We took a look at the trunk and found many issues. There were a lot of clues we found and a lot of questions on why the work was done the way it was. The car has passed many hands in its 90+ years of life. We have been trying to unravel the mystery of this car’s life but in the meantime we are bringing it back. On the surface the car looked OK, but that was just the beginning of our discovery.
The trunk lid had a series of holes in the leading edge (pictured). We think it was from some type of trim that was installed. We dont have the answer to this one yet.
The trunk was held up by a prop rod. We discovered there were ball swivel mounts on the sides from where gas struts must have been. However ther were no upper mounts, but the hole for the upper mounts were still there. We got rid of the prop rod, and put gas struts back on, and it works real well and supports the trunk lid weight. We may swap these out later for a chrome version.
The tan vinyl upholstery was in poor condition and seemed to be just stuffed into the corners instead of trimming it properly. We made a new false back wall to give a flat and cleaner finished look. Although we lost about 3 inches of trunk space, it was needed.
The trunks floor showed signs it had been replaced, but the person who installed it did not prep the metal with a primer or even protected it. The metal showed signs of moisture damage (rust and pitting). To insulate the floor they installed a hard insulation board (home depot type)over the metal floor, then installed carpet on top of that. This method trapped moisture causing the trunk floor to rust and pit. We also found a loose 2x4 piece of wood just layed into the footwells so the insulation board had some support and allow the carpet to lay flat. The 2x4 was obviously removed. The floor was then stripped, rust sealed and dynamatted along with trunk walls. A removalable wood base was made for the floor and carpet matching the interior was installed. All of the trunk wall panels and floor base can be easily removed for future access.
When we stripped the trunk out we found the access door to the fuel sender (that was a stock feature) was missing its cover door. This open hole also allowed moisture and road debris over the years to get into the trunk. We then made a access door that can be removed easily. When we looked at the back of the upholstered side panels, they showed signs of water getting in and damaging the panel wood. The side panels were then replaced and reupholstered.
Todd did all this work by himself. The carpet is a wool german square weave and he learned how to hand sew the carpet around the transmission hump. He also made the floor mats and found a company that makes the vinyl edging that requires no sewing. All the vinyl color is tan but it took amny months and numerous samples to find the right match. Matching this tan color proved to be very difficult since many companies make slightly different shades. We eventually found the only distrubutor that carried this color was located in Los Angeles, and was veteran owned business.
