There was spray foam in the rear quarters and around the rear valence panel. Might as well find out what that is all about.
The covers over the tail lights were stuck to the foam. With careful prying I was able to pull them off. Revealing extensive foam inside the cavity. Replacing tail light bulbs would be a nightmare. OK, need to keep digging into this. With trepidation.
With careful use of patience, a variety of cutting and prying tools, and directed language, I was eventually able to remove the rear valence panel. Revealing extensive use of spray foam.
Start digging the foam out. Which is a pain since the foam is firmly stuck in place.
The more I dig the more puzzled I get. There is solid metal under the foam. I still need to do a better job of cleaning the last bits of the foam, but I’m not finding the rust or holes I expected. Well, with the exception of under the wheel arch, which I expected.
By this point I’m not feeling lucky – I’m feeling that I haven’t yet discovered the hackery the foam had to be hiding.
Looking at the rear deck, under the hatch and above the valence panel, I notice what looks like cracks in thick bondo. And is that an outline of aluminum foil? Start prying.
Bondo. Over aluminum foil. On top of spray foam. Surrounding the rust hole. And there is another one on the other side.
I’m not convinced this is the total extent of the issues. Need to remove all of the tail lights and trim and keep digging to find out how far the problem extends. And remove all traces of the foam to see what else it might be hiding.
Moving back to the other end of the car, I decided to jab the battery box. This area is as notorious for rusting out as the floors and frame rails. It looked solid under the undercoat and felt solid to casual probing. Jab it firmly with a screwdriver and it goes right through. This time it wasn’t aluminum foil. The steel has been replaced with what looks like aluminum flashing – cheap, flexible, and easy to form. And quite weak. This is, unfortunately, a structural area. I won’t be able to see how far it goes until I get the engine out and the fender off.
Now they are just taunting me! Dealing with rust is one thing. Digging through deception to find the rust before you can deal with it is another thing.
I’m starting to think I need to strip the whole car down to bare steel, like I did with the Imperial, just to try to find all of the problems.