Reply to "Rust behind the front door"

PanteraDoug,

Yes, obviously the drains have to work -- I wholeheartedly agree with you there.

Where I deviate and have learned, as per your Sir Winston quote, is that these boxed in areas need to be treated to rustproofing -- again, rustproofing that I am talking about is not a paint or an undercoating. It is a maple syrupy concoction that is coated inside any boxed in structure after final paint is complete. This is what the european OEM's are using in their cars if they are not dipping their bodies in galvanized zinc. It works, but you need to intrude into every boxed in area or rust will come back. I know Wurth used to carry rustproofer, and I'm sure that PPG or any large chemical company that supplies quality paints would offer such a rustproofer product.

I have been exposed to another terrible paint disaster on a 66 XKE that I own. It was restored back in the early 90's and around 97 (about 6 years after it was painted), there started to show a lot of little paint bubbles all over the car. Didn't make any sense, but it was only on the main body, doors, and trunk lid. It didn't show up on the front engine hood, which is easily one third of the car. So I take it to a good body/ paint friend of mine (not the same guy), and right away he told me that it was a contamination problem. I couldn't believe it!!! He said that it may have been a hose that was used for sand blasting that was used to paint without the proper filters set in place. It also could have been scale from the inside of the air tank without proper filters at the paint gun end as well. So my XKE was painted in 97, and I have not had a recurring issue with the paint on that car -- THANK GOD!!!! So I don't know if this may be your issue PanteraDoug, but I thought it may be worth at least talking about.

Best of Luck!!!

Mark