Trunk lid weld lump - should it stay or should it go now?

[Dakota]

While cleaning off the adhesive and leftover rubber from the seal around the trunk lip, I came across this lovely lump of weld material by the driver side trunk hinge.  I'm curious if this normal for an original panel or if this is indicating a panel was replaced at some point?   More importantly, will this potentially create issues with the new seal?  I'm inclined to remove it, but if it's "normal" I probably won't risk a burr grinder around finished paint.  Thoughts?

[1 Wild R/T]

Throw a couple towels up there to protect the paint, don't use a burr, use a cut off wheel & slide it side to side....   That looks more like wire feed weld than something a spot welder would produce so yeah, someones probably been there... Hows the other side look....

If you leave it the trunk seal won't seal properly...

[JS29]

Throw a couple towels up there to protect the paint, don't use a burr, use a cut off wheel & slide it side to side....   That looks more like wire feed weld than something a spot welder would produce so yeah, someones probably been there... Hows the other side look....

If you leave it the trunk seal won't seal properly...

The factory did wire weld in some spots. you could try A die grinder, lower air pressure A little bit.

[Dakota]

The joint on the passenger side is smooth.  There was some rust on the trunk floor so maybe this was the entry point for the water. 

I didn't see any VIN or other numbers stamped into the area under the seal anywhere.  Isn't this one of the locations checked if "numbers matching" was important?  My car is not a numbers car anyways, so this is just curiosity.

[JS29]

No numbers there on an E-body, B-body's I believe 1969 and down.

[tparker]

Looks like I welded it.  Actually its much better than mine. LOL. I didn't have any messy welds from the factory. Most of the welds on mine were spot welded. I used one of those spot weld tools to remove them. Still have pieces from the old trunk that I drilled out.

[RUNCHARGER]

It looks a bit suspicious but no matter, I would knock it down to give the trunk seal a better chance to seal.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

If your afraid of paint, use a dremel... easier to control

[Dakota]

All better now.

This ended up being a typical "quick fix" experience for me: Nibbled it away with a cutoff wheel (good suggestion Wild), exposed a hole and some bondo along the way, removed the bondo which exposed a couple of more holes, filled the holes with my mig but caused a burn through, followed by more welding and bubbling. Smoothed it out with a 1/2" wide belt sander.   When the belt on the sander snapped, I decided I was done.  There's still some finishing work left but no more tools from here. 

I'm smiling so it's all good. 

[1 Wild R/T]

Excellent.... Good job not letting the old project creep problem trap you.... Myself I could easily follow the ugly all the way into the very edge of the exterior paint.... And then wind up regretting it.... If in the future you have to dig into things further that will still be waiting for you..

[RUNCHARGER]

Yup: I usually don't stop until something is on fire either.