Rust repair

So I went out to Home Depot yesterday and found some supplies to repair the small rust holes on my passenger floorboard.

First up is to cut out the "infected" steel and chip away the undercoating and sound-reducing tar. Once it all looks cleaned up, I'll spray the bare metal with rust converter to stop any further damage then top it off with a coat of paint.

After doing some research (including reading through the NH "Official Motor Vehicle Inspection Requirements - SafC 2000), I found that there are no restrictions on rust repair on non-structural elements such as a floorboard. So instead of trying to figure out the logistics of bringing someone to welding a patch, I'm going to use pop-rivets to secure a patch.

For the patch, I purchased 5"x7" sheets of aluminum, as they didn't have steel at Home Depot. It will be riveted to my floor board and sealed with silicone, then painted from above and undercoated from below. The nice thing is that the aluminum is easy to shape to fit the exact shape of the floor panels. That'll make everything easier.

UPDATE for May 30th:
I got some time to work on the spot today. I used something like a Sawzall to cut out some of the affected sheetmetal. Underneath the car, there was some surface rust beneath the undercoating that I found. Instead of having to do all this again in a year, I pulled off the undercoating, sanded down the rust, and treated it with rust converter. I applied black rust converter to the bottom of the car and orange above (not enough black) which I then painted red to match. Then the sun went down and the mosquitos came out. So that was the day. More to come shortly (perhaps Monday)!

Before:

































After:
To be posted when I finish.