1954 Bel Airror Trunk Floor Pan and Tail Pan Installation and Rust Repair

The trunk mat and trunk liners on my 1954 Chevy Bel Air (the Bel Airror) hid the rusted away disaster that the trunk floor pan and related structure, including body mounts, had become. The rear panel of the car (tail pan) wasn't much better.

Initially I thought the only option was to fabricate something. In the meantime, a full reproduction trunk floor pan became available.

This video documents the preparation for and installation of the new trunk floor pan, the repair of the tail pan and rear cross member, and the fabrication of trunk extensions. It consists of captioned photos and some live video. Of course the job required additional related rust repair and sheet metal fabrication along with a lot of patience. All welding was done with a Mig welder.

Hopefully this will serve as a guide for others - whether performing the same installation, or just figuring out and improving a rusty mess of a project. if I can do it, you can too. Cheers!

The trunk floor was made by Golden Star:

https://www.goldenstarauto.com/produc...

I ordered it through a local tri-5 Chevy parts business and saved on shipping.

The tail panel pieces came from National Chevy Association.

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Old trunk floor post-mortem (video)
05:34 - Documenting the rust damage
06:12 - Measuring
06:31 - Trunk floor pan removal
06:52 - Crossmember repair
06:58 - Frame paint
07:07 - Repairing wheel wells
07:32 - Fitment challenge
09:07 - Significant alignment problem
09:15 - The solution
09:31 - Trunk floor pan installation
10:42 - Trunk extension fabrication
11:32 - Re-attach tail pan
12:06 - Trunk bump stop repair
12:19 - Tail pan repair
13:59 - Welding summary (video)
15:12 - Body mounts (video)
15:48 - Diagrams and measurements (video)
16:31 - Fabbing the trunk liner tabs (video)
17:34 - Metal thickness issues (video)
18:50 - Outro

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