Trunk and Tail Panel Replacement

I remembered to take a few "before" shots this time.

Believe it or not, the new tail panel will be this tii's third in 34 years. The tail panel you see here was installed when the nose was replaced. Then, at some later point, it was hit again and allowed to rust.

The same kind of damage was on the passenger side too.

Lots of rust holes and bent metal around the gas tank opening. I think you can see why I decided to replace the trunk floor rather than attempt to repair it.

The first step was to mark all of the spot weld and weld seam locations. There's a lot of them.

To gain better access, I lowered the car onto the stand and disassembled the back part of the rotisserie.

I cut the easy stuff out first with the air saw.

The cut-off wheel was used on all those spot welds. If you're sacrificing the old panel, this is much faster than drilling them out.

Just surface rust here.

The cut-off wheel was used to remove the rest of the old trunk floor. I decided not to save the old tie-down anchors.

Sparks flew until the rest of the old floor was gone. Here, I decided to cut some openings so I could pump more POR-15 into the rear frame rails. Later, I welded these openings back up.

After applying POR-15. The excess was stripped back before welding.

Fitting the trunk floor was a chore. It was in and out dozens of times. After a while, I got pretty good at wrestling with it.

To help things fit, I cut these points off. I also had to relocate the floor support tab (visible between my thumb and forefinger) inboard about 1/2-inch. It took a lot of time to get a satisfactory fit.

Once I felt the tail panel fit was getting close, I put the trunk lid on to make sure it was all going to work together.

The contour of the new quarter panel, just above the tail light opening, wasn't right—it was too straight. I made some "pie" cuts so I could put more of a curve into the panel.

After several hours of fitting and prep work, the trunk and tail panel were ready for welding. Here, I've already stripped any extra paint, drilled holes for plug welding, and screwed everything together with sheetmetal screws.

Grace is checking my work.

Inside the passenger rear fender, you can see more holes for plug welding.

One final check for fit. You can never have too many vise-grip pliers.

The welding is actually the easist and fastest part of the project.

Welding the inside seams.

Welding the outside.

This joint was originally brazed. But I stink at brazing, so I used the MIG. I plan to smooth the joint and use a good metal-based body filler.

Before putting the car back on the rotisserie, I drilled the holes for the badge and the roundel while I still had clear access to the tail panel. I located the position of the holes by studying pictures of other tiis.

There were a few more welds to take care of on the bottom, so Grace helped roll the car on its side.

Here's where the rear frame rails attach to the trunk floor.

Welding the bottom is a lot easier when it's not the bottom.

It felt really satisfying to put some parts back on for change.