Since I'm stalled on getting a pattern for the front, focus have turned to the trunk floor instead. A pattern is taken from the gaping hole that is there now. I want to make a pattern that will do a trunk floor as exact as possible to original. Then the width is one important measure. If it's not correct it will either not fit or worse it will pull the side of the car out of shape behind the wheel arch. Could someone with an original and straight trunk floor pull a measurement for me?
What I want is the distance from the inner side of the rear fender to the other side at the widest point. That is just behind the wheel tub. I don't know if the original floor have the flange going up or down. If it goes up, I need the measure to be just above the flange. That means the measure will be from the outside of the flange. Otherwise my pattern will come out a bit more than 2 metal thicknesses too small. Also tell me which way the flange should go. Mine was welded all around so I really don't know.
The easiest way to do it is to use 2 rulers each less than 135cm (53") long. Lay them on the trunk floor with the end of each pushed against the mentioned points. Make sure they are parallel and pick a point where the readings on the 2 rulers are added. It should come out close to 139cm (54 3/4").
I made a die set for the Pullmax [1] to make the beads in the trunk floor. It looks a bit odd that the beads face up and not down. Please correct me if this is wrong, but mine does look like it's the original one, rust and all. Doing a couple of test runs it came as a surprise that it could be made quite flat. Usually putting beads in that does not go all the way across the sheet will make it anyting but flat. The metal that is formed up in a bead will need to be stretched, or the metal between the beads must be shrunk. But it seems the Pullmax is pretty violent in forming the bead so it stretches the metal. It will be interesting to see if that also happens with the full size floor. If not, I have a plan B.
What's a Pullmax? some may ask. This handy little tool is a Pullmax.