I've never actually seen a completed trunk, and I'm wondering how the trunk actually goes together. Currently, mine is just a piece of rusty sheet metal laying on top of the frame rails and gas tank, with nothing on the sides obstructing the view of the ground.

I know you can get the trunk floor pan and drop-down panels, but it just seems to me that there's more to the trunk than just those three pieces of sheet metal (otherwise, stuff would roll off the trunk pan and just fall out between the quarter panel skins and drop-down panels.

Anybody got some nice pictures of what a trunk should look like? The Body Assembly Manual doesn't cover the trunk very well at all.

Thanks in advance.

Stuff falling into the quarter panels is pretty much it.

Ford left the trunk area unfinished. From the factory they would spray the area about half way up the inside of the quarter panel with a grey splatter paint. That was it. They didnt even protect the drivers side quarter panel drop off with a card board cut out like on the 70s model.

There was no road noise insulation or trunk pad, some dealers offered a minimal trunk pad as an after thought to dress it up. But from the factory you got nothing.

Part of the reason was the optional fold down seats when you folded everything down and opened the trap door at the back it took up the entire floor of the trunk so you could not have carpet there because of the floor stoppers for the door.

Also all the models have very different trunk interiors. So they never had a nice finish for them.

From the factory you just got a splatter paint trunk bomb paint job.

On my car I bought an market trunk carpet from a converble, then trimmed it back for a better fit then the Mach 1 version, and modified a trunk drop down cover from a 1970 to fit the 72, so I could have extra mat on the left side and protect the wiring to the fuel sender

heres one shot

Fold down with space saver.





Non-fold down with space saver.





there was a difference between the space saver and a full size spare trunks. It seems some early cars got an extra bracket welded into the trunk to hold the inflation canister on the right side. While later cars got a bracket that would go inside the space saver, and got bolted through the spare tire holder. if you got the fold down seats you had to get a space saver if you wanted a spare tire, due to clearance.

if you had a non-fold down rear seat you had the option of a space saver tire.

my car always had a full size spare so no extra holder was installed in my car.

any cars that have a trunk mat are aftermarket. The cougar had a more finished trunk area with a mat.

i added road noise insulation and a full mat with spare cover for my car, i also installed insulation behind the rear seat for extra noise cancellation and to keep the rear seat warmer in the winter.

I never could figure out why my car had a trunk, except to carry the spare tire and jack. Other than that, none of my stuff ever would fit except for a few golf clubs. Long trips required flipping down the rear seat and putting a suit case there. If I wanted a real trunk, I'd get a Town Car.

So... there's a gap between the sides of the trunk floor pan, and the quarter panels. Do the drop-down panels somehow 'seal' up to the bottom edges of the quarter panels or something? (Because otherwise, the stuff that falls down there would just roll out the back of the car... or at least that's what I see with mine - the drop downs are gone and there are holes in the quarters.

   
   

I think I might have to fabricate a couple pieces of sheet metal to extend the trunk floor pan out to the quarters and maybe spot weld them in so the trunk is more 'sealed' to keep small stuff from simply falling out - after I replace everything in there that I can, of course.

Once I get that problem solved, I'll most likely just carpet the whole thing after adding some sealer and sound dampening materials. My rear seat's fixed, and the big area under the package tray is screaming for a box with some 12" subs and amps.

Thanks for posting the rustang pics. I get so tired of seeing the same totally perfect trunks, that I really need a good shot of why I hate the salt, water and sheet metal mix.

my trunk floor is mostly made of fiberglass if that helps.

yhea basically the quarterpanel bottoms curve into the side drop downs to seal them off. there is suppose to be a drain on both drop downs to try and get rid of all the water that gets down there from the leaking side widows. the drain position makes no sense since its a few inches up the drop downs instead of at the lowest spot where the water sits, 'quality was job none'.


to get a complete trunk floor installed you have to remove the tail light panel by poping all the spot welds. otherwise you need to section the new floor in half and insert it through the trunk lid opening, or through the bottom of the car which will be harder.

with the floor that transparent i would recommend ripping it all out and having a look at the last 3 feet of the frame rails they might be soft, also look at the cross bar that holds the gas tank straps it might be a gonner also.

if you have a trap door and a folding rear seat, save all the rusty metal when you cut it out there are little brackets that hold the feet on the door that the new sheet metal won't have.

throw nothing out.

Oh - you have no idea how far gone my poor car really is.

But, I keep seeing everybody's cool cars, and all the parts available through OMS and CJ Pony Parts and keep dreaming of the day when mine looks like the one in my sig pic.

FYI - the piece of angle iron in each pic is actually functional and part of the car. It has a chain that goes down through a hole in the floor pan, in between the straps and the gas tank, and back up on the other side, forming a 'hammock'-like cradle for the tank. I'm not kidding - I couldn't have made this up. Redneck Engineering at its... ummm... finest, I suppose.

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(12-09-2010 01:07 AM)72HCODE Wrote:  to get a complete trunk floor installed you have to remove the tail light panel by poping all the spot welds. otherwise you need to section the new floor in half and insert it through the trunk lid opening, or through the bottom of the car which will be harder.

with the floor that transparent i would recommend ripping it all out and having a look at the last 3 feet of the frame rails they might be soft, also look at the cross bar that holds the gas tank straps it might be a gonner also.

if you have a trap door and a folding rear seat, save all the rusty metal when you cut it out there are little brackets that hold the feet on the door that the new sheet metal won't have.

throw nothing out.

Hadn't gotten to cleaning everything out of the trunk area yet - I've just been curious during the times I'm not able to work on the car.

I have to pull the tail light panel anyway for a new one, so that's not a problem. Now the area around the trunk seal itself, I'll either have to find a donor car or fabricate some serious patches. Good thing I've got some nice metal tools (welders, cutters, torches, etc.) in a great shop at my disposal.

See my note about the Redneck Gas Tank Hammock above. I don't know for sure how bad the cross-member is, or how bad the after frame rails are - but I'm expecting to replace them as well.

How did my pal put it the other day? "Looks like you've still got a few nice parts to build a new car around." LOL!!

Hemmikiller had some great photos of his trunk that he rebuilt. May be he will post them here.