When I bought this project I knew there was going to be a lot of building from scratch made parts. Well I'm at the fixing the trunk lid area. I've gotten the trunk hindges fab'ed and ready to install, but ran into a slite problem. When I put the trunk lid in place it all lines up fairly good except for the top lip area up by the back window. A little history on this area as best as I can figure out on what the last owner did to this area. 1) All of the trunk lid channels have been replaces with new steel. 2) The area that sepreates the cab and trunk have steel tubing in place for structure support, which also supports the trunk lid channel. This is the area that's been reinforced between the cab and trunk area p/s Inside p/s To get the new hindges to work the flat steel panels had to be removed. With both panels removed it was time to install trunk hinges Here's my problem, the trunk lid sticks up about a 1/4" in the middle of the rear body of the car, and tapers off to flush when it reaches to the outer corners. So I went back to look at was done to the trunk itself. First I noticed that the front lip of the trunk had been strip cut and flatten down onto the trunk lid. Then I thought that this had caused the difference in radius of both parts, but after looking at that area the inner structure support of the trunk is original and no rust damage. This part would have to buckle for the diffenent shape in the trunk lid and can't see any sign of miss shaped of this part of the trunk lid. I did make a template of the shape of the top trunk lip and it is the same shape all the way down to the lock handle. This makes me think that the new trunk body structure is the wrong shape/radius to match the trunk, and I have no sample cars in my area to go look at. Here are my questions to fix. 1) Make a template to form bondo to match the trunk lid. 2) Cut the inner support trunk structure and flatten radius of trunk and reweld back inplace. 3) Moving the flatten trunk lip back up and reweld, not sure if this would change the shape. 4) Last of my soluations, splice cut the inner structure of the cab seperation trunk area tubing, which would be more involved. Thanks in advance for the Hamb wisdom.
A 1/4 inch, shucks that aint nothing to an old bodyman. They always told me you don't want to do this when the customer is around, it involves a 2X4 and a 2# BFH. Each panel only has to move an 1/8". Lay the deck lid on the floor and m***age it down. Measure it if you must. You can use the same persuader on the body or finese it with a port a power. Trust me, I'm not a bodyman, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.
I hear ya on the BFH, but that inner trunk support is pretty stiff. I've already been pounding on the problem area and it isn't budging.
This is looking from inside the cab #1 is a 1-1/2" x 2-1/2" rectangle tubing and the #2 is the trunk lid channel, and these are not original, and are welded together. This used to be wood. The body itself dosen't appear to be damaged, except being miss-fit up when installing the new gutter channel for the trunk. The other soluation would be to cut the body where the gutter channel meets, and move the body up to match the trunk and weld a new strip of filler metal and gring smooth
You need to add a little arch to the car, or take a little out of the decklid. Have you tried setting the decklid on the ground and stepping on the middle of it, carefully? Or using a bottle jack on the body to carefully arch it up a little?
Looking at the pics the issue could be the area of the body in front of the trunk. The deck lid looks good. The body has been messed with. The new supports and gutter channel. That’s the area I’d look at
I'll try the stepping on the middle of the deck lid, but arching up the body, no way to many stiff supports. I agree on the body being miss-fit with the new gutter channel
I'd be inclined to free up the support tubing and then jack the center of the tulip panel up to bring the radius of it closer to the radius on the trunk lid. You might have to work it in 3 or 4 spots to get it up enough. Then put the support tubing back in place.
The trunk lid inner skin looks almost certainly 32 Ford 3w, probably Brookville. Not particularly relevant but unless 32 Ford parts fit a 193* Dunnowhat (34 Chevy?), and why would they, if the Ford inner hasn't been modified ( properly) to fit then there's no chance of a good fit. At the very least, if my detective work is correct, there is an insight as to what might be the misshaped part. Chris
Lots of good advice already. You may need to do a bit of all of them (both flattening the trunk lid *and* cutting & bending the tulip panel *and* adding a skim coat of filler).
If all else fails, I'll definally be doing that last. Chris, The trunk lid is original to the car "33-5 window chevy" there was so much structure work done to the body and not much was done correct. I believe "Just Gary" suggested to do a bit of all that was advised. That's what I'll be doing. Thanks for everyones input. To follow up on the results, my build thread is at the link below. Hot Rods - My first 33 Chevy 5 window build | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)
Take a bottle jack on a 2x6 you's a piece if wood in needed and put pressuer on the upper sheet metal
I agree that jacking up the panel between trunk lip and rear window is how I'd do this. But not even try it without cutting those two center supports loose first! Trying to move a well supported panel will only cause issues elsewhere, and make things even more difficult to move. Once you get a good block under the trunk lip and a good support under a bottle jack, you should be able to push the center up easily, and probably farther than it needs to move, so it springs back to perfect. Then you will either need to add a small filler to make up the gap, or if you cut the supports close enough to the end a plate under them to make up the gaps.
The trunk gutter channel is tack welded to the rectangle tubing running left to right of the body. The two vertical tubings are welded to that tubing. So all will be needed is to cut loose the tack welds and the gutter channel will be free of any structure support.
First rule of repair. Always check the last repair first. a student asked me about his alternator. Said he thinks it needs replaced. “The alt gauge is acting goofy after I installed an amp” My response was to recheck everything he did installing the amp. He had a ground issue. No alt needed replaced. first thing I’d do is uncut the braces and align the body with the trunk lid.
Going off the pick this is what it looks like to me pushing the deck lid down will goof up the flow Better flow pushing up the body in front of the deck lid the flow of the panels seem to point to the body needing attention. don’t finalize any gaps without the hinges properly bolted
I'm with the group that you should cut the bracing loose, shim the body/lip up between the brace and body and once you get the body to fit the deck lid tack the shims in place. The lines on the deck lid look really nice so I'd use that as my pattern. As the body has so much done to it, that's where I'd start as that's probably where the problem lies. But yep I'd cut welds, release the body above the brace and make it fit the deck lid... ...
The trunk lid isn't original, as in as supplied by GM in '34. Looking more carefully at the pic it's clear the skin has been cut every inch or so presumably in an effort to make the skin fit the inner (Ford) panel. Given that the body in the area below the window looks to be in decent order, whether shaped as original or not, I think I'd be exploring altering the deck lid. Tough job either way!! Chris
i would bolt the lid on and install any rubber seal you are going to use.it will fit different when it is all tightened up,maybe even bolt the body down too.If it is all loose you cant really get it to fit right,lots of cars were a mess when they were finally bolted down. harvey
I believe I figured were the problem area is. I made a template of the conture of the trunk lid, and put it against the bead the goes around the body right below the rear window (#1 in pic) and it fits perfect. So this tells me that the body conture (#2 in pic) is off. Now I know for sure the area that needs to be fixed. Again thanks everyone for y'all's input and great advise. Mike
Here are my results of getting the rear deck lid fairly line up. The back of this car is probably 50% new steel and nothing is quite lined up right. Pic is not that great, but it's close enough that a little skim coat will fix. Shimmed up as close as can be. The pannel gaps will have to be played with, but that's par for this build.
Looks a lot better ! Good job on actually finding and fixing the problem and not just bondo-ing over it. ..
The Jalopy Journal
