Finishing The Trunk

During the installation of the trunk floors, I got a good look at the rear wheel wells and was not pleased with what I saw, no sir, not pleased at all. This passenger side wheel well looks like the south end of a north-bound pig.

I spun up the 4 1/2" knotted wire bevel brush with the angle grinder and went to town. Let me tell you, this is a messy job. I had the remnants of the old sound deadener and rust all over myself and every surface within 10 feet of the wheel well but I got it cleaned up somewhat.

I treated it with Ospho and a scouring pad and got it to a point where I felt that it could use a coat of ZeroRust. Note that the outer wheel house has been replaced with a repro part some time in the 80's. I can tell by the black EDP coating, the unground glob welds, and newer type of seam sealer in the joint. I'm going to re-apply sealer on this seam and new sound deadener within the wheel well so I'm not going to clean up the welds or do anything aesthetic.

Finally I sprayed on a coat of ZeroRust. Yes, I said sprayed. This is the first time I've attempted to spray ZeroRust rather than brush it on as I've done in the past. I reduced it about an eighth with Laquer Thinner. It sprayed a little slow but was workable using my Harbor Freight touch-up gun. I'm just showing the passenger side here but I repeated this process on the drivers side as well. It's ready for seam sealer and sound deadener.
A while back, I attacked the trunk transition panel underside and shock mount panel with a wire brush and Ospho. Here it is before being coated with ZeroRust.

And a shot from the back towards the rear floor transition/shock mounting panel. I'd done a test with another primer and decided to go with ZeroRust all the way.

As with the wheel wells, I sprayed laquer thinner-reduced ZeroRust over the entire trunk underside. Here's a completed shot from the rear...

And a completed shot from the front. Ugh... an a shot of the suspension and engine compartment, but that's another entry for another time.

Next was the interior area of the trunk. The transition panel was wire wheeled and treated with ospho and then wire wheeled again along with the rear reinforment panel.

I don't feel comfortable spraying DP74LF epoxy primer directly over Ospho-treated metal so I experimented by first spraying a coat of etching primer reasoning that the etchant would be more compatible with Ospho than the epoxy but it itself would be more compatible with DP74LF. I could be wrong... who knows?

After letting the gray etching primer cure for a week, I cleaned the entire trunk area with degreaser and Laquer Thinner and then sprayed a coat of DP74LF. Man, that's one pretty trunk. Next comes seam sealer and sound deadener.