My wife and I picked up a 71 Malibu last week (she says it's only her's!). It has surface rust in the trunk where the factory mat covered the floor. Any ideas on getting rid of rust without grinding? Still has most of the spackle paint in trunk (65,000 original miles!!).

Use the Por15 trunk floor repair kit. The Por15 paint will keep it from ever corroding again if properly applied. Research it at www.POR15.com. (http://www.POR15.com.) I did my '68 with it and I had plenty of paint left over. It's around $120, but worth every penny compared to floor panel replacement.

You might try a little "metal prep" from 3M. It just sprays on and you wipe it off. Used to keep bare metal from rusting up. It's cheap but I don't know if it will loosen up your trunk splatter paint or not.
Roger