[James Wieler]

Guys,
I have the drivers side trunk floor and rear support from John's classic. Nice pieces but I have found the floor needed significant modification to fit my car. Once this was complete it fit perfectly into the same place as the original floor panel.
Your results might vary, I just want to share my experience. My car has not been in any kind of a rear collision and I have checked the frame rail alignment using the published "crash sheets". I posted those results earlier.
Enjoy
James

Test fit before trimming:

Test fit before trimming, corner is flush with rear of car (so panel can not move back any farther)

Obvious gap, panel is perpendicular to rear of car, clearly it needs to move back farther

Amount to be trimmed (15mm shown here but it wound up being 20mm in the end)

Moving the panel back more means it does not fit up against the wheel house anymore so a patch will need to be welding in here

Obvious gap that no exists with the wheel house after the panel has been trimmed at the back

A better "big picture" view of how it's now fitting after the trimming. The very front of the panel (where the vice grip is) now lines up perfect with where the old panel was (I can tell by looking where the red paint ends)

Bottom view, you can see that the trunk panel is lined up perfectly with where the "drop panel" will eventually go. You can also see that I have some frame rail fabrication to do as well. I hope to post some pics of that soon too as the rear frame rails are significantly different between Mustang and Cougar

And now it fits perfectly with the rear panel and is also perpendicular to the rear panel. Yes the rear panel is level as is the rear of the car.

 

[1969XR7Vert]

Surprised that the panel was off that far and also that it doesn't have the drop-off as part of it.

 

[droptopcat70]

Would a mustang one fit ??

thanks
pat

 

[James Wieler]

They sell the drop offs separately already so maybe they saw it as duplication and no guys the Mustang piece requires extensive mods to fit and looks like sh_t when it's done (tried that already). Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, I think it is a great piece and I will buy the trunk floor for the passenger side as well because I think a small patch like that is a small effort.
cheers
James

 

[Bad69cat]

seems like aftermarket stuff always needs massaging/modifying - no hill for a climber James! Looks like you got you hiking shoes laced up!! ;>)

 

[James Wieler]

Thanks man. Ya, I think it's coming together. Minor trimming is trivial and a small patch is no big deal either. I'll take my time TIG welding the patch in and use a little hammer and dollying (is that a word?) to keep the warping to a minimum. I'll post more pics next week.
cheers
James

 

[1969XR7Vert]

James,

You are doing great work. Patching in around the wheelhouse, better you than me man (and I don't shy away easily)! Might be better than a 'stang part but dayum! Rock on, brother.

Regards,

Bob

 

[James Wieler]

thanks Bob, I'm having fun too

James

 

[James Wieler]

Time for an update. Here are some pics of the patch I made for the trunk floor panel. The white cardboard determines where the wheel house will be as I cut away the rusty wheel house flange.
cheers
James

 

[James Wieler]

More update pics from this weekend. I've moved on to the area behind the back seat as I made a bunch of holes while drilling out the spot welds for the rear shock upper brace. Yes I was a tad aggressive and had I been more skilled I could have saved myself all this effort. But anyway, here is the butt welded patch for the lefts side. The patch fits perfect with no gaps between it and the original sheet metal. I tacked it in place (TIG welds) every inch or so and will now go back and weld the entire seam.
cheers
James

And here is a close up

 

[James Wieler]

Been a while time to post some updates
same section but now patch is complete

 

[James Wieler]

passenger side too



a bigger picture view



Now I need to make the piece that goes over the axle and down to the gas tank. Here is the rotted piece I'm talking about


I started by making the round shape at the bottom by clamping some 20ga sheet under a 4inch PVC pipe. Here's what I got


and this is what I clamped it with, yep it's high tech all right


then I cut and welded the ends


here's the bottom of that same end


Now on to where the gas tank sender wiring harness goes


here's what that looks like all welded up


and from the bottom


now I have to roll the beads and I'm pretty much done. Going to try to finish this panel this weekend.
cheers
James

 

[James Wieler]

now with the beads rolled, minimal panel distortion, a bit of bowing but that will flatten out when I weld it in place

 

[James Wieler]

I've trimmed the excess up at the top and cut the very top into 5 sections, next I'll match it up with the car and tack weld it in place.