Pulled up the rest of the floor and found this:
So here's my thought: clean it up and cut back the rust, apply a rust abating primer, then one of the following:
- pull the bolt, weld in new sheet metal, reinstall the bolt.
- take two pieces of sheet metal and notch out a half Moon on each side to wrap the bolt. Weld in place and weld to the bolt.
- weld it over the bolt. The frame is never coming off.
Removing the bolt makes me a little nervous in the event it breaks off. Second option is what I'm leaning to.
But I don't know how to weld. So a buddy came over and gave me the 10-minute intro to mig welding and left me his spare mig equipment.
My first four, really bad, welds covering some unused bolt holes from a seat I removed.
Also finished with the rest of the floors and checked the other bolts and I'm ok on the rest. No rust forward of the rear wheel well.