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I am having a problem with the alignment of the three piece trunk panels. They do not all line up at the back with the ribs on the old trunk and where it is sitting it is not tight up against the wheel well. Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated. PS, pay no attention to the welds on the wheel well as they are being fixed and taken care of.
it is a 69 hardtop cutlass 442. How did you go about fixing yours since they didn't line up to well. Looking to better the gap at the wheel well and make the ridges look better so its not crappy when I open the trunk?
I don’t know what is going on with the gap at the inner wheel housing, mine fit pretty well in that area and I am using a new inner also. It looks like your inner needs to move inboard. At the rear, only 4 of the 8 ribs lined up. The ones that didn’t line up, I left some extra material on the rib when I cut it, then flattened it out and blended it in as best I could. I did that on both the new panel and what was left on the original upper flat area that meets the tail panel. It turned out pretty good but was a ton of extra work that would not be required if the part actually fit correctly. On the under side there are ribs in the rear cross support that don’t match up either. Those are a real biatch because the support is like 12 or 14 gauge thick. Still need to do some work on those when I get the body tub on the rotisserie. At the front I had to do quite a bit of hammering to get everything tight enough to weld it. The ’68 is a little different in that area just inboard of the gas tank brace. If Ihad to do it again, I would find a good used one where everything fit like it should. Side note, on the upper right rear near the tail panel, mine has the word OLDS embossed in the panel so they are definitely not a one size fits all piece. Similar, yes. Fits, no.
Last edited by matt68F-85; January 27th, 2018 at 07:09 AM.
Reason: paragraphs
Thank you very much. I will try and fatten them out as well, extra work just means more love and respect for the car when done right? lol I added that patch for the wheel well and wonder if it got warped somehow when welding. The quarter is also loose and may need to be pushed in to help get it closer. Trying my hardest to get the trunk done before spring, so I can put it on the rotisserie and put the new floor in and finish the rest of the small patches before the winter so I can start on the rest of the body.
Glad I could help. Went through a lot of trial and error trying to get those damn ribs to line up. It just wasn't going to happen so I had to improvise. It's not a show car so I doubt anyone would even notice.
You could try bending/clamping that inner wheel housing to the floor panel flange. Drive some sheet metal screws in it and then weld it.
I think I might just have to do that. I also have the filler panel that has to go in there to fill the gap between the quarter panel and the trunk so I will see how it all fits this coming week when I can work on it again.
I removed all 3 of the panels and played with just the left one. I also put the filler panel in as well and I was able to get it to fit and the gap was not the bad. The exact elevation of the trunk panel was not right and it needed to be lifted and when I was able to use clamps to hold it up everything was good. Thinking of putting it back on the frame just to get the right position before welding.
That is pretty much what I did. Left inner wheelhouse first, frame brace bolted in with body bushing, then the left floor section. My quarter panel was off as well so access was good.
January 25th, 2018, 09:36 PM
