Topic: trunk help

[VandykeT/A]

I'm in the process of freshening up my trunk in my 80.  It had  two very small holes in the deepest part of the trunk like some one had drilled in so i used them as drain holes. I sprayed blue wolf all over it and scrub it with a plastic brush and flushed it with water until the water wasn't orange anymore. I then vaccummed it all out and dried it my best with a heat gun. The only thing is in the corners of the trunk where it meets teh corners they're greasey muddy like stuff down in it and I've scraped out what I could but I can't get it all and I can't get my vaccumm in there. Are they're some kind of drain plugs in these that I'm just not seeing? How do you clean that part out? thanks

[4SPEED]

the lower right of the pic. is the drain for the trunk drop

[Greenbird76]

The drain plugs should be easy to find repopped at classic industries or equivalent.  I took a pair of a parts car, stripped them, applied se;f etching primer and sealed them with good seam sealer.  I then painted them along with the new panel I installed.  All those pockets do is collect dirt and sand and gunk over the years.  My truck extensions were rotted badly and I replaced them using donor pieces.  I had 5 or so inches of hardened sand in mine.  I cut the quater panel extension and truck extension off in one chunk.  I did the tail panel and inner tail valence; 21 inches of each frame rail; rear section of trunk pan.  Anyways, here is a pic of what it looks like after the resto. 

Driver's side trunk extension welded in and wating for qter panel extension

[VandykeT/A]

Thanks mine were hidden from mud. Down in there though is dried out mud. Whats gonna be my best bet on getting it out. I just sprayed it full of blue worlf and took short screwdriver and broke up what i could on the bottom. I'm thinkin about just taking the water hose and spraying it until the mud soaks up the water and loosens up so that hopefully it runs out.

[Greenbird76]

I bought an adapter at Sears for my shop vac.  It allows me to attach a section of heater hose or eqivalent diameter hose to the hose on the shop vac.  The heater hose fits into those pockets and I can vaccum out any debry from them.  I am worried about your situation though because I bet that the metal in there is heavily rusted.  You would need to get all the mud out and somehow scrape the walls and then spray it with a rust encapsulator or an epoxy.  I bet a long handled pry bar would fit down there.  Thats why i am glad I jsut replaced mine.  But I had to because it was rusted thru on both sides.

[VandykeT/A]

So I got to mess with it today. I took a long screwdriver and bent it so i could break up all the dirt. On the drivers side there was an old rag, a cassette tape, and a some kind of metal strap looking thing. On the passenger side they're a bunch of shot gun shells. I can't get all the shells out but I got alot of them and I've blue wolfed and sprayed the hose until the water that runs out is nice and clear and i can't feel anymore dirt. On the pan I took a drill with a wire brush on it and cleaned it up then took a sander and hit it with 80 and then some 320. Then i primered it with rustoleum, then some krylon black and then a coat of undercoating. Tomorrow after the coating is dry im gonnna give it a coat of black. I should be good shouldn't I ?

[Greenbird76]

Sounds good, but be careful of those old shot gun shells.  I would not want to hit them the wrong way with the screw driver!!.  I used self etching primer on the bare metal followed by Rustoleum heavy rust primer because it covers extremely well then 3 coats of rustoleum flat black.   Teh undercoating that I use is the 3m Proffessional rubberized type.  It dries rock hard and is a very hard to remove.  One thing, What is Blue Wolf?  Is it a cleaner?  Stripper?  Sealer?  I have never heard of it. 

[VandykeT/A]

Its a very good degreaser and yea i thought about that when i was trying to get those shells out lol. I think they've been in there since moses was a baby. Honestly I don't think I've ever seen a green shot gun shell until now. Thanks