Old Ranger Gets Floor Pan Patched and New Carpet

Ranger with Explorer bucket seats, center console, new carpet

 

Hiding a nasty surprise

26 years of service, and dirt

As I try to make this old '00 Ford Ranger as clean and comfortable as I can on a budget I have run into additional unexpected issues. This is "Scope Creep" as they call it. In this case, a rotted away driver side floor pan! 


I decided to spring for brand new ACC "cut pile" carpet with the "mass backing". To the tune of around $200 this will be one of the larger single items I've purchased for this tired old truck. I'd considered pulling a complete carpet from the junkyard for $35, but it'd still be hard to clean out 20 years of dirt and wear. Since this is for my daughter's first vehicle this is a "splurge" that will make the interior clean, fresh and new feeling with the nice condition '98 Explorer Sport seats and '00 Explorer center console I'm installing. 

Almost fine, but we can do better


Out with the nasty, worn through old carpet.

Oh look, rust! It appears the windshield area leaks, soaking the carpet and over time that is guaranteed to rot away the floor. Three open holes and a lot of thin metal. So I have some choices to make. 

Leave as, or fill with Bondo and mesh, or screw in some scrap sheet, or cut and replace... 

Thin metal and several holes
After some thinking and research, there are no specific floor pans for this 3rd gen available but previous '88 to "92 have similar if not the same pan stamping at $65. Scrap sheet steel costs money, as do all the cheapo "wrong way" options like Bondo or fiberglass. 

I figured I have a welder, need the practice, and at $65 I can rig it up to patch it the "wrong right way". Best case, the pan fits well enough that I can actually weld it all up the right way. Worst case, I have steel that is close enough to make it work the wrong way and treat/cover the rust. 

I'll do my best to fit and lap weld the edges of the stamped floor pan. Best case scenario is I can find enough good metal to weld to and cut out the thinnest areas. Worst case I just sand, treat, primer and leave the old, lay the new on top and seal screw or weld. Seam sealer on the bottom. Yeah, the "wrong right way".


Update: with all the work I've been doing on it lately I needed to move along for now. I used POR-Patch on the floor, so I did it the "best wrong way" you can. I have the floor pan and can go back to it in the future when I have more time. Pull carpet, cut out pan, sand grind and weld, then button it back up.

I installed butyl sheets for sound deadening on the driver floor and the rear parcel area. The carpet with the mass damping backer is actually pretty nice and I think was worth it to make the interior much better.


Explorer Seats on the modified Ranger rails went back in and the Explorer center console just barely fit in with a little modification. I think the console will make it a lot more usable and comfortable.





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