Re; a recent message, about "no" corrosion
protection, on our beloved cars, what I discovered, when horrie's lower
sheetmetel was excavated, were inner panel areas where water/salt/crud
could 'enter', but not 'leave'.
An absolutely-classic area, for "Planned-Obsolescence" to occur, was @
the front of the fenders, at/on a 'shelf', above the headlights.
Brilliant-'enginering'! Literally, self-destructing fenders! In
Horrie's case, there was virtually no rust-thru ( only, minor, @ the
front/lower conection-point, with the hood-lock-
filler panel) , but the 'dirt' was so compacted in that area, that when
I was attempting to remove the front-of-fender 'crown' - pieces, I
thought that I was 'touching' a solid-metal , vertical, body "panel" !
The next thing that I discovered was that the "engineer" who designed
the inner-front fender
front-drain "channel" MUST have won the Rube Goldberg (ask your
parents!) award. What a
1 - 2 punch, against the fenders!
The rocker panels have 'putative' drain holes, it's just that
water/salt/crud doesn't "have" to be 'channelled', to those holes, &
there are various ares in it, to support rust-formation, AND, those
holes can/did fill-up, with crud---sayonara, Mr Rockers!
The 1/4 panels, I found, had (essentially) NO drainage-outlets; once
'water' got in 'there',it STAYED there, til "it" rusted its way
outa-there!
The rear of the 1/4 panels,and trunk floor besides receiving road-splash
on their undersides, received beaucoup water, via the rear window
and/or the trunk "seals" (ahem), which leaked like sieves, thanx, in
great part to the difficulty in aligning the body-stampings, with
Chrysler's new : "Gate-Line" body-alignment fixtures. Poor body-stamping
'tolerances' and/or user inexperience/indifference meant that the
brand-new 1957 Forward-look bodies, with their very-thin body pillars,
just didn't fit-together, very well. Anyway, the rear window/trunk nexus
was a critical area for leakage into the inner 1/4 panels, & into the
trunk.
In 1985, @ WPC's National Meet, in Detroit, a friend's 57 Royal 2-dr got
rained-on, for the 1st time, in a long time. The next day, he happened
to pull back the trunk mat, to discover that his trunk's outer-side
'wells' were filled with water!-He never knew that the trunk leaked! The
'rest' of the trunk appeared to be dry. (also, the factory RUBBER trunk
mats 'collected' condensation/water wonderfully-well).
I first discovered that my car's rear window (still) leaked (yeah, the
corners of the parcel shaft were/are slightly 'warped'), was when I
looked @ a photo of the opened trunk, & saw 'similar' warpage on the
Gary-Goers cardboard trunk-trim panels.
I eventually got into the trun, while someone watered-down the rear
window; I saw water starting to drip, slightly, off of some horizontal
parcel-shelf-support; but I couldn't find WHERE the water was
circumventing the rear window weathersripping--so, rather than
gooping-up that w/strip, i "ingeniously" cut a bicycle inner tube, to
fit around where the water was dripping, & then 'routed the inner tube
back around the wheel opening, so that the inner tube would 'exit' onto
a 'dedicated' exit-hole, under the 1/4 panel. I painted the inner tube
Rustoleum Red (which happens to be a dead-ringer for 57 Dodge-RED), &
subsequently, not rust-bubbles on the 1/4 panel, & no other
trunk-leakeages (since 198x?).
It's a wonder that ANY non-warm-weather MoPars survived!
BTW, I researched my 57 Dodge Ross Roy Data Book, and learned that : "
Resistance to rust is provided by a Bonerizing process which etches and
protects both sides of all metal surfaces [what about where they're
WELDED?] .
The Bonderizing process resists corrosion, anchors paint, prevents
lifting & peeling, and stops the spread of finish failure around
scratches. This rust-resisting traetment makes the primer coat,
whichfollows, adhere more tightly. The primer coat provides still more
rust protection. Next, the primer coat is wet sanded
[sure!] to provide a smooth base. After the primer coat, spray enamel
[what? no clear-coat???] is applied. Finally, the enamelled body is
baked in electric ovens [ for 1 minute?]
to "permanize" the gleaming finish. "
Sleep well, tonite, your Bonderizing-process, is AWAKE!
[ What is the least-popular nick-name for a car?
...................Rusty!!]
Neil Vedder
57 rust-free D500
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