How To Trunk Repair; Part 3

Trunk Repair, Part 3

In the first two parts of this How To Trunk Repair article we showed you how Mike Bowers cut up his trunk and installed patch panels from Dr. Cyclone, Tom Wilson to bring a 1969 Talladega trunk back to life. This Part 3 story will guide you through the finish work to make the repair invisible. If you would like to start with Part 1, Click Here.

I use a 24 grit disk to remove slag and flatten the welds down. This will let you find any holes in the welds and make it easier to keep the next grinding step flat.

Fill any holes in the welds.

Use 3/16 grinding wheel to grind the welds down. Pay attention to how deep you cut, make multiple passes removing a little at a time. If you go too deep the metal will be too thin and crack.

I didn’t take any photo but now you finish hammering in the 180 degree bend at the bottom use a hammer and dolly. Lightly hammer against the dolly making multiple passes, Putting the dolly on the outside and hammering from the inside as much as possible. There will be some places that you will have to hammer from the outside. On the ends I used a pair of Lyman pliers to fold and align. Some relief cuts will have to be made to the flange in order to fold the flange under in the radius bend. If you have an alignment problem with the existing trunk side (which usually will be to short from bending the flange under) you can build that part up with welds then grind to match.

Finish sand with a 100 grit disk over the hammered areas.

NOTE: The disks I use are important. I prefer to use 3M green disks in 0.03-0.04 and 0.06 for cutting. I prefer the o.03 to cut with but the 0.04-0.06 will work. In my opinion the thin Chinese disks are prone to coming apart and wear out fast. I have never had a green 3M disk come apart, this is more of a safety issue for me. If you also prefer the green disks, you can likely find them at your local Reilly Auto Parts Store but they may have to order them from their warehouse.