Floor Plugs. In or Out?

[Dave]

OK gang, I'm looking for a group consensus here. What do you all do with the little rubber plugs that cover up the drain holes in the floor pan of the roadsters. In particular, the ones that are up by your feet. The new carpet kit is going in in a week and I need to know, do I leave them out or put them in? Obviously, if I leave them out, I risk getting water splashed up through the holes if I hit a puddle. Did I mention my wipers don't work, I have a hole in my convertible top, and thus plan to do NO driving in the rain? If I leave them in, I risk water building up under the carpet and rusting out the floor (as I discovered had happened when I pulled up the old carpet and found all the plugs in place and rust everywhere). Things like car washing and careless passengers with wet feet or a loose grip on a cup of water could end up soaking the carpet without me knowing it.

Maybe I'll leave the driver's side plugs in, the passenger's side out, pull the carpet back in 10 years and let you all know which way is best!

Until then, any suggestions?

[SLOroadster]

Put the plugs back in. It can't hurt, and it will keep the road filth from finding its way back into your car.

Just my $.02
Will

[S Allen]

I put mine back in as I prefer to keep crap from underneath coming up through the open holes. If you stripped and sealed the body tub bottom with POR or some other rust encaspsulator rust should not be a big issue. You just have to be dilligent if the interior gets sopping wet-pull the carpet and dry everything out. I have a leak some where in my cowl where every time I wash my car I get a puddle of water on my floor mat. I just wipe it up and carry on. I do need to investigate and stop it someday though!

Steve

[Minh]

POR-15 or vinyl liner the floor, and put the plugs back in.

If a little water gets in, let it air dry.

[Dave]

Thanks for the tips guys!

I chipped out all the old thick black sound deadening material, ground out the rust, patched the holes, POR-15'd everything, and laid down a new layer of adhesive backed sound deadening rubber.

Thanks to your input, the plugs will go back in and the carpet will go down over the top.

Done and done.

[JohnnyRoadster]

Dave,

Have you taken any photos as you went along? I will be doing the same to my car in the future, and I am sure others will too! I would love to see how yours went, and any tips you might have. I bought a complete interior kit.

JohnnyRoadster
SPL311-13956
Philadelphia

[Dave]

The interior work was one tiny aspect of a much larger project, so, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures to document it. I'll see what I can dig up. If you want to PM me your e-mail address I'll send 'em out to you!

Dave