Spare tire well disintigrated

[Natural]

94 Protege

I don't have a digital cam atm to show a pic, but basically the spare tire well in the trunk has basically disintigrated from my car. Luckily I spotted that the plastic/metal material was wearing quickly, so I removed the spare and everything else from the trunk. But the fact remains that underneath the cloth cover, I have a huge circular hole in my trunk. Just wondering if I could get some suggestions on how to patch this. I don't really need it to hold any weight, but I would rather not drive around with a huge hole in my car. The rest of the trunk is fine, but the material of that well wasn't a strong metal like the rest of the body.

[jumpncrash]

maybe you could fiberglass it, thats wjhat I'm planning on doing to where my jack goes, I had a similar problem.

[bcowie]

Weld some sheet metal?

[MazKid]

Yeah I'd just cut the rest of the well out and weld in a sheet of steel in its place so that it's a flat floor...Or you could go to the yard, find one not rusted out, cut that out...lay it in yours, mark the edge, cut yours out, then weld the new one in.

[Kitty]

I did this in my civic years ago.

Find a decent junked protege.

Cut out far more of the trunk well than you need.

remove your trunk well as plus an inch or so.
Cut the junkyard one you have to fit.
Get it welded at an exhaust shop. They should primer it to so you'll be good for a while.

[Lex]

if that thing is rusted check the car's frame.

[MainstreaM]

I had an old toyota celica do this. It ended up being a leak in the rear window that was letting water drip down into the spare tire well.

Kane

[wheresthericego]

Just weld a piece of metal over it. Cut it out with a grinder, get some decently thick sheet metal and weld it or have it welded.

[smoke187]

+1

[nerd racing]

Lol I wish mine would fall out, I need to cut it to mount up my rear crossmember for the AWD rear end. I would ship it to you but its for an aspire.

[Natural]

Yeah it was water getting into the well. When I discovered the metal was getting weak, I saw it was pretty wet down there. I'm thinking I'll just cut out the rest of the pit and weld some sheet metal to make it flat. Basically the least amount of work/cost possible. Thanks for the tips.

[southerncross]

if it was me, id build and x-brace out of 1 inch square tubing to go under a flat 18 gauge patch panel. weld the brace to the frame, then either rivet the panel in place and put the carper over it or drill holes and weld it in.

[Multiades]

I had that happen. Huge hole and the rest rotted, so I just cut it out. There was a full tire-sized hole in the trunk for months before I welded a thin plate over the top so that I could use the trunk again.

These things are rustbuckets.

[diflictedminds]

cutting out = less weight. Get some 22 guage and weld it on over top!

[snoogy17]

or you can be a red neck and realise like i did that the top of a 45 barrel drums fits perfect and you can weld that in if you had to haha!