Do you REALLY need drain holes in the floor pan?

[MGNoir]

I recently had to patch up the through holes where my seat rails bolted into the pan. While I was at it, I sanded it all down and removed the drain inserts. And I realized that they were essentially worthless as far as keeping water out. In fact they pretty much keep water in, because they clog. And in fact the pan has all these structural depressions that have no drains. If it rains in my car (oops), that's where the water is going to go.

So. Is there any reason I shouldn't just plug them all up? I was thinking of putting a bit of tape underneath as a dam, then just putting a liberal amount of epoxy over them. There are also various little metal screw holes where the carpet had been screwed down by prev. owner. Figured I'd do the same with them.

Thoughts?

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Well you could pull up the carpet and add a little bit of water and see where the lowest point in the cockpit is and leave one hole open under the carpet. In my case I left the mounting holes open from the original seats when I switched to Miata Seats. How often do you really drive sans top in the rain? If caught in the ran sans top solution is drive faster and the rain passes over the cockpit. By the time you erect the top you are usually soaked anyway. And that's what WEet/Dry Shop Vacs were made for.

 

[MGNoir]

I find most water gets in from below when driving in the rain, not from above. I still haven't put the carpet and the underpad back in, as once removed it was clear they'd become a huge sponge for water that got in.

 

[Guest]

My drain holes came rusted in from the factory.