Spare Tire Well Rust - Trunk Pan
I bought the spare tire well panel from http://www.autobodyspecialt.com . I have lots of pictures of the entire process on my home computer I can post up later if you want. What I did was cut the entire section out about 1/2" up from the bottom, used #8 self tapping sheet metal screws to hold the new panel in place, then cut through the old and new metal with a saws all one section at a time. Then I aligned that section with Butt Welding clamps and Butt Welded the two pieces together. I am a new welder so this was not easy for me. Probably over 100 hours of labor total to completely finish the job (paint entire trunk body color, new weather strip, install gas tank etc). My spare tire hold down bracket was rusted also and they are not available so I welded the rust hold shut, ground it down smooth, and reused the bracket. My goal was to get the metal back as close to factory as I could. Keep in mind if you need to repair the rust you must cut back to clean metal in order to weld new metal in. I didn't think I would need to cut the whole bottom out. But once I wire wheeled it down I could see it all had to come out.
Here is what I started with (click on image to enlarge):
I bought the spare tire well panel from http://www.autobodyspecialt.com . I have lots of pictures of the entire process on my home computer I can post up later if you want. What I did was cut the entire section out about 1/2" up from the bottom, used #8 self tapping sheet metal screws to hold the new panel in place, then cut through the old and new metal with a saws all one section at a time. Then I aligned that section with Butt Welding clamps and Butt Welded the two pieces together. I am a new welder so this was not easy for me. Probably over 100 hours of labor total to completely finish the job (paint entire trunk body color, new weather strip, install gas tank etc). My spare tire hold down bracket was rusted also and they are not available so I welded the rust hold shut, ground it down smooth, and reused the bracket. My goal was to get the metal back as close to factory as I could. Keep in mind if you need to repair the rust you must cut back to clean metal in order to weld new metal in. I didn't think I would need to cut the whole bottom out. But once I wire wheeled it down I could see it all had to come out.
Here is what I started with (click on image to enlarge):
