It'd be easy to just put a flat piece of metal over the hole, use some sealer & screw it together. Or, weld it in... OR... scavenge the appropriate sized piece from the junk yard and weld it in.

I know, the purist would do the latter but how important is this? I guess if it meant getting more outta the car for sales purposes I'd do the weld thing. I dunno.....

what would you do?

........b

I'd weld it.

It does help your resale value. If you have the skills, why not?

My dads solution was PLYWOOD.

It is on the List (The long list)

I'd weld something in it. It is hard to belive there isn't a "patch panel" for it.

At least the plywood won't rust...

bruce ill donate a front trunk bottom to you you just have to come get it.if ya got the stuff to do it,weld it in.
james

Well THANK YOU James Been wanting to come out yer way for awhile. What kind of beer/wine/or??? you & Heidi like???

......b

np im a henrys person myself.
hiedi dont drink.
(503)-551-6191 call me we will figure out a good day to cut it out.
james

Its a bitch to do but I learned a few tricks and you can do it cleanly so no one will know that it was done.

Well worth it to do right in the long run.

Geoff

Better write it up Geoff! Rusty just cut out a huuuge section of trunk floor for me. I have an idea of how I will do it, but any other suggestions are greatly appreciated

Mine had the big square box with an electric fan, so I put an oil cooler in it and wired the fan to a switch under the dash, and kept it in place over the hole. Worked great, but I had very little space in the trunk.
-Mike D.

You are not going to add much strength if you use a flat sheet over the hole. You can regain some by running beads all over it. But at that point you oughta get a donor part anyhow.

Hey Geoff, write it up... I like bitches!!!
No, seriously, I'd like to know the tricks and get the hole filled up.

...b

Bruce,

I was faced with the same dilima when building my car and opted for the original metal over flat plate. There are just too many bumps, curves etc. to make a flat piece of metal acceptable in my opinion.

Attached are a couple of pics of my installation. The donor panel was cut about 1/2" over size, slid into place and then marked from the bottom of car. This was done to produce a butt weld and as close to perfect fit as I could obtain.

John

asrg

gasethg

Hey, nice job John.

BTW, what's a BUTT weld? (that could lead into a totally different discussion here)

Do you leave the donor piece oversized and weld from the top or bottom? Top would be too easy, huh?

...b

QUOTE (Bruce Allert @ Mar 7 2005, 03:45 PM)

Hey, nice job John. BTW, what's a BUTT weld? (that could lead into a totally different discussion here) Do you leave the donor piece oversized and weld from the top or bottom? Top would be too easy, huh? ...b

Bruce,

A "butt" weld is where you have two pieces of metal cut to meet in the same plane, ie no overlap. The overlap is a trap for water to collect.

You'll want the the donor piece cut about 1/2" overside initially, place into position and scribe from underside to create mark in which to cut to. What you want is about 1/16th of a inch or so to leave some room for movement. Start in each corner and just tack. (you'll need some help here to get started as the piece will fall through current opening). Tack about every 2 inches or so and then fill in between all the gaps. Mine was tacked on the top side and then filled top and bottom. Maybe a bit overkill but I was supporting a forward mounted battery and radiator for v8 conversion with thoughts of mounting a mini spare as well.

John

Thanks John. That sounds relativly easy. . . and it's welding from the top... C O O L!

..b