Exactly as the title says: are there differences in the trunk floor pans between years, other than the obvious early gas tanks that drop in? I ask because I'm finally getting around to cleaning out my 1972 Comet GT project, and stripped all the matting and insulation off my trunk floor to find it completely rusted out. It's past repairable: a 3'x8" section literally fell out or peeled out with the old matting. There is a good donor car in a local junkyard, a 1974 Maverick 2 door which will already be giving me both of it's fenders and all black interior plastic pieces. I've done a lot of reading on it the past few days, from building my own trunk and fabbing mounts for a drop in Mustang tank, to buying Mustang trunk pans and modifying them to work. Are there any significant differences between the 72 and 74 trunk floor pans? What I would prefer to do is cut out the entire trunk pan on the 74 junkyard car, and trim to fit to weld into my car. I have the fabrication skills to easily do this. Other question is, what gas tank do you guys recommend? I know I can get the F30 tank from Rockauto for the late model cars for a good price, and it's a bolt in with longer straps or bolts. Some people say that they have valance interference problems, some don't. Thoughts? Other choices include the 69 Mustang tank, but that involves more fabrication: yet now is the time to do it with the entire trunk pan out, right? I would prefer to have duals all the way out the back, but am not opposed to using axle dumps. Guess I'm also looking for a bit of guidance on my way through this project. Got a few other questions, but I'll probably save them for another thread if I can't find the information on the forum. I'll try to get some pics of the rust tomorrow if anybody needs them. Thanks for any help you can give me! I can't quite decide how I want to proceed with this so far. If it makes a difference, the car will probably just be a mild cruiser.
get the later tank...the...valance interference problems...are a myth... I've bought (3-4) and others I know have bought them and have had no problem with the valance.
Thank you Frank! I need a new valance anyways haha. It was beat up and screwed onto the car with sheet-metal screws before I even drug it out of the garage. Unfortunately the chain caught on it when we were getting it off the trailer and bent it all up. This is going to be a pretty big project, but should be worth it in the end. I've been collecting parts for it the past few months. Already have a really nice sport steering wheel I picked up a bit ago, and just got a near mint horn button at the junkyard the other day. I have my wheels and tires on the car already; an engine, carb, intake, headers, full Duraspark ignition system, plus all the required engine and transmission mounts for a v8 car. I bought a driver 74 fender to modify around my gravel pan, and will be going back for the passenger soon. I need to go back to the car I got my v8 mounts for and get all the linkages, throttle cable, etc for the v8. I may even buy the c4 out of that car as well, since I need a bellhousing and block plate for my 5.0.
I actually really considered it for awhile, but for ease of getting things together I'm thinking of the c4. I already have the block plate and flexplate for an AOD though, so I'll hold onto them if I decide to go that route eventually. I'll probably end up just finding a bellhousing for a 157 tooth flywheel and putting it on my 6cyl c4. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm not going to be making a ton of power with the motor I'm building anyways. Thanks Craig! Now I just need to get my car up in the air and see how bad the rust really is. I'm hoping it hasn't gotten into the frame rails. I pulled most of the carpet up and the floors are all fairly solid except a small patch at the drivers feet. The back window on my car was shattered when I got it, and has been for who knows how long. The car was stored in an old garage, but I don't know if the roof leaked or not. I do know that factory matting/insulation sure doesn't help things by absorbing water and holding it there!
So, opinions please. Took a few pics today after I cleaned some of the stuff out of the car. Found some rust under the carpet behind the front driver seat unfortunately. Still need to remove the seats so I can do an inspection on the entire floor pan. For the most part, everything seems repairable, although the trunk will be the hardest. I'm worried about what the frame rails will look like: I need to check those tomorrow. On the bright side of things, I poured a few gallons of water down the cowl and not a drop entered the passenger compartment! Anybody feel that this car isn't save-able so far?
It doesn't look TOO bad. How are the quarters? If the torque boxes and quarters are rusty....I would find another car. You are in California.....one can practically throw a stone and hit a rust free Maverick/Comet.
Lower quarters look ok from the outside, maybe 1"x1" max section with rust. The driver door is pretty rotted and needs replaced. Roof and rear window channel all look perfect. This car has been repainted in the past and you can clearly see the lower quarters have had some work before. I peeled a chunk of fiberglass backing off the inside of the lower quarter on the driver side, has some rust there. I'm just hoping the whole quarter isn't bondo. I paid $250 for the whole car, so I can easily make money by parting it out, although I really don't want to do that. Plus, it doesn't help things I've already collected a bunch of parts for it haha. I need to get the car up on jackstands and inspect the torque boxes and frame rails.
Personally I would convert it over to a mustang drop in tank. It would be fairly easy at this point. Advantages are they are readily reproduced in 16 to 22 gallon sizes. Cheap. You'd have a flat trunk floor instead of that horse shoe depression. You'd have a more centered tank giving you room to run any size exhaust pipes out the back. Go to this link and look at post #166. Shows how easy it is. http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/my-comet-gt-build.36382/page-9
Wow, that looks fantastic! That's something I considered, building mounts for the Mustang drop in tank. It looks like the entire area you cut out is everything I need to repair anyways, so this seems like a really good option for me! Do you have anymore pics other than what's posted in the thread? When you say you smoothed your filler panel, Post #170, are you talking about your filler neck/gas cap on the tail panel? I plan to utilize the stock filler neck, so I'll need to move the tank 7/8" to the side to align it all?
Yea, I'm going to have to open my trunk to fill er up cause I shaved off the trunk lock and filler hole in the tail light panel. Those are all the pictures I have. Just figure out what size tank you want and order it. Once in front of you, you can figure out the offset.
