trunk floor replacement panels... suggestions on sellers?

[green69rt]

These the parts you're talking about?

[Lord Warlock]

The original isn't worth saving anyway since the bottom edge is rusted out, 95% of it is in great condition, but the bottom half inch or so is jagged, its been missing for years, even before i ever started working on the car.  Went out and bought an air chisel this afternoon, as well as an electric cutoff tool with 3 inch cutoff wheels, and got a pack of extra wheels at harbor freight.  Usually I don't like the tools from HF too much, haven't been impressed with them, but can't beat the prices and if they do the job won't complain.  

Yes i was talking about those two risers and the spare tire mount. 

[Lord Warlock]

Finding the right tool is paramount.  an Air Chisel was definitely the right way to go, took off the brackets in less than 2 hours of work. Took longer to figure out how to put the air hammer together than it did to get the first bracket off.  Unfortunately it aggravated my elbow injury so i'm feeling the stress on the joint, but i did get the three spare tire flanges off as well as cut off the factory jack brace and loop for the handle.  Now i have to just clear off the joint compound/sealer, and grind the surfaces clean, then trim the panel to fit.  One step forward today.  Best 17.00 i've spent this week. 

[Ghoste]

Always a good feeling isn't it? 

[green69rt]

if it works for you then go for it.  We all have different ways of getting it done.   Any more pics?

[Troy]

Just be careful as an air chisel can do a LOT of damage that sucks to repair later! I got a little too aggressive with mine popping spot welds off the frame rails in the trunk and sliced one rail and pounded some good sized (sharp) dents in the other. It's great for removing large sections of rusted metal but I've learned that something a little gentler is needed when you want to "split" pieces and save one of them.

Troy

[Lord Warlock]

I should be able to get more pics tomorrow, I'm still cutting off some parts of the trunk that i'm not happy with putting new metal over, some is pitted more than i'd like.  I'm sure most would cut the entire panel out instead of welding new metal over old metal.  It isn't the best solution but its what I know i can do myself rather than hiring the job out.  I just want to look decent from inside the trunk area, and seal the floor completely.  Someone after me may want to do the job right and redo it, but this should end up well enough to put the tank back in and drive it for a while.  

The whole goal of this project is to do absolutely everything that I could possibly do myself, even if it meant that I had to learn new skills or relearn old skills.  When my dad fixed the rusted out floors of the old cars we had, he would pop rivet sheetmetal in place (usually an illegally obtained stop sign or other street sign that he could get a hold of without any witnesses) then he'd fiberglass the edges in place to get a solid seal without bondo.  My dad rarely would steal anything, but he would pick up signs knocked over from accident scenes occasionally.

Good point Troy, getting the upper right flange the tires sits on off, the air chisel wen through the front weld and under the floor pan metal and left a nasty looking hole that i'll have to hammer flat again.  Luckily it didn't damage the bracing underneath.  There is no way I could do a good enough job removing the spot welds without a lift and the right tools, none of the spot welds are visible from the bottom since the undercoating covers everything down there.  Th e new sheetmetal has a hole ro the right of where the spare tire bracket was welded on, there was no hole in the original sheetmetal.  Trimmed the left side flange of the trunk panel off so it would sit flat, and then made a cut so the new panel would fit around the trunk lock tower, and left rear trunk bumper mount.  Still getting the seam sealer off from around the rear wheels, its stuck on real good there, but i'm finding surface rust under the sealant so need to get it all out to redo it all once the new panel goes in.  

