73 on a slow road to recovery... by Done Yet?

13 minute(s) of a 308 minute read

My final attempt to fit the trunk pan, i began to remove what was left of the package tray and the metal behind the rear seat back. 

Ater having hpefully enough room to slide in the trunk pan it still wouldnt fit no mattter how i tried to put it in.  So the only way to get the pan in was to cut the trunk pan and have a weld seem, or remove the tail pan. With the tail pan being one of the only panels on this car in halfway decent condition i opted to slice the trunk pan. After cutting the trunk pan heres a pic of its first time sitting in the trunk area. it still needs quite a bit of trimming to fit properly before welding, i will probably work on fitting it on Sunday.

Now that the package tray and rear seat back were out i removed the rest of the front area of the trunk pan. At this point the thought crossed my mind to just cut out the rest and put in a four link (prostreet it) After having a beer and cool off i stripped the paint off of the inner wheel houses and on Sunday i will get some epoxy primer inside the rails and trunk area. And begin on the reassembly of my trunk area. Thanks for checkin out my work. Rob

7-25-2010

Not much progress today..

I started out the day with good intentions of getting alot accomplished, First i had to figure out a way to transfer my cut line onto the new trunk pan, this is what i wound up doing. I tried cardboard and wasnt happy with that i tried tin foil doubled up and made a template of the frame rail to where the mating trunk pan seem was, Once the template was made i placed the trunk pan into position and scribed a line on the underside following the inside edge of the frame rail. I removed the trunk pan placed my foil template on the scribed line and drew a new cut line. Leaving a little extra metal not wanting to cut it short, i cut off the excess metal.

Then the task of grind and fit multiple times to get it right, Once the r/s fit good i secured it with a few cleco fasteners. The same process followed on the oppisite side, However i am still not happy with the fit on the second piece it still needs a little tweaking, Maybe i can get that done during the week after work. I also had to remove a few patch panels off of my donor for other members and that was the extent of my day in the backyard bodyshop LoL

After a long day I think its Time for an ice cold beer

7-31-2010

still workin on the trunk pan...

First off i would like to thank Aaron 76LT for sending me a rear sway bar set up for my car. I already glass beaded the smalll parts and put them in prime.

Today i cleaned up all of the metal in the rear area of the car getting it ready for some epoxy. After mixing the paint while waiting for the half hour induction time i wiped everything down with wax and grease remover. I then sprayed the entire trunk area includind the underside of the new trunk pan.

8-2-2010

A little more progress is a good thing..

Swiss cheese anyone.. After drilling what seemed to be a few hundred holes my trunk pan has more holes than a block of cheese LOL.

Once the drilling was done i needed to clean the paint around each hole on both sides of the panel for a cleaner weld. Then put both halves of the trunk pan in the car and marked all of the weld points, took the pan back out and cleaned each and every weld location.

After putting both pieces of my trunk pan in the car i noticed that after cutting the pan it had gotten pretty out of shape, So i had to weld the two pieces back together than fit it to the car. This was probably at least a 3 beer job if not more  I just tacked the pan back together with a weld every two inches or so, Keeping my fingers crossed that once it was one piece it would still have a good fit in the trunk area. Heres a few pics of the cut spot welded back together.

The cleko fastners i would normally use did not have enough pulling power to make the pan confirm to the shape of my frame rails so i used some self tapping tech screws, i had enough to do about 3/4 of the pan and will need to buy some more before i can begin to weld the pan in its final resting place.
I also used 4 1/2 inch bolts to keep the trunk pan tight to the tail pan and also keep the bumper bracket holes lined up heres a few pics of where i left off for tonight.
Thanks for checking out my work Rob

8-8-2010

Trunk pan now part of the car..

I finally got the trunk pan in its final resting place Saturday  It is all welded in place with lots of grinding to be done to finish it up. I did start on the grinding today and then the skys opened up and here comes the rain, if it stops i will go back to grinding but it looks like it will be here all day. Heres a few pics of the pan welded into the car.

And heres a pic of todays rainy weather
Thanks for checking out my project Rob

8-14-2010

Well spent most of today grinding and cleaning up all of the welds for my trunk pan, It was a long day I also cleaned up the outer tail pan where the welds burnt the epoxy primer. Here are a few pics of that work.

I sanded the inside of the trunk pan to give the epoxy something to bite on to, After cleaning all of the grinding dust out of the trunk area, i blew it off and wiped it down with wax and grease remover, getting it ready for primer.
Heres a pic of the outer tail pan ready for primer.

I wanted to get the package tray stripped and put in prime with the trunk area but the rain was coming so i decided to shoot the inside trunk and outer tail pan with prime, the package tray will have to wait until tommorrow.
Here are a few shots of the trunk pan and tail pan in epoxy primer. I must have had the heat a little too high when welding in the trunk pan i have a few low spots that will require a skim of filler to hide all of the seems.

The back yard body shop will be open tommorrow, stay tuned for more progress, thanks for checkin out my project. Rob

8-15-2010

Thanks guys.... We will see whats instore for the weather today, hopefully no rain.... And a little more progress. How about a before and after pic.

Trunk pan crossed off the to do list......

Thanks Bob, Today i figured i would finish my trunk pan. So i scuffed up the areas to get a skim of filler and wiped everything down and applied the filler. Be easy on me now this is probably the second or third time ever using filler.
(Just a learning curve) LOL....

While the filler was setting up i started to strip my package tray. I noticed a bunch of tiny little rust spots ontop of the package tray, probably grinding fragments that sat on there from when i was working in other areas of the car. Once stripped i treated it with osthfo and now it needs to sit for 24 hours before it can be painted. Once that was done i began to sand the filler on my trunk pan.

And once agian mother nature came nocking on my door

I was able to get the trunk area sprayed for the final time and the paint gun cleaned before the skies opened up, heres a pic of the completed trunk pan.
Thanks for stopin bye Rob