Trunk rust and battery mount excitement

[Hard Drivin Johnny]

So I've been running around with my battery sitting in some universal tray with one rusty bolt holding the tray, and two bungee cords holding the battery. It's held up up to some pretty spirited driving, but I knew I had to fix it right.

Last night I got started on rust removal. I used mostly this rust removal gel, and then this morning hit it with a wire brush on a drill. That stuff is caked on there bad. I took a hammer and old screwdriver and busted loose a few of the really bad chunks, but finally I had enough, seeing as there were spots rusted through and the rest of the stuff I hadn't removed was still about 1/16" thick. I sprayed a bunch of that rust converter primer on it, let it sit, sprayed more, repeated that 3 or 4 times until I ran out. It turned nice and black in spots, but the thicker rust just stayed brown. I might tackle it more another time.

Next order of business...

I had used a prybar to pop the universal cover off the bolt so I could try to get to it more. The bolt was so rusty and mangled that no wrench or socket would sit on it. I took some channel-locks and started to turn it, but yeah, it snapped flush with the floor. Damn it. I drilled into it and tried using a screw extractor, but the extractor just got mangled and then broke in the screw. My drill bits couldn't drill into it. With a thin shred of hope, I looked under the car. AHA! The screw was hanging down from the trunk floor. I got one of my screw extractors that grabs on to a protruding screw, and was able to back it out of the underside successfully. I love those particular extractors. I used to use them for broken exhaust bolts on scooter and motorcycle engines. If there is some protruding, it'll grab it, and it grabs harder as you turn.

So I cleaned up the oil and metal shavings, and got out the rust-eating primer and sprayed down the trunk. Now just gonna spray with some splatter paint and I should be good to go. I have all the hardware I need to install the battery and clamp down the spare tire. I even cleaned up the spare and it looks brand new.

I love my old rust-holy Miata.

[black roadster]

Glad you fixed it. Loose battery = not good.