Rust Never Sleeps

Oh oh. I have been noticing 1/4" size and smaller chunks of rust dropping
down the insides of my rear passenger door of my 94 SL2 when I close it. The
pieces appear to be coming out thru the drain holes at the bottom of the
door. I looked under at the bottom of the open door and all looked healthy,
no rust. You can actually hear the pieces falling and rattling down when you
close the door! I know I probably should disassemble the door, but I am
scared at what I might find or that it may fall apart as I disassemble it.
Help! Has anyone had to deal with this before. Is there a known part that
rusts like this inside rear doors? Does washing too much cause this?
BTW, I have power windows and locks. Thanx!

 

You should take the inside panel off and take a look. It could be a
minor part rusting. You could then spray the rusted areas and at
least slow down the decay.
MR

 

You're in luck. I have a 92 SL2 and fixed this recently. Your problem
is the stamped-metal 'lip' which is under the rubber seal on top of
the door. When you remove it, you will likely find what I did: holes
and corrosion along the top and (since you hear it inside) gaping
holes. I fixed this by first using a wire-brush on a drill (to bare
the metal), then sprayed with cold-galvanizing spray (mask all paint
in sight!), then some clear lacquer (cold-galv is very soft), and then
put the rubber back in place. The rubber fits (in 92 model) in a grove
[______] like so - you put in one edge and then apply pressure with a
dull butter-knife to seat the other edge. Be systematic and make sure
the corners fall in place first. Only my right-side door was corroded!

There is a design-flaw in the 92 year where the bumpers for the trunk
hit the area above - my car had a persistently-wet trunk until I
noticed that there were stress-fractures on both sides! Each was about
1" long! I think I got some pics from that repair. I cleaned it off
(like above), cold-galvanized, then glued on a patch of aluminum tape
(thick 'aluminum foil' with adhesive backing). Figure it will keep
flexing... so don't want something that will crack. Also now I'm more
paranoid about letting the trunk-lid bump open with a bang....

Third flaw is that I have, on each side, 2x ~2-3" holes in the
door-frame underneath the plastic step-guard. I think they just
drilled those holes (for the plastic snaps) after the treatment and
then snapped in the metal clips which were prolly plated with
something that caused accelerated rusting? I ground those down,
cold-glav'ed them, then sprayed some cheap 'bed-liner' stuff and
forgot about them. I can still see the gaping holes beyond the plastic
step-guard, but only if I look I'm sure structural integrity is
affected... so I've resolved to never keep a car beyond 100K (this one
has 135K) and the next with be something year ~2000. L200? Intrepid?
Camry? We'll see.

Cheers,
Fil

 

Thanks, Fil. I feel better about investigating this. I have some rust killer
called Right Stuff and also some rust converter spray that I can use. I am
so scared that the door structure itself is corroded. Thanks for the info,
I'll feel more confident to get into it now. I gotta check my Haynes book to
see how the inside door panel comes off with pwr windows.

marx404