2 more questions

[65Rob]

I know I'm a bit of a pain but what can I do

First qustion, is this trunk part correct like this? The left side is pretty much dead vertical, the right side leans heavily towards the right, say 110 degrees instead of 90. For those of you that have seen my little trunk nightmare you can see that this side is worse than the other, what fun.

Second question, a picture would help if anyone has one, what does this little nightmare supposed to look like? Does the bumper brace/gusset thing just weld to the trunk sheet metal or is there a heavier plate there? It would appear that most of my trunk is a series of holes filled with tar.

 

[2+2GT]

Your trunk floor and RH inner wheel house are pretty well trashed. A slight angle surprisingly won't have much effect, but while it's apart go ahead and straighten it. It should look like this:

 

[woodsnake]

I can't really help you out, but

Ewwww, that looks nasty!

 

[65Rob]

Your trunk floor and RH inner wheel house are pretty well trashed. A slight angle surprisingly won't have much effect, but while it's apart go ahead and straighten it. It should look like this:

Yours looks like it has an angle to it as well so I guess the part of mine that is intact is ok. It just seems odd that the left side of the gas tank hole has a vertical wall and the right side has a pretty significant lean towards the right, not symetrical at all, looks goofy in my opinion.

I can't really help you out, but

Ewwww, that looks nasty!

Thanks for the words of encouragement

 

[2+2GT]

Yours looks like it has an angle to it as well so I guess the part of mine that is intact is ok. It just seems odd that the left side of the gas tank hole has a vertical wall and the right side has a pretty significant lean towards the right, not symetrical at all, looks goofy in my opinion.

That's easy to explain- The Mustang gas tank isn't in the center of the car.

 

[65Rob]

The tank isn't in the centre so they made the "too small" right side trunk piece fit by bending it out?

Like this?
___ ____
l /
l___________________/


I believe it, what a way to build a car

 

[2+2GT]

The tank isn't in the centre so they made the "too small" right side trunk piece fit by bending it out?

Like this?
___ ____
l /
l___________________/


I believe it, what a way to build a car

No. The RH trunk floor is designed from the get-go wider than the LH trunk floor for one simple reason. The car was designed for single exhaust. The double-size space between the gas tank and the RH frame rail is for clearance on the tailpipe.

The standard brake lines prevent safe installation of a LH tailpipe. The K codes and GT's were fitted with unique brake components to allow safe installation of the LH tailpipe.

The LH GT exhaust outlet actually S-bends from the pipe back toward the centre of the car, so that it will match the RH outlet.

 

[65Rob]

Well once again I learned something, thanks for that. I see the blank spaces were taken out of my diagram rendering it useless.

I hadn't really noticed but yes the right side is about 2 inches wider, my thought is it should be almost 4 inches wider so the angle down to the tank is vertical like the other side, I think it would look better.

Why wouldn't this be a vertical wall, it would offer more clearance under it so why not?

 

[2+2GT]

My guess is sound attenuation. I used to know a retired Ford engineer, he was big into sound and exhaust systems. He knew why they put a pad on top of the gas tank- at certain speeds, with x amount of fuel, the tailpipe would make the tank hum audibly inside the car. I suspect a vertical wall where you suggest would have made that worse, while the angle deflected the sound. I'm guessing a bit here, he's passed away so I can't ask him.

 

[65Rob]

That's a better reason than any I could think of. At least it's correct even if it doesn't fit my eye, with all the odd things going on with this car I had to ask. Thanks as always for your help.

 

[2+2GT]

That's a better reason than any I could think of. At least it's correct even if it doesn't fit my eye, with all the odd things going on with this car I had to ask. Thanks as always for your help.

Look at it this way- Once the car is finished, you'll probably never see either floor again. The LH side will be under the trunk mat, and the RH side will be under the mat and the spare.

 

[65Rob]

Look at it this way- Once the car is finished, you'll probably never see either floor again. The LH side will be under the trunk mat, and the RH side will be under the mat and the spare.

This is true and I do have a habit of overthinking everything but I think that still beats the alternative. Whoever worked on this car before me didn't do any thinking of any sort. The trunk pieces are originals as far as I can tell. If you put your hand down the sides to the bottom of the quarters the trunk parts are jagged rusty metal that they patched over, even if you're going to do a lousy job couldn't you at least cut the rotted, sharp ends off? I'll be cutting the old patch out and fixing that too.

 

[2+2GT]

Unless the patch is really small and the rest is solid, you're better off replacing the whole floor in one piece. Easier work, better results.

 

[65Rob]

The patch is relatively small so I'll start that way, if I'm not happy with the results I'll replace the whole thing