talking about.

Best of luck with your repairs

 

I guess the moral is to look for legless people before you bitch about shoes! I kill me. Naw, I thought it was actually fun replacing the entire front floorboard of my 55. Now I know it's solid. at least for a while.

 

Hey,

Ya call that rust?????????? Call back when you've driven over rail road tracks and the rockers have buckled and ya can't get the doors open to exit the vehicle......until than you're jus' talkin patch panels.

" Life ain't no Disney movie "

 

I have a 65 tempest wagon that is rust free except for the front floor pans had the same vinyl mat had to do full pans on both sides, oddly enuf the floor supports were not rusted at all

 

those aren't rust holes, they are terrain observation ports.

 

GM designers on lunch break in 1960.

Bob: What's going to happen when this jute gets wet? Won't it rot the floors?
Tom: How's it going to get wet? It's in the car under a mat.
Bob: Well, what if they leave the windows down in the rain? Or there's a leaky window seal? Or they have kids who pee in the car?
Tom: You know how wet it would have to get to rot the floors?
Bob: Pretty wet.
Tom: It would have to be wet for years and years for those floor to rot out. We use American steel, not that cheap crap they use in those foreign cars. By the time those floors rot out the car will be on it's third or fourth owner, probably some schmuck who is just happy to have a 20 year old car.
Bob: I know, but what about taking pride in what we sell?
Tom: You know what, in 20 years we'll be retired, sitting on a beach somewhere thinking about how lucky we were to make it home from WWII.
Bob: You're right. Screw the jute!

 

Loved that comment....!!!

 

Then you have to replace one kick panel and a rocker panel in a '65 Chevy pickup. Then you have to build all the way over to the other side, up to the firewall, and halfway up the back of the cab to find solid metal you can weld to.
That's my future if I want my Black Dog to roll again. I'm bettin' replacing the subrails and the lower 6" of most of the body in my A Tudor is an easier job finished than what that truck will be if I tie into that job.

 

one floor thats good I am redoing all four.

 

lmmfao , too good there....

 

you could always cut it all out and flintstone the car itd save on gas, no but seriously, atleast its a easy fix

 

You've heard of "Rust free"? you got some of the free stuff.
Good luck wth your patches.

 

The floors never dried when getting wet with the rubber mat the cheaper models had,with carpet there was a better chance it would dry out some but rubber does not breath. My 55 Ford convertible had the rubber mat and the pass front was still wet when the heater core leaked back in the mid 60s,I would like to put the rubber mat back in but after replacing most of the floors its going to stay with carpet.

 

My uncle scrimped and saved and in about '60 bought a '57 Corvette, car of his dreams, loved it. Until it rained. Top leaked so bad the carpets started to mold. He drilled holes in the floor to let the water out, problem solved. Sold it the next summer.

 

the man with no legs says............."buy a rod with no floors...then there's no issues with the jute or the floorboards being rotted out"


that's what i did................

 

Rust in big ways at times is just part of dealing with old cars, mother nature has her ways of pissing car guys off. If, it's rusted just fix it and move on, it's all part of the game.

CRUISER

 

No f@#%^ing comment . Damn GM anyways. Check the Galaxie project my dumb ass started.
B.B.

 

well thats just like life, they say a chevy only last 15 years, but styrofoam cup will last for 100 years !!!!

 

Asbestos hadnt been "perfected" yet...

 

Years ago I was working on an early 70's Chevy pickup and complimented the owner on how clean the truck was.
His answer was 'yea it's great with those rubber floor mats, I just open both doors and hose it out every week or so". I think my uncle may have done the same thing on the 71 GMC that I have now.

 

This is why we do what we do.