Be Advised! Tail Light Area Rust May Be Lurking!
simplyhonda
Council Member
Please Check your wagons for cancer!
Many of you that have been following my build thread lately know I have been in the middle of some body work. When I first got my wagon, I noticed a little area of corrosion around the passenger tail light.
Living in the South, rust generally isn't a big problem. I didn't like it, but it didn't keep me from buying the wagon as this was the only visible corrosion. Seen below when I bought the wagon.
Fast forward a year or so, I thought this may be a problem in the future and I was tired of looking at it and found myself picking at it when I washed the car.
So I decided to stop it temporarily. I ground it down and primed it up to stop further corrosion.
It was decently bad. Rusted through in some places but to be fixed later...
Fast forward to now. I am in the beginning stages of a respray on the wagon initially brought on by being tired of looking at this.
This is where the fun starts.
I pulled out my rear interior and found this!
Once cleaned up, turned into this!
Looks pretty nasty. Going to require some new metal. :disturbed:
Sooo... in doing the body work on the other side I noticed a tiny speck of surface rust in the same spot.
I figured I better investigate. I found the same brown rust streaks leaking from behind the seam sealer. When I stripped it away, The same thing!
Not near as bad, but if I had not caught it, it would have gotten that way quick.
In looking at everything, I am concluding that when water drains off the car, some of it must come in around this area. The seam sealer material traps and holds in moisture. Over time this is the end result.
I urge all of you to take the time to go out and check your wagon for similar damage. I'm willing to bet most of you have some corrosion here. Better stop it before it is too late!
Please post your results or similar experience with corrosion in this area. I will update soon with my repairs documented.
Happy Wagon rescuing!
Many of you that have been following my build thread lately know I have been in the middle of some body work. When I first got my wagon, I noticed a little area of corrosion around the passenger tail light.
Living in the South, rust generally isn't a big problem. I didn't like it, but it didn't keep me from buying the wagon as this was the only visible corrosion. Seen below when I bought the wagon.
Fast forward a year or so, I thought this may be a problem in the future and I was tired of looking at it and found myself picking at it when I washed the car.
So I decided to stop it temporarily. I ground it down and primed it up to stop further corrosion.
It was decently bad. Rusted through in some places but to be fixed later...
Fast forward to now. I am in the beginning stages of a respray on the wagon initially brought on by being tired of looking at this.
This is where the fun starts.
I pulled out my rear interior and found this!
Once cleaned up, turned into this!
Looks pretty nasty. Going to require some new metal. :disturbed:
Sooo... in doing the body work on the other side I noticed a tiny speck of surface rust in the same spot.
I figured I better investigate. I found the same brown rust streaks leaking from behind the seam sealer. When I stripped it away, The same thing!
Not near as bad, but if I had not caught it, it would have gotten that way quick.
In looking at everything, I am concluding that when water drains off the car, some of it must come in around this area. The seam sealer material traps and holds in moisture. Over time this is the end result.
I urge all of you to take the time to go out and check your wagon for similar damage. I'm willing to bet most of you have some corrosion here. Better stop it before it is too late!
Please post your results or similar experience with corrosion in this area. I will update soon with my repairs documented.
Happy Wagon rescuing!
Comments
It comes in Black & Grey. I chose grey for no particular reason.
Man Was I impressed. I used on the driver's side that wasn't completely rotted out. The can says you can paint directly on the rust, but that didn't sit well with me.
I scraped away the seam sealer until I was out of the rust zone. Then I hit it with a wire brush to knock the crustys off.
After it was clean, I washed it down with acetone to clean up any residue. Then it was time for paint. Didn't know what to expect.
This stuff was very runny. It goes on super thin and runs down a vertical surface with ease. Non the less, I built it up with thin coats. Six in total.
When this stuff dries it is rock hard and super glossy. I am very pleased with the end result. I feel this corner will last forever!
I highly recommend this solution if you find inner rot in this area of your wagon that has not completely rusted through. Mine only had a pinhole rusted through.
The POR-15 filled in this pin hole and I was able to use body filler on the outside and you can't tell there was ever an issue!
Read more at
www.por15.com
I got a buddy to come over and weld up some patch panels I made up.
Fiberglass, putty, and a lot of sanding
Seam seal & POR 15 the patch.
Now we are ready for paint!