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How to Have a New-Looking Trunk in One Weekend
Trunk detailing is one of the easiest and most rewarding car projects you can do in a weekend. You will need to do some advance planning and have a few tasks completed before Saturday arrives in order to pull it off in two days, but that should be easy enough.
First, a checklist is in order. Let’s start with the chemicals that you’ll need. We called The Eastwood Company for trunk paint and clear sealer because we saw what a good job it did on a friend’s trunk. Unfortunately, we didn’t order enough. We thought three spray cans of gray/white trunk paint and two spray cans of clear would be enough, but we wound up buying three cans of another brand from Pep Boys, and another three cans (a third brand) at Kragen, after wiping out Pep Boys’ stock. Luckily, they were all very close in composition and color, and you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between any of them, particularly after the clear was applied. Two spray cans of clear sealer turned out to be more than enough.
So, make that nine spray cans of trunk paint and two cans of clear if you have a full-sized Chevy (it could take seven or eight cans for a mid-size car, or you’ll be driving to the parts store in the middle of the job like we did). Next, a tube of auto body seam sealer is a must if the seam sealer in your trunk isn’t perfect enough to repaint. Ours was non-existent in places, so we went to our local auto body supply store and bought a tube of 3M Ultrapro Sealant, which is made specifically for sealing body seams. We also grabbed a few disposable brushes and a gallon of acetone and were on our way.
We already had masking tape and newspapers for masking, but don’t forget to add them to your list if you need them. While we had The Eastwood Company on the phone, we also ordered its “Pre” cleaner to test it against good old acetone for cleaning the trunk surfaces prior to painting. We found that it did work better. We also tried a spray can of Eastwood Company’s Rust Encapsulator, since there were many areas of our trunk with surface rust that had to be “killed.”
Finally, we bought a can of Eastwood Self-Etching Primer, mainly for our jack parts that will be glass-beaded back to bare metal, but also as a primer for the trunk where we ground it to bare metal. Spray cans of Universal Black and Aluminum engine paints rounded out our list. We prefer engine paint because it seems to do a better job and may have more solids for higher heat resistance. You be the judge.
Okay, now that you have your shopping list for chemicals, it’s time to order a few parts that you may need to complete your trunk redoux. Since our test car had no jack, we picked up a correct used jack from Phil Reed’s Classic Motor Company. Reed is a great guy and extremely knowledgeable about Chevrolets. He has vast resources for finding new and used parts, and he can usually come up with whatever you need in a very timely manner, if he doesn’t already have it in stock. We also ordered our reproduction trunk mats, spare tire hold-down hardware and jacking instructions from Reed. Needless to say, this is a lot of parts that need to be on hand before you even start, so get on the horn and start ordering.
Next, you’ll need to clean your jack and its accompanying parts. Our jack wasn’t greasy, it was just dusty and rusty from sitting around for years, so we took the parts to a friend’s shop to glass-bead them. Half an hour later, all of the parts were down to bare metal. This particular jack was really rusty in areas and had some serious pitting. It will never be perfect, but early jacks aren’t exactly growing on trees. Since it’s all we have, we’re going to make it the best it can be and keep a lookout for a better one at the swap meets. Of course, it could be that we’re jaded Californians who don’t have to deal with much rust, but that’s another story.
Finally, there’s a possibility that our spare tire is the original that came with the car, and since it’s in presentable condition, we’re not going to mess with it or its original painted steel wheel. We simply cleaned them both and we’ll put the spare right back in the trunk. If yours is ugly, that’s one more step you’ll have to take care of, so plan for it now.
And here’s how to do it. Now, we’ll be expecting to see a whole lot of fresh trunks at the shows in the next few months, so get on it.
Quick Jack Resto
Our new (okay, old) jack setup was looking pretty tired, dirty and rusty. It was in need of a redo.
We used Eastwood Self-Etching Primer and Universal Black and Aluminum engine paints on our jack. The results were excellent. Fortunately, Phil Reed’s Classic Motor Company had a quality, reproduction trunk mat set, spare tire hold-down hardware set, and jacking instructions in stock for immediate delivery.
FINAL RESULTS
