COMET CENTRAL

I have cross posted In the Wanted Section...but my trunk lid is rust free ..but is all over the map for matching the body lines.It has highs and lows a the window edge and is raised up along the quarter panel edge. Think of shutting the trunk with a hale bale
If I could find a straight rust free one that's probably the best way to go
, but failing that has anyone ever separated the trunk skin from the supporting sheet metal structure?
I was thinking of separating the 2 halves straightening the structure and skin separately and then use panel adhesive to put the 2 back together to avoid distortion from welding . I am not home to look but I remember a pile of spot welds.

you can adjust the hinges .shim them if you run out of adjustment. or you could beat the gutter rail/seal up or down with a block of wood to spread out the blow over a longer area. Lou should be along to help you. he is the one you need to listen too. he knows all the trix. wait on him before you beat on it, or anything. if it is just around the edge you can fix it.

Kingspeedy2 wrote:I have cross posted In the Wanted Section...but my trunk lid is rust free ..but is all over the map for matching the body lines.It has highs and lows a the window edge and is raised up along the quarter panel edge. Think of shutting the trunk with a hale bale
If I could find a straight rust free one that's probably the best way to go
, but failing that has anyone ever separated the trunk skin from the supporting sheet metal structure?
I was thinking of separating the 2 halves straightening the structure and skin separately and then use panel adhesive to put the 2 back together to avoid distortion from welding . I am not home to look but I remember a pile of spot welds.

If yours is rust free then best bet is to keep it. From what I have seen ill fitting trunk lids on 65's was the norm, like the front fender extensions. If you buy another one still going to need work. And your out couple hundred bucks. Yours looks very similar to mine when before I fixed it. And yours Is definitely fixable.

I have separated skins before but it was always to replace the skin and taking the skin off without damaging/destroying it would be tedious at best and near impossible. I wouldn't do it!

Yours wouldn't be that hard to fix. Is it all in the trunk lid? The panel between trunk lid and rear glass good and not wavy? The tops of the qtr's good and not wavy? You don't want to match the trunk lid to panels that are not straight. My surrounding panels needed a little work but the trunk lid needed the most. If you decide to fix it I can give ya some ideas and what I would do to fix it.

Lou

My car had a nice rust free lid,showed no signs of ever being damaged,had original paint. Looked just like yours. Assembly guys apparently weren't in to straightness or gaps in those days.Mine,however,did take a turn for the worse. Decided to have it "media" blasted because I thought it would be easier to do up the back side. They must have used gravel for media because it super warped. Took me a long time to get it straight but the alignment was never perfect. Nobody ever noticed or at least they didn't say they did.

Thank lou for the advice,I also heard the factory fit wasn't great .I will look into it more as mine is as good as they get otherwise There definitely seems to be a larger radius from front to back than the quarters .. the gap left side tapers to the back being 1/4 wider at the the back as well .I will probably have to add some metal to the quarter and that edge of the lid and split the difference It was probably full of filler before it was blasted . The panel between window and trunk seems ok . Its hard to tell if the trunk structure underneath is tweaked .now that I have seen better pics of the underside I wont be attempting to separate the 2 halves The arrows in the picture I included show the up and down wave on the trunk edge closets to the window .I may be able to shrink the low spot up . Your guidance is appreciated .it may be some time but when I get into it I will post some more pic for your sage advice..