I am in th eprocess of cutting out my old trunk pan. What turned out to be just wanting to do the belly has turned into much more. I ended up splitting the frame rails to get to good metal to weld to. My question is there is a plate with 4 holes in it behind the trunk latch assy. Looks like it may be spot welded in place but I cannot tell. Is this plate supposed to be there? I would appreciate if anyone has any pictures of this area they could post.

Thanks

I am currently replacing the trunk pan on my '67 Camaro so I am very familiar with this area on a '67. I'm not sure what make and model you are working on but if you are referring to a metal (u-shaped) channel that sits on top of the rear lip of the trunk pan and seems to back-up the center mounts on the rear bumper then I believe that it is a stock component. Mine was spot welded in and was not too hard to get out once I came to the realization that the latch bracket would need to be removed for better access to the welds. My channel got a little bent up when I removed it but it is fairly stout and I was able to work it back to the original shape (or close enough for trunk work). Heads-up...I haven't welded the channel back in yet but it looks like the flange on the original truck pan tabbed out locally so that this piece could sit nicely on it... my aftermarket pan does not seem to have this tabout. I was planning on welding a tabout onto the aftermarket pan just to provide a flat surface for this piece to mount. You may want to look at it and plan for this if your pan is similar.
I have to admit that my trunk pan replacement has also grown more time consuming than I originally estimated... but that sums up my project. Who needs hair... it only turns grey or falls out anyways.

mine is also a 67. I already removed the whole latch assy. Any idea how many spot welds you drilled out?

I don't remember exactly but there wasn't as many as I would've thought. If I had to guess it was somewhere around 6 to 8 (but I could be off by a few). I guess since this piece is acting mostly as a giant washer then there would be little need for it to be able to take shear. The spotwelds were pretty hard to see due to the fact that that the metal is fairly thick and didn't dimple much and my trunk had a thick coat of paint that was difficult to remove. I had to look very close and put my light at an angle to help highlight the spotwelds.

On my 67, it was about 4-5 spot welds for just this reinforcement channel. Like Frankenchevy, I was able to reshape mine to near original once I got it out. If you remove the dirt, paint, etc and get down to the metal, you will be able to see the spot welds.

Thanks, I appreciate the help. I couldn't figure out for the life of me if that was orginal. I guess it is.

I have some pics of my 67 trunk replacement somewhere. I did the extentions and drop downs too. I moved on to more difficult stuff like the roof. I figured my hair had been already pulled out long before the trunk pan, so what the heck...:)

A few of them are in my photo album below. If you need anything in detail I'll find a pic or take a new one for ya. Things are not as hard as they look. This is my 1st car I am doing all this work on alone. So far I didnt really screw up too bad. (Probably just jynxed myself)

Good luck