May 18, 2008

James Thornton

JamesThornton.com

WimpyPoint

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May 18, 2008

This week I have been working on the brace that runs under the trunk. It consists of two pieces that run from one side of the car to the other and overlap in the middle. There are two slots in it for the gas tank straps. There is a hole at each end where the body mount bolt goes through. This is where they rust the worst. Mine were rusted so bad they were completely gone. Using my parts car, I cut out the section of trunk where the brace is connected to make it easier to remove and then I will transfer the brace to my project car. The brace on the parts car was rusted also and needed some repairs, but it is in much better shape then the one on my project car. The picture to the right shows my project car with the brace removed. The next step is to cut out and replace the rusted areas in the trunk where the body mounts go through the trunk and brace.

I removed the brace from the parts car, sandblasted and acid dipped it. I found a piece of shelving bracket I had laying around and used a metal brake to bend it close to the shape needed to replace the end of the brace. After a little bending, cutting, and welding, this is what I ended up with.
This is the piece that I cut off the parts car. Once I had it out of the car, it was easy to drill out all the spot welds to remove the brace. I saved the piece of floor to use as a template, by following the undercoating marks, to know exactly where to weld on the new end piece that I fabricated so that it wasn't slightly crooked.
The other side of the brace was rusted further in from the end so it had to be cut off at the mount hole. This picture shows the brace and the newly fabricated piece laid down next to it to see how it will line up before welding.
At this point the two sections of bracing are repaired and waiting for the floor to be fixed before welding them back in.
You can see how big the rust hole is on the passenger side even with the old brace still in the car. It is very common for 62 Galaxies to rust through here. If you are looking to buy a 62, look for rust in these spots inside the trunk right where the rear of the wheel wells meet the floor. I have seen some that looked perfect until I took a screwdriver and started poking it through the floor of the trunk in this location.
Looking down at the trunk, just behind the driver's side rear wheel well, you can see how much the floor and brace had rusted over the years.

4 minutes