Trunk Floo prep and Paint

[Martin]

finishing up installing the one piece trunk floor in my cuda. had to massage a few areas with the hammer to get contact on the frame rails for welding. planning on sound deadening material and some type of trunk mat/carpet. so my question is how much effort in smoothing welds and surface is really needed. its not sloppy by any means, but not interested in more grinding and filling either. any suggestions?

 

[Martin]

i should add this is not a show car or numbers matching car. just a driver.

 

[moparleo]

Pictures of what you have now please? Only one right way to do a job. It sounds like you have put a lot of effort so far to do a good job. Just take a break and finish it off right. You want to only do it once so why not just finish like it was a new car. If the welds are good, a you have the right tolls it shouldn't take that long. Under coat the car with something like Lizard-Skin. It won't get goey and it works great as a heat and sound deadener.

 

[aussiemark]

I always use those sanding flap discs they give a better finish and don't heat the panel up as much as a grinding disc. When you have to dent it to get good contact it makes it harder to get the welds flush without sanding around the edge of the area so be careful better to leave a bit of weld then make the surrounding area thinner.

 

[Martin]

i used a flap disc. not wanting to remove tons of metal. might just knock out some quick welds on the low spots and regrind. or i could lead the low spots.

 

[rklein71]

I would use a little filler and not go through the trouble with lead, but you already said you were not interested in filler.

 

[aussiemark]

I wouldn't stress too much it's only the trunk floor I would rather see some weld spots here and there then a nasty rust hole in an original floor with neat spot welds just paint it, put a reproduction trunk mat in there and it's all good. I had to do the same to get mine done better to be a bit ugly and strong then pretty with gaps between the frames and floor.

 

[Martin]

I wouldn't stress too much it's only the trunk floor I would rather see some weld spots here and there then a nasty rust hole in an original floor with neat spot welds just paint it, put a reproduction trunk mat in there and it's all good. I had to do the same to get mine done better to be a bit ugly and strong then pretty with gaps between the frames and floor.

my thoughts too. it is definitely better than the rusty crap that was in there before. still going to do a little more clean up before i move on to inner wheel well patches. i hate rust.