[Lord Warlock]

trimmed the panel up, have a mismeasurement issue with the hole i cut for the left rear bumper bracket, will have to weld in a small sliver to patch the left side which i overcut by an inch (measure twice cut once didn't work, next time its measure 3 times cut once...hopefully.) Right side will involve a larger notch around the rear lock housing, I'll use the left side to ensure i have the correct depth.  Was fairly happy with the overall fit.  I'll have to crawl up inside the trunk area to remove the rubber drain plugs in the upper/package tray section, and use clamps to hold it in place there before welding. 

shows the hole before placing the new metal for trial fit. 





shows the overcut hole? oops, too late to cry now.  Looked fine before i trimmed the square off

[Lord Warlock]

Still have lots of work to do before welding. lots of grinding to clean up the remaining floor, old fiberglass is really hard to get off in spots. Also have to finish getting the sealer off from around the wheelwell on the left side, can't weld the edge with sealer there.  There are times I wish i had a rotisserie, or a lift, this is one of those times.  elbow just can't take the stress of the grinder torque, whole forearm is inflamed now.  Have a doctor appt thursday (and a job interview with a recruiter tomorrow) May have to go back to work soon which would put this project on a slower timetable. 

[Troy]

I use a knotted wire wheel on a 4" grinder for seam sealer and undercoating. Makes a mess but goes rather quickly! If it has surface rust underneath it may come off with a scraper - but I bet some of it is still nice and sticky. In a pinch, I have a thick wire brush (only about 1" around) on a drill that can fit in some tight spaces.

I'm no professional by any stretch. I just have too many cars to pay other people and very limited time. I don't have a lift either (but I do have a rotisserie - now that I've finished most of the car laying on my back!). It certainly wears on your body. I stopped taking multiple days in a row to work on the cars. I had 13 days off in a row over Christmas and just couldn't force myself into the garage all the time.

On the trunk pan, I use self drilling screws and run them into the rail. You can't get enough clamps on there to keep it from lifting once you apply heat. Once the "spots" are welded pull the screws and weld those shut (or you can fill as you go I guess). Crank up the voltage (not wire speed as it will "cap" the hole before welding through) and the screw holes make a decent approximation of a spot weld without drilling any holes. Next time I may just attach the whole panel that way...

One reason I'm so slow is I only cut a tiny bit off at a time when fitting a panel. Usually with a grinder. I'm not so good at butt welding thin sections!

Troy

[Lord Warlock]

I need to replace the wire brush on the grinder, mine is worn down a bit and occasionally throws a wire at 20,000 rpm thru the shirt/pants and into the meat of my body,  can live with that (and have) but have to protect the eyes.  Was lucky today while cutting the last piece off the hole in the furthermost left of the trunk, the 3" cutting wheel (on an electric cutter) disintegrated and pieces went shooting in all directions.  Glad i wasn't looking at it when it happened.  I now have 3 grinders, one of which the retaining screw is stuck and won't let me take the wheel off, so i got another cheap one at sears.  do you use the wire brush attachment that looks like a bell or the wheel shaped? I have both.  I stripped most of the paint off the car with the wheel shaped while taking the whole body down to metal.  

The electric cutting wheel works where the air powered one won't work with my compressor.  BUT it overloads it and trips a built in circuit breaker on the drill fairly often.  Glad the unit has the trip switch or I'd burn the unit out too quick.  Cutting the flange off the side edges and rear edge is the hardest cuts to make, can't use a cutting wheel for that since there are tight bends to deal with around the wheelwell area, jigsaw worked best for that part, but already broke one new blade.

[Troy]

I use 4 kinds of wire wheels...

For heavy rust and undercoating I use a 4" "knotted" wheel. It's about 1/2" thick and instead of the wires poking straight out radially there are about 8(?) clumps where the wires are twisted together. This makes them extremely stiff! The size means it moves a LOT of material. A drill probably doesn't have the power to spin one of these through heavy undercoat so a grinder is almost a necessity.

For paint/light rust removal I use a normal looking wheel (I primarily use the 3M stripping wheels for this purpose now but they are large and bulky). These will take forever on anything heavy and you'll end up looking like you've been attacked by a porcupine.

For oddball shapes I use a "cup" style wheel in various sizes. There are some newer kinds with abrasive impregnated fibers instead of wire and the whole surface cleans the metal. This is really handy for the inside of frame rails, inside the tail panel, and engine compartments.

Lastly, I use a "bell" shaped wire brush for tight areas. The one I use most has very thick wires. I think it's listed as a" gasket remover" - and works great for that purpose too as long as you mask off everything near you!

