Bringing up the Rear Part 2

After fabricating and installing the inner patch on the driver's side of the trunk, I discovered that there is an aftermarket panel for that area. However, after reading about the difficulties some folks had trying to make the piece fit properly, I think I'm glad I saved the $80 or so.
Over the past week I've been working on getting the replacement portion of the trunk deck installed. I also found a good used replacement for the spare tire well, which came this week.
The deck went in pretty good, despite my rushing ahead and not triple checking my fit before welding.

New section of deck in place, compared to the old rotted section. A big difference!

I realized, after I had welded in the passenger corner of the deck, but thankfully before I had welded the whole thing in, that I hadn't paid attention to the alignment of the piece relative to the placement of the tail pan. It was correct on the driver's side, but a good half inch lower on the passenger side. I had a good opportunity to find out how good my spot welds were after spending two hours one afternoon grinding and cutting to break the corner free and realign it.

From below. Things are looking MUCH better!

After getting myself back on track, I turned my focus to the other rotted areas of the trunk floor. A large portion of the driver's side of the trunk looked like swiss cheese, a lot of it being in the channels that form the support of the floor. However, the old section of trunk that I cut out just happened to have the same contours, and those areas were still very solid. Recycle!

Recycling the old sheet metal

The extra patching took the better part of the week, working one area, one piece at a time. By Saturday, I was pretty satisfied with the amount of rust holes that I'd eliminated. The remaining pin holes could be filled in with metal fill or even seam sealer. A couple of hours grinding down my sloppy, but solid, welds, and I felt satisfied enough to shoot a coat of etching primer down.

Bit by bit, getting rid of the rust

No more swiss cheese!

Sunday morning, before it got too ungodly hot, I pulled out the sandblaster again and settled in under the car. 60 years of rust, dirt and undercoating were blasted away in an hour.
I mixed up a batch of primer and gave the underside and the trunk floor a good coating, and that's where I'm at now. Next step is to fill in and smooth out my welding with some metal fill, and then I'll finally attack the tail pan. Hopefully, but the end of next weekend, that'll all be done. Hopefully.

Finally seeing some light at the end of the trunk