Body Work Continued

Here's another area that seems to be missed on a lot of shows and videos I watch: corrosion protection.

The seams are just a festering area for rust. Now on this car, it was side swipped somewhat early in its life as the drivers and this rear door had the skins replaced with Ford service parts (you can tell with its red primer and yellow sprayed on part numbers on the inside). Also it had a factory replacement front wing/fender. Ironically just before I bought it looked like someone didn't cut the wheel in time and side swipped the front door and wing again on a garage door frame.

A while back I've already reskinned that front door for the second time in its life and that door is completely done and painted.

But this door as you can tell is reskinned as well sometime long ago. The problem is there is space where moisture can collect and rust the seam out from the inside. By the time you see it, it's too far gone and you have open the skin crimp to fix it properly or even graft in sections.

So I clean out the insides of the door, hang it once each in three orientations then apply POR 15 to the inside and let it drip out and seal the seams.

Now I want just enough to seal the seams but obviously not plug up the regular door drains. Once this cures I can sand off the excess and paint the inner area and jamb area.

So this is what I'm talking about, this is on our 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis. It's already rusting from the inside out. You can see the rust bleeding out from the seams. Sure you can just cover this up and repaint it, but it will be back in a very short order, the only way to fix this is from the inside out and splitting the seam which is enormous amounts of work.

As a tangent, this is typical of what I see on post 95 Panthers. It seems quality was flushed down the toiled after that from Ford. I had a 1997 Grand Marquis that was only 5 years old at the time and the bottom of the doors were just about rotted through, now it was a Midwest car, but that's pretty bad. It also had a host of other problems a 5 year old car should never have. Sadly it was on par with Chrysler quality or lack of it. This 2004 has seen a handful of midwest winters, but mostly a Florida car and now a Southwest car.

I've had a 93 Grand Marquis that saw 15 years of midwest winters and salt and the doors were perfect, actually most of the car was really well protected. I've seen this on countless 92-95's and poor corrosion control on post 95's along with hosts of other problems. I currently have a 1994 with no corrosion on the body and it's really well built and rides like a brand new car.

But I digress. Whilst this is a Ford product, back to the 3rd gen Fords. I just wanted to make a point that you do not want your classic Ford to end up like this. I see expensive paint work, but what's the point if you have rust blisters a few years later. You might was well set 10 grand on fire for the paint job.

Now this is where I went wrong initially when we bought this car. My ASSumption was because it was stored in a garage for 30 years it would not need to be completely torn apart and put back together. I couldn't have been more wrong if I was captain of the Titanic and thought it's just a small hole.

So I reached in the cowl and pulled out the old hardened seam sealer and it just fell apart and it has rust on it. I have found out this is a common problem on these 3rd gens. This stuff hardens and you end up with water leaking from the inner cowl down the firewall and soaks the rug when it rains.

With that I have to remove the HVAC plenums, wipers, motor, and kick vents and remove all this hardened sealer, clean, POR 15 check for leaks with a garden hose and use a urethane seam sealer on any leaks after POR15 to seal.

At the very least the heater core plenum needs to be removed and the inner plenum.

This access panel as well.

And lastly the kick panel vents and the large cabin side HVAC plenum.

Next was removing the old glue and old fiberglass insulation off the interior of the roof. This will be painted but before that, I need to coat the interior metal pieces as they are moisture traps and have surface rust.

The camera flash really highlights the hidden rust. There's not much you can do to remove it. It's not bad enough to warrant repair but it needs to be encapsulated to stop any further advances.

I'll use Eastwoods internal frame coat with the long spray tube applicator to reach in and just hose all this. There's loads of hidden areas like this in the roof structure to treat. It's going to be a very messy deal that's for sure.

This is truly the awful grueling part of fixing up an old car. Ug.....

Until next time.

Cheers