I think most of these are listed with a max speed of about 3,500 rpm so don't use them on a high speed air drill. You'll just destroy them faster. Same with spot weld cutters - go slow and there will be less chance of slipping and the tool will last many times longer. I didn't set out to buy all these for body work. Some I just had laying around and when I got stuck on an area I'd poke through my tools to see if anything else would work.

I need to make a fine cut right now and it's in a position where none of my current tools will fit. I haven't solved that one yet. I may just have to make a big cut and weld it all back. Some of my biggest hurdles have come because I either did something in the wrong order or refused to move something else when it wouldn't have been much more effort. I guess that's why I'm still about 4 times slower than any half way decent "professional". By the time I finish all the cars in my garage I will look like a whirlwind compared to today!

Troy

[MxRacer855]

Hey guys, I'm replacing a trunk floor right now. Besides the actual floor, what else do I need to complete the job? Brace? I don't know what gutters are but I've seen them. Needed?

Thanks

Jeff

[jaak]

Hey guys, I'm replacing a trunk floor right now. Besides the actual floor, what else do I need to complete the job? Brace? I don't know what gutters are but I've seen them. Needed?

Thanks

Jeff

It really all depends on the extent of rust. I replaced the trunk pans in my 68 a few months ago. The brace underneath was rock solid, so I didn't have to replace that. Check your trunk extensions. The right one on my car was in good shape, so I didn't remove it, just left it. Now the left side had some rust, so I replaced it when I replaced the floors. Also check your inner wheel housing. Mine were in pretty good shape, but did have a little rust along the bottom. I had to make a couple of small patches on the right one, but I bent up/formed a patch, and replaced the bottom 2"-3" of the left one. But those can be bought new if yours are in worst shape.

Jason

[green69rt]

If the rust is just in the floor then it might be a good idea to try to find out how water is getting into the trunk.  Around the back window or thru the trunk seal are two commen spots.   Other places that you might not think about are around the tail lights or the bumper mounting holes.    Also if replacing the trunk floor extensions it's a good time to fabricate a piece of metal to fill in the huge hole Dodge left in the corners of the trunk.  Pic attached of mine.

[Troy]

Hey guys, I'm replacing a trunk floor right now. Besides the actual floor, what else do I need to complete the job? Brace? I don't know what gutters are but I've seen them. Needed?

Thanks

Jeff

Sometimes you just need the middle of the floor (if you're lucky!). If your car needs quarters because the bottom behind the wheels is rotted then you likely need the extensions too. There is a brace under the floor pan that is often rusted if the pan has large holes. In this case you may have frame rail issues too  (although the rails are thicker and have drainage holes). The spare tire bracket is usually eaten up on the bottom edge. If it's just the "tab" at the bottom it can be repaired. If it goes higher it will be hard to recreate the factory contours. The jack bracket (shown above) may also have some issues - but probably only if the car sat in such a way that there was a lot of water in the trunk. There are 2 bumper brackets (look like ramps) at the back edge that could have rust depending on how the car was sitting. If they are gone then the tail panel to valance seam is probably wasted too.

Troy

[MxRacer855]

My quarter panels have some bondo at the bottom of them, so I'm going to replace them in the next few years before I get the car re-painted. Right now, the leaf spring perches are absolutely shot and the trunk floor is too. So I want to replace those items only because the paint on my car is in great shape. The previous owners sprayed over imperfect body work (but overall pretty good) and I want it to be done right in the future.
Since this is my first dab in body work, I guess my question is, if I install the floor, perches, and anything else required (floor brace, etc.), can that all be salvaged when it comes time to replace the wheel housings, quarter panels, etc? I would feel really bad if replacing all of this was only a semi-permanent job.

Thanks

Jeff

[Troy]

I don't see why you'd need to do it over. But perhaps you should start a new thread and post some pictures?

