Gap between tail panel and trunk floor

[Vinnie]

Hey folks,

My tail panel is flat and when test fitted leaves a gap between the trunk floor:

Upon checking the trunk floor is curving inwards.

I’m trying to come up with a way to fix it without putting pressure on any parts. I also don’t wanna warp the tail panel.

Anybody got a good idea?

Thanks,

Vincent.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

If your floor panel is original I would pull the tail light panel into place and weld it. It is probably a bow in the repo tail light panel. When they do repo parts they usually do what is called a crash form. In other words they do not have a pressure pad to control the flow of the metal. When you do that you do not stretch the metal enough to get it to hold consistent form. Also when you are doing mass production of parts you sometime have to do what is called Chase the flange. When you do that you do not form a flange all at one time you might go from the middle out to end or end to the middle to cause the part to come out straight. Working with metal in a die if very hit and miss. Repo companies do not use as many operations in their process so just not going to be as accurate. 

BTW the bracket that holds the trunk latch is sandwiched between the trunk floor and the tail light panel. Has a tab that fits in between them.

 

[Vinnie]

Hmmmm. I will check again but I do think the panel is straight...

Thanks for pointing out the bracket, so it needs to be fixed to the panel before fixing the panel itself?

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Originally the bracket that holds the trunk latch was between the floor and the tail light panel. I seem to recall it had two spot welds to the floor.

 

[Vinnie]

Originally the bracket that holds the trunk latch was between the floor and the tail light panel. I seem to recall it had two spot welds to the floor.

Checked last night. There are even 2 indentations in the bottom of the tail panel for it  ::thumb::

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

One of the holes in the bottom center of the tail light panel if for the rubber grommet for the tag light wire. The others were for the filler panel for the 73 model only.

 

[Vinnie]

Had another look last night, took some measurements of the panel. Plenty of weird things goin' on but it is 100% flat so not curved meaning the trunk floor edge is curved.

I don't think I have more options than just pressing the tail panel against the trunk floor edge...

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Maybe Motor City Mustang can put a straight edge on the car he is working on the trunk right now and see if it is straight or curved. I will also look at mine but bumper and everything is on and in the way.

 

[Vinnie]

Maybe Motor City Mustang can put a straight edge on the car he is working on the trunk right now and see if it is straight or curved. I will also look at mine but bumper and everything is on and in the way.

Thanks but please don't bother taking your car apart, I'll figure something out. I can't imagine it to be curved on purpose, it probably got banged up sometimes the past 46 years or so.

 

[Gold Rush]

Do what Ford did, seam sealer!!!

 

[71ProjectJunk]

How big is that gap? The one thing that I would do before I started pushing the tail panel into the truck floor is to tack it into place or place a couple of self tapping screws to hold it in and put the trunk and the rear valance on the car, just lightly bolt them into place, just to make sure that if you push the tail panel in, you will not be creating other issues with the other components. You can end up in a situation where is the panel sits with a gap, like it does now, and everything else aligns well, but if you push it in nothing else aligns well. Your rear bumper could also be an issue. The opposite could also be true, where if you do not push the tail panel in and everything falls into place. I have seen a lot of issues where people made aftermarket panels fit without checking the fit with all the other panels, and then they ended up with a mess after the car was finished. You could end up having to add metal in that gap to make it work...

 

[Vinnie]

This is an old thread folks, the panel has been in for a while now ;-) Gap became a lot smaller after using a bit of massaging here and there.