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November 9, 2004
2.5 Hours

Trunk Work Part 6

With the inside of the trunk straightened out and rebuilt, I turned my attention to the inner fender patch which was similar to the one on the other side. Once the inner fender is rebuilt, I can start working on getting the rear brace back under the floor, aligning  the quarter panels and rebuilding the floor. Ultimately, all this means that I can finally get the body up on the rotisserie.

As with any patch, I started with a paper template and left enough meat on it to make a flange to fold underneath where the rear brace attaches, just like on the other side. I also left enough below the cut-off line so that I could trim both the inner fender and the floor panel I added yesterday. Then I cut the shape out of metal, trimmed it to fit exactly, and tacked it in place.

Patch tacked in place. Duct tape is cut-off line for the bottom of the
patch. Cutting both the inner and outer panels would ensure a perfect
seam along the lower edge.

Then I finished welding the two panels, created some spot welds along the lower edge to hold the inner and outer panels together, and trimmed the lower edge. I learned an important tip the other day from MetalMeet.com: when tack-welding two pieces of sheet metal together, do a few tack welds, then use a hammer and dolly to make them perfectly flat, do a few more welds, then more hammer work, etc. This will make the two panels knit together without a noticeable groove where you welded. So I welded, hammered, and welded some more until it was finished. I did most of the welding from the inside of the trunk to make the outside of the weld as smooth and clean as possible.

After welding the patch in place, I trimmed the lower edge with a 
cut-off wheel so it would match the other side.

Once it's finished, this repair will look much closer to original than 
the older hackneyed repairs in this area. Lip at outer edge of the
trunk turned out even better than I hoped it would.

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 02/06/2005

Thanks, Fidget!