I had some rust holes in the narrow strip of metal in the hatch jamb area above the tail lights. This piece appears to be spot welded to the panel that the tail lights mount in, and there should be a bead of seam sealer on the bottom side, where the two are joined. Over time, moisture seems to collect in the area. I used an awl and small screwdriver to dig out most of the rust from the top side, then used the awl to remove the old seam sealer. Most of it came right off, as the metal behind it had rusted.

Fortunately, none of the holes was very big, maybe the size of a dime at most. After using Rust Mort to neutralize the rust, I patched the holes with an epoxy type of metal repair material, similar to that used for repairing fuel tank leaks, and applied a new bead of seam sealer. The area was then primed & painted, along with the rest of the car. That area won't be rusting again any time soon!

Kenny P.

Bought one of the Ebay panels back when they were $100(2001). Very nice piece. Drilled all the spot welds out, used a cutoff saw to grind off the welds on the outside left and right sides. Used my friends(owns a bodyshop) pinch welder, to duplicate the original spot welds. Mig-welded the outside edges,per Nissan. Seam-sealed all the edges, followed by epoxy primer. Bingo, I defy anyone to discern it from an original.