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What was this steel slag I found in my trunk floor?

Dibbons

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Ready to re-condition the trunk floor of my '72 SSP project car. The little riverlets or channels in the bottom of the trunk looked like they were rusting out under the factory paint. However, when I began to sand, grind, and chip away I found shiny metal underneath. The material I removed looked like welding slag or lead filler or little ball bearing size pieces of steel all stuck together. This stuff was all inside those channels and covered with the factory original paint. The fotos I inserted here were taken after most of my clean-up efforts but perhaps someone out there knows what I am talking about. What was this stuff? (left over from the assembly plant?) I hope I did not do more damage than good by removing it. First foto is before sanding/grinding. The next three are afterward. Thank you.

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Maybe it's just me, but I can't see the "little ball bearings" in the pictures. My gut instinct is that "misc. stuff" would not be left in a car before it goes to paint. I believe that you're seeing "something", I'm just not sure what it is.
 
The last three fotos show the splatter after it was removed. The first foto shows the factory paint covering up the splatter or whatever it was. I dont have fotos of what was removed as it pretty much blew away during grinding.
 
That would be either a primer or etch coating that has lifted and deteriorated over time under the finished pant surface.
I had real slag in my GTX - someone got a little trigger-happy with a mig gun on top of the trans tunnel under the back seat bench. There were about 6 pieces of mig wire (from factory) sticking out in all directions.
 
they got sloppy in 71'72 and didn't care about welding snots
they would just paint right over it.
you won't find it as bad on the 68-70 cars..
 
Here are a few fotos of what I was talking about. The middle of the first foto shows a small square of "slag" in/near one of the trunk floor channels/canals. The second foto shows the same "slag" after a Dremel tool ripped it up. You can see that there was a patch of surface rust under the area where the "slag" was stuck to the trunk floor. The third foto shows that a small sanding disc was able to remove the rust spot down to bare metal (and thankfully the rust had not penetrated all the way through yet). See or search my "Project Odyssey" for more details on the trunk refinishing.

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Look on the inside of your rear quarter panels. The factory used a " granular" coating there for sound and vibration dampning. It probably will not be a smooth solid coat, more like a few back and forth swipes with the spray gun. They were not particular with being neat, and what you see, could be some of that, that got "oversprayed"..............................MO
 
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