Unibody alignment got a clean bill of health, so out comes the trunk floor.
The gas tank strap mount is still in one piece, but I'm going to replace it along with the floor. Less work. That, and I don't know if it is out of alignment, as the tank was resting directly on it - the vacuum release for the charcoal canister was pinched tight enough to render it's usefulness moot.
Though the Marti doesn't reflect it, it looks as if the previous owner once mounted a trailer hitch on it - there are two bolts that fit through the trunk that suggest the same. Given that I need to replace the rear floor crossmember, I wish I still had it - it'd save me from having to weld a temporary brace between the frame rails.
Granted, the factory crossmember is such a flimsy piece (when trying to extract the jammed gas tank straps and mounting bolts, I wound up punching a hole through it with nothing more than a cheap vise grip), I dare say the only thing that probably kept this car square during it's mishap
was the trailer hitch.
Should be amusing pulling the trunk floor out with the taillight panel and crossmember all at once like a big drawer. I'd take them apart individually, if it wasn't for the fact that the taillight panel-to-crossmember joint has some strange, messy welds on it. Perhaps the taillight panel has been replaced before?
I still can't figure out the huge rust hole that developed on the right side of the floor, unless whatever water that got in the trunk pooled in that area.
Anyone know which of the reproduction trunk floors has the proper hole punched out for the staggered shocks - or will I have to cut out and re-use the original?
Staggered shock upper mounting box. Haven't found a reproduction of it yet. This one looks good enough to use though. It takes a bit of a fool in the engineering department not to reinforce this to the frame somehow...
The shock itself - one of those adjustable deals. Came out without undue effort.
From the interior. Frankly, I don't know how I'm going to get the drill in the gap to get those spot welds out.
Speaking of spot welds, I was experimenting with my new spot weld cutter (sorry, I put the camera away, so I don't have photos of this - yet), which surprised me at the speed at which it eats through the trunk sheet metal - to the point where I inadvertently went a bit too far on one spot.
However, this brought up a rather important question in my mind: Since I'm MIG welding the new trunk floor on - not spot-welding it - should I:
A. Drill holes in the trunk floor and MIG the floor to the frame from the top
or
B. Continue drilling out the original spotwelds through the framerails, and MIG from the bottom?
"A" sounds a bit messy, but easier for welding; "B" would seem to be the ideal route for a nice job, but I'm not sure how much of a pain it will be to MIG upside-down the car - and I'd be a bit concerned about the fuel line, which is right below the left frame rail (would blowing it out with a bottle of compressed CO2 eliminate the risk?).
-Kurt
. Is that the rear of the town car I see in the last pic?
