Part 14: Keeping Your Junk In The Trunk

Here is the opening where the floor was removed. (A) This area of the trunk floor is an overlap weld. Drill the spot-welds out and leave the portion underneath. (B) Also, spot-welds hold the trunk floor to the framerails. Drill the spot-welds out. (C) Where the floor meets the trunk extensions, cut the floor about 1/2 inch in (on the trunk-floor side) from the seam. When the old floor is gone, the remaining piece of the floor can be removed with a grinder or cut-off wheel from the extension. Finish cutting the floor loose at the rear portion and take it out. Section D was rusted out, and since no repair panels are available for this area, a new piece of sheetmetal will be added.

Here, you can see the excess trunk-floor metal has been removed from the extensions, and the spot-welds on the frame have been ground smooth. After the floor was removed and everything cleaned up, we coated the inside of the framerails with a rust inhibitor.

With the opening ready for the new sheetmetal, we put the new trunk floor in place and sprayed primer along the bottom of the pan at the framerails. This will show us where to drill the holes for the spot-welds.

Here, you can see the placement of the holes for the floor-to-frame filler-welds. Originally, the factory had a welder with long arms that would pinch and weld the two pieces together. Most enthusiasts don't have access to this type of tool, so the floor is drilled and the metal welded to the frame by filling the holes.

The first welds you need to make are the filler-welds to the framerails. After that is done, weld the back of the pan to the taillight-panel area. Weld in short, 1- to 2-inch lengths, and alternate locations to avoid heat-warping the metal.

Remember the spot-welds you drilled from the latch? Push the latch down in place and fill the drilled holes. Make sure the latch is not twisted or off-center before you reweld it. Next, weld the overlap seam at the front.