Hatch cancer

[Saabhat93]

We recently had a CRAZY storm pass through for about a week and my 900 had to be left outside. This is a California car, so rust is really not an issue except for the hatch around the seal.

Here:



I'm worried that if this goes on long enough I'll have to be looking for a new hatch, which I'd rather not.

What can I do to stop and or slow the slow progress of this cancer?

[euromobile900]

Well is that ever an odd place to rust. The problem is that it probably goes under the seal, so it'll be hard to get at the base of it to eradicate it all, without taking the window out. You can try lifting/prying at the window seal to see if the rust went all the way underneath it, but I have a hunch it does. Scraping and POR15 or similar would be most people's suggestions. But I wonder if you couldn't get some oil further in there. Problem is, the oil might attack the rubber and be messy.

[peva]

Well is that ever an odd place to rust. The problem is that it probably goes under the seal, so it'll be hard to get at the base of it to eradicate it all, without taking the window out. You can try lifting/prying at the window seal to see if the rust went all the way underneath it, but I have a hunch it does. Scraping and POR15 or similar would be most people's suggestions. But I wonder if you couldn't get some oil further in there. Problem is, the oil might attack the rubber and be messy.

Probably sometime in the past the rear window has been replaced and the paint and primer surface has been damaged, allowing rust to start. It's fairly obvious water is getting past the window seal. It's very difficult to arrest it completely, virtually impossible once it's started. My advice is to scrape the rust off as best you can and apply a rust treatment of your choice. I don't trust any of them and it will probably return. You could also squirt an oil/wax based rust proofer such as Dinitrol or Waxoyl under the rubber trim after pulling it back. It can be messy but it does not attack the rubber. Also squirt this inside the hatch box section after lifting the hatch and removing the two rubber bungs on the inside near the edge of the window.

[Shazam]

I tried POR15 on a couple problem spots, and it only worked in one of them... but it worked great on a cast iron fence in my front yard... go figure.

[peva]

but it worked great on a cast iron fence in my front yard... go figure.

Proper cast iron is largely self protecting. That's why it's used on piers and things like that, which are exposed to the elements, with little or no paint, and would disappear in a couple of years with an ordinary steel. It takes a very long time to corrode due to the insoluble graphitic surface that is left when it does corrode.

[Shazam]

Sorry, I meant the tack welds on the fence. My dad spent two years rebuilding a the fence, and all the vertical rungs are tack welded in place. The small welds began to rust quickly, and leave rust colored streaks on the fresh black powdercoat. My job a couple summers ago was to sand off the rust, and POR15 all the welds. Worked good.

[peva]

Sorry, I meant the tack welds on the fence. My dad spent two years rebuilding a the fence, and all the vertical rungs are tack welded in place. The small welds began to rust quickly, and leave rust colored streaks on the fresh black powdercoat. My job a couple summers ago was to sand off the rust, and POR15 all the welds. Worked good.

Apologies for being a smart arse.

[Shazam]

Apologies for being a smart arse.

I learned something because of it though

[euromobile900]

After reading this thread yesterday evening, I promptly fell asleep. I dreamed that my hatch had rusted entirely through, and that I could see light through the rust holes from the inside. On waking up, I shuffled outside in my boxers to check and make sure it had not really happened.

Fear of causing rust and leaks is the exact reason I am putting off changing my windshield, even though its chipped surface sparkles like the Milky Way whenever headlights shine on it in the night.

And Shazam, my experience with POR15 has been a similarly mixed-bag. Some stuff, it just takes to and sticks, and on other stuff it just sloughs it off after a few months. It's certainly not the miracle that some claim it to be. I wish I knew more about the weird world of paints--what to use and how to prep in every occasion, while not going overboard and wasting time sanding. It seems that this information is best obtained through experience, something that comes to me VERY slowly.

[Shazam]

And Shazam, my experience with POR15 has been a similarly mixed-bag. Some stuff, it just takes to and sticks, and on other stuff it just sloughs it off after a few months. It's certainly not the miracle that some claim it to be. I wish I knew more about the weird world of paints--what to use and how to prep in every occasion, while not going overboard and wasting time sanding. It seems that this information is best obtained through experience, something that comes to me VERY slowly.

This past summer I almost went full out to get rid of the rust in the gas tank of my 96. I had it out, but just couldn't get rid of some of the rust inside the darn thing. So after some reading, I found that you could get a big Rubbermade trashcan, full it with water, throw your gas tank in there and rig up some electrical current to flow through the gas tank, turning it into a cathode.

But because of my lazy-ness I never had the time for that, and settled for some cheap "Deruster" stuff from Autozone that seemed to work pretty well.