weepers

[zhead240]

i've noticed two holes on my hatch sill. it's not a rust hole and i've seen these on other zeds.( there's one on each side)is this a design weeping hole to drain water that lies on the sill? should i block these hole up?does anyone not have these holes? where does the water go?

[Mr Camouflage]

What hole?

[dogma420]

That isn't a hole; it's just the gap between the body and the tail light decorative gray painted items...nothing needs to be done. There is no leak or anything like that from that.

[26th-Z]

Patrick,

There is a major seam right there. The quarter panel meets the rail for the deck lid and the rear body (that has the tail light cutouts) all meet at that corner. It is a major source of rust issues all along the rear sill for the hatch. To add insult to injury, the decorative tail light valance rivets over the area entrapping even more water. The seam is supposed to be filled and painted over, but it looks like you could have a pinhole developing. I would clean that all out with a toothbrush and seal it back up with some body seam sealer and touch-up paint over the area. Then keep it really waxed.

[Carl Beck]

zhead240

Hard to tell from the picture.. but ...That looks like a small amount of rust bubbling up around the area to me. Better to stop it now, than let it go until it becomes a large amount of rust.

The rear deck lid threshold plate is an area with several common rust/corrosion problems on all the First Generation Z's.

1. There are factory spot welds where the rear quarter panel is welded to the rear tail light panel. The spot welding, burns the primer off the metal and melts the seam sealer leaving bare metal and that invites rust.

2. Dirt builds up in that crevices where the two panels over-lap, that dirt holds moisture against the metal.. a promotes rust. That is what looks likely to be the case here.

3. Exhaust gases from the tail pipe, work their way up under that threshold plate on the left side, and the acid from the fumes starts to eat away at the metal as well.

I would remove the tail light finisher panels, so I could get a look at the threshold plate from the under-side (be careful pushing the centers out of the plastic rivets to make sure you recover them all). Then I'd sand the area that is bubbling up, to get rid of as much surface rusts a possible. Treat the area with some "Ospho".. .

Ospho is a mild phosphoric acid solution, it will chemically convert iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate. In effect killing the rust. Then spray a little zinc rich primer on the spot and last a little color touch up..

The repair area right now will wind up being about the size of a half dollar... by the time you feather the edges out... and even if you don't have a perfect color match... you'll have a chance to inspect the entire threshold plate from underneath and stop any problems there before they have a chance to get bigger...

FWIW,

Carl

Carl Beck

Clearwater, FL USA

http://ZHome.com