What car was this on? RC
--- Mark McDonald <tomswift@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >
I'm amazed at how much I learned today. Okay, it's
> trivial-- I guess.
> But if you've spent as much time as I have removing
> your carpet and
> drying it out, and then doing it all over again a
> few days later when it
> rains again, it's a big deal.
>
> I think I fixed my leak. It's raining now, so I
> should know for sure
> tomorrow AM.
>
> The leak was coming from a single hole in the trunk
> where the end cap is
> attached. There are 4 bolts there, arranged in a
> square pattern on a
> vertical piece of metal above the taillight. If you
> look at the 4
> holes, it is the upper left hole-- the one at the
> top, nearest the trunk
> lid. When I removed the end cap, I noticed that a
> trail of water was
> flowing down the top of the fender directly into
> that hole, and that
> hole only. It's just a curious result of the way
> that fender is shaped
> on the fuselage cars, I guess. It's almost as if
> there's a "gutter"
> there from the roof down the fender to the
> taillight. In a heavy rain,
> the water pours off the roof and travels down the
> gutter into the crack
> at the top of the end cap, where it goes into that
> hole.
>
> I have never had a leak on the left side of the
> trunk, but I was going
> to gunk that side up too, just in case. But when I
> looked at it I
> suddenly realized why it never leaked on that side.
> The factory had put
> a big mound of rubbery stuff over that one bolt-- it
> kind of had the
> consistency of kneaded rubber, or maybe modeling
> clay. (There is a name
> for this stuff, but I can't remember it.)
> Evidently, at some point, the
> engineers realized the possibility of a leak at this
> point and put a gob
> of this stuff on there to solve it. (There is also
> a hole in the lip of
> metal that forms the bottom of the end cap, so that
> water can't get
> trapped in there.)
>
> Before I bought my car, I think it was damaged on
> the right side near
> the end cap and whoever did the repair did not
> bother to put any gunk
> over the hole on that side.
>
> The fuselage cars have a reputation as being leaky.
> Having seen the
> stuff they put around the bolt I feel a little
> better about the quality
> of these cars now. The leak was due to later
> meddling-- not the
> manufacturer's carelessness.
>
> If any of you have a leaky trunk in your fuselage,
> check that bolt.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
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