So today we took out the floor mat. We managed to get it out all in one full price.
Now we can get a good look at the rust. Boy oh boy.
Good thing my husband is so handy and has a welder.

That is quite bad actually. Looks like the car has been out in the rain for long time.
It seems the passengers side doesn't have proper drain holes, that's the reason why it always suffers more than drivers side.

Don’t forget the fuel lines run under the passenger side. They rust from the inside due to water getting past the hood seals and running under the floor mat. There are no drain holes so it just sits there slowly eating away the steel. When you have all the welding done use a good stone chip under seal And let it dry for a while before fitting the floor. When the floor is fitted seal all around the edges with tape to stop anymore water ingress.

Fuel lines? I thought they were plastic.
It's not easy to stop water ingress for good. If left outdoors for long time, water will accumulate in hood compartment and gradually make its way under floor trim. And once it's there, it will stay there.
Don't buy barchetta if you don't have a place to keep it dry.

Sorry for your pain!

You may want to do what I've done to the floor mat and that is split it into 3 pieces, or possibly 4 pieces.

I cut our back section into two pieces. You cut along the high wall that goes over middle floor/seat bulkhead directly under the seat. Neat/clean cuts barely show. You also cut along the tunnel / handbrake / rear console centre line (this is completely hidden).

Once this is done then the two rear sections can easily be removed. You only have to remove the seats, the rear console box and the two rear inside sill trims.

Makes inspecting and drying out the rear foot wells so much easier.

If you now need to check / dry the front foot wells then you just remove the front inner sill trims and then one can wedge up the floor mat and get a fan heater / hair dryer in there.

Our 2005 "B" seems to suffer (depending on parking angle and wind) water getting under the hood and into the rear.

So a month ago (for the second time) got those rear mats up and completely out. I then sealed the holes for the seat cables(sensors/pre-tensioners). These cable now come up at the front of the rear mats by the bulkhead.

Next trick was to get a large medium duty black polythene sheet that runs wider than the full with of the car and tall enough to reach from above the fuel tank cover plate into the foot well.

This sheet is waterproof taped along the top face of the rear bulkhead all the way to the sides. Some is then tucked in to the b-post / front of rear wing cavity and then taped behind the door rubber seal.

You then put the mats back with the polythene sheet over the TOP of the mats. You then put the sill trims and fuel tank cover back on. Now you neatly trim off the excess sheeting.

The purpose of this is because any water that does get into the rear of the car at the corners / back of the hood would usually just run down the rear bulkhead/corners and under the mats. Now most and hopefully all water will be forced onto the sheeting and because this now overlaps the rear edges of the rear mats it will just visibly collect there and also not be able to drain though the now sealed cable holes.

Something else I did whilst I was doing this was that it was evident that the dampness of the front mats underneath was due to excess water migrating from the rear foot wells to the front. So I seam sealed the middle bulkhead face on the rear side to stop any water that does get into the rear from migrating forward.

To be honest I know soft top car are not really suited to our wet UK climate (ours is out 365 days a year) but that continuous floor mat is a real pain. Might be great for protecting the car from a shower when the roof is down but once water gets in and under it is a major job as you are finding out.

Excellent post from S130 above ,my car is a mobile sieve .

At least FIAT used a floor mat and didn't fit a carpet that would just act like a

giant sponge and retain all the damp that gets in .

Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions.
The car sat for over 5 years... thankfully it was on asphalt and not grass or dirt. There's a hole in the convertible top above the driver's seat which allowed water to get in. There's also gaps in the rubber seals that seal against the door glass. The one piece rubber mat is a great idea except the openings for the seat belt sensor wires and the little door over the VIN number kinda defeats the purpose. We noted the location of the brake lines before we started doing any cutting. They'll be unclipped and pulled away from the body before anymore cutting or welding is done. We have the fuel tank out and there's no rust in that area. There's no rust in the area where the top folds down into and no rust in the spare tire area.

To answer Wapper , yes the fuel lines are plastic. I just meant if there was any welding etc. being done in that area.

We got the floors all welded up. The bottom inch of the seat crossmember was also too rusty to work with so lots of repair work there. Removing the tar board stuff was a pain and the weld did a lot of spitting back where it wasn't perfectly clean. Seam sealer will be applied to both sides of the welds then paint then undercoating. It isn't pretty but it's solid.

Also.... we spotted another Barchetta here in Halifax NS. A very nice orange '98.

Looks like an excellent job. Very difficult to weld on such thin metal. Have you checked the inner rear wings and the rear sills behind the plastic trims yet, there’s usually a lot of rust where the hood drain pipe discharges in this area? You might want to reroute the pipe into the rear inner wing.

Barchetta Bloke 440 said:

At least FIAT used a floor mat and didn't fit a carpet that would just act like a
giant sponge and retain all the damp that gets in .

Click to expand...

Well sadly the giant sponge is the underside of the floor mat and unlike carpet covered by a non porous/breathable plastic topping.

It took two full days in baking sun for me to dry out the foam backing on the mats and that included putting then top side up on a towel and then treading on the bottom foot areas to squeegee out excess water.

Been there,done that. ��

A bit of an update on the money pit... I mean Barchetta...
Because the car sat for 5 plus years the fuel in the tank turned into a tar like substance which took a lot of effort to get clean. The fuel pump needed to be replaced as well. We got the tank all back together and in and got the car safety inspected and started to drive it. It wasn't too long before the engine started to run poorly - lots of hesitation and bucking. We removed the fuel pump to find it filled with bits of old hardened fuel. Out came the fuel tank again for more cleaning and this time we sealed it. Unfortunately when we were removing one of the vent valves it broke. It took 3 weeks to get a replacement. We got the fuel tank back in but the engine still runs a bit rough. All the vacuum hoses, intake boots and hoses and electrical connections were checked - all good. I then unplugged one ignition coil at a time and found one had no effect when unplugged. I swapped the coil to a different plug and it still had no effect when unplugged so I know the connector and spark plug are okay. Looks like we need new ignition coils...

The Barchetta came out of winter storage last week. I installed the 4 new ignition coils I got off eBay and the engine now runs great. No more wonky idle or hesitation. Next project will be replacing the soft top.

Carebear said:

The Barchetta came out of winter storage last week. I installed the 4 new ignition coils I got off eBay and the engine now runs great. No more wonky idle or hesitation. Next project will be replacing the soft top.

Click to expand...

Brilliant! Well done for persevering. Now you can enjoy the summer!