Troy

[Lord Warlock]

You really don't know what needs replacing till you cut out the bad metal and see whats underneath, much of whats underneath is available today where it wasn't 15 years ago.  I was lucky in that only the center area of mine was rusted badly, the one side had an area next to the extension (under the fuel filler tube) that was weakened enough where i didn't want to leave the metal in place.  Everything left was solid enough to stand on and shows no light from underneath so i left it as a foundation for the new metal to sit on.  You should be able to see the cross brace and frame rails once the bad floor is removed.  (as seen in the top photo above) Be careful not to cut thru the cross brace...came close to doing that when i grinded out the center section of the floor, grinder was slicing like butter and didn't want to stop...lol.  

Doc says i got tennis elbow so have to give it a rest a few days before i can start the rework of the right side panel and grind the remaining sealant off the rear wheel tubs.  I'll be setting up sawhorses and a support brace to mark and drill the holes in the left panel, hopefully by the weekend the arm will feel up to it.  The new chrome gas filler tube arrived yesterday, should look good back there once the floor is in place.

[MxRacer855]

Lord Warlock... I just got my chrome filler tube on Monday! It came from eBay! Good choice. ;-)

Rear wheel wells look pretty good. The car is altogether except the rear end and driveshaft. Since that stuff is out, I've been scraping the undercoating off and sand blasting the bottom as is. I can post pictures of that, but should probably start a new thread like Troy said. I just wanted your opinions on this.

When I was scraping the undercoating off the bottom of the trunk pan where it butts up to the inner wheel housing, it pushed through the compromised metal. The housing looks good, the trunk bad. I just want to make sure the trunk floor covers the part that I broke through, or if there's another filler in between?

Jeff

[Lord Warlock]

From that spot, the new panel will cover that, it actually has a lip that goes up and over the little bump that the sealer covers, and has a flange on the side that would allow you to spot weld directly to the fenderwell.  I'm cutting the flange itself off so i can weld in the channel under where the seam sealer will be reapplied.  If you look at the pic i posted earlier this week you can see how the new panel fits around the wheelwell (that flange had already been trimmed before sitting in place). 

Personally, i don't mind others doing work on trunks posting in this thread, as i get to see and read more as i work and hopefully avoid pitfalls.  The beginning of the thread answers the initial question of who to buy from, was happy with the sale and delivery of the panels, now i'm just faced with the project of putting it in to the best of my ability.  If Troy wants a new thread started, I'll be happy to move and post there instead. 

[Lord Warlock]

Amazing what 1600mg of motrin will do, and an arm brace for tennis elbow .  went out and set the sawhorses up as mentioned before, then couldn't help myself and started trimming the flange edge off the rear edge and right side edge of the right side floor.  the measure 3 times before cutting worked out better this time, didn't overcut the bumper support bracket hole, and think i was right on with the trunk lock cage, the right side is now sitting in place in the trunk.  Plan to take pictures as it sits before pulling both pieces back out so i can work on the sealant remnants that are still in the way, and then drill the holes i'll be using to weld it in place later.  Think i'll follow the advice of screwing the pan in place before beginning to weld.  Pics to follow soon. 

[MxRacer855]

Thanks for the advice Lord Warlock. I went back in the thread and saw the posts that you were talking about. Unfortunately, I don't have time today to read all of the posts and suggestions, so excuse me for being redundant if I am. Is the two piece trunk the way to go in your opinion?

I plan on having the wheel wells that the trunk floor attaches to, replaced sometime at the end of the year when I do my quarter panels (I want to drive the car this upcoming year and want it to stay looking presentable, no mix-matched colored panels  ).

I know what you mean too with the pain. I've raced motocross for the last 15 years, and professionally for the last 3 and have broken more bones than you can imagine. Right now I'm fighting through a broken right shoulder and torn rotator cuff. It's been 3 months since the injury and I'm still in serious pain... but I cannot stay out of the garage for more than a day! 

Jeff

[Troy]

You can't install a one piece trunk pan through the trunk opening. You need to remove the tail panel or a big chunk of the quarter. I think I remember someone saying they were able to get it in through the front by removing the braces behind the seat. If you just want to replace the floor section it's probably best to go with the two piece pan.

Troy

[MxRacer855]

Thanks Troy. I did NOT know that. I would have had to either return the pan for a two-piece, or cut it in half! I'll definitely get the two piece.

Jeff