Driveshaft Center Support Bracket

[Byrd48]

Hi,
I'm cutting out an old rusty passenger side floorpan on a 1980 124. The area where the driveshaft center support bracket is basically gone, so the passenger side of the bracket is not attached to anything. It seems to be directly underneath the seat support bracket. I've seen replacement floor pans for both front and rear, but I haven't seen anything indicating what this driveshaft support bracket actually bolts to. I presume it does not just bolt to the floor pan. Any advice?
Thanks in advance!
Jon

[18Fiatsandcounting]

The bracket for the driveshaft center support actually does bolt to the underside of the floor pan. Originally, there were two studs welded to the underside (one on each side), so the bracket got attached to those with washers and nuts. If you replace that part of the floorpan, you can either weld a new stud in the correct location or just drill a hole and hold the bracket with a bolt and washer/nut.

-Bryan

[Byrd48]

Thank Bryan,
Im working on exposing the floor pan and I’m if the insulation or the coating that is black with a tan exterior could contain asbestos?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I'm not aware that any part of the spiders contained asbestos. If you are talking about the floor pan coating or underbody coating, it was generally a tar-like substance that dried fairly hard but often develops cracks over the decades. Someone could have added additional undercoating at some point, but I've never heard of any of these kind of products containing asbestos.

-Bryan

[Byrd48]

Thanks Bryan,
Here is a photo of the passenger side. https://photos.app.goo.gl/GxhJQCBRedBqyjtA9
I'd appreciate any insight on a game plan. There are a few areas of concern:

1. The suspension attaches to the outer side and the floor pan is rusted around that area. It seems the floor pan is underneath the vertical rear wall. So I think here I need to disconnect that suspension piece, but then I'm not sure the new floor pan would attach to the underneath of the wall or on top of it?

2. The door sill has a similar issue. The rear part of the door where the striker catch is seems to overlap the sill.

How would you approach it?
Thx!!

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Body work is not my specialty, and the most I've ever done is rivet in some patches on small rust holes in the floor pan and then coat with Rustoleum/underbody coating. Your car requires much more than that, so I'm not much help.

What I suggest, though, is setting up an account on Mirafiori.com and asking your question there. Lots of really good Fiat spider experts, and many have done complete restorations of underbody issues. I'm sure someone there can offer advice.

-Bryan