some of them have rubber plugs in them and some dont. im sure they all had them at one time. do i patch them up or find more plugs to fill them?
it depends if you need to use the hole or not. for example ,if it's a body/frame mounting or seat mounting hole then use it and get a rubber plug. do your battery cables go through any of them? if it's not going to be used weld them up
I think it's a "the floorpans are filled with water and I don't want to drill through the carpet" idea.
they are definitely drains but i also dont want water leaking past the plugs and soaking my carpet. i will probably weld them up. thanks
Sorry man, wasn't recommending either way, I just thought it was for water damage on stock vehicles. I don't know about you, but if my car is submerged in water, the last thing I am going to be worried about is how i got the water out. Weld em up and find the quarter-matic car wash with the best vacuum!
If the hole is at the extreme low point of a sunken floor panel, and it has a depression that looks like a little sink with a small 3/16" ~ 5/16" hole in the middle like a drain, leave it as a drain. It's nice having drains if you ever do something where you have to hose down the interior like after washing it just before painting the interior. Or once the interior is painted, but the body hasn't been washed in two or three years, and there's still no glass and no upholstery, it's nice to have some drains to pour out water that accidentally sloshes into the floor pans. If you look at cars that have completely rusted out trunks or floor pans, the rust seems to occur the worst wherever there's been standing water. If they had a drain hole, they might not have ever rusted out. I think small drain holes are a great idea. You never know, you might get halfway through a project and get forced to leave it outdoors under leaky tarps, and that's when you'll be glad you had some drain holes. Some of the holes I've seen in older cars from the '30s were for screwing snap heads that the mats or carpets originally snapped to, or some of them had little footrests in the back seat area. Then there's the seat mounting holes, access holes to check the differential, and wiring holes.
I have seen some drain holes on older cars that had things that looked like brass nails that sort of loosely snapped into the hole with chevron shaped sheet metal prongs. They sort of keep drafts or water spray out from underneath, but allow puddles of water to trickle out. You could probably just shove some loose fitting plastic "christmas trees" or something into the hole to do the same thing before putting down padding and carpets. That way you'd still have a place for water to drain out in case you accidentally flood the interior while you're working on it. It's a drag having to bail water out of a floor pan that's been flooded.
I like drain holes. I had an old Datsun with big rubber plugs in the floor.In 1980 or thereabouts, my girlfriend drank a whole bottle of wine and barfed in my car on a hot day. Yank the carpets and get a hose. Drain holes are good. Ralph
im working on a custom that i dont think i will be driving on a regular basis. i may just go ahead and weld them up. i would hate to have any kind of moisture stain a new carpet.
Not sure what kind of car you're talking about, but the Shoebox Fords have two plugged holes in the floorplan to access the bolts so as to be able to remove the trans crossmember.
1953 cadillac... there are about 8 holes i will be filling... if i have to bail out water and soak the rest with a sponge, then so be it.
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