Water testing and sealing

Tuesday was time to pick up where we left off. First was to remove, inspect and replace if necessary all the bolts holding the body to the chassis. Any bolt showing thread corrosion got replaced (about half) and the front ones got the shiny new stainless ones. They all got a healthy dose of anti-seize lube. This took surprisingly long, but I guess there are a lot of bolts and cleaning and inspecting each one takes time.

Next was time to water test - to make sure the seal is doing its job. Unfortunately, there was water intrusion in two places. Place number one is up front. What seems to be happening is that water is getting up into the crack marked in red...

... and then draining downhill (marked in blue) and leaking into the car at the two corners marked in red

Place number two at fist glance seemed to be near the back at one of the grommets:

On Friday I applied expansive foam to all the locations marked in red in the previous figures. In retrospect, I shouldn't have placed it on the inside front. With foam there, if the front seal fails water could possibly get caught in the gap and cause corrosion. Not a big deal and I decided to just leave it.

On Saturday I trimmed the foam. That stuff really expands, so it kind of got all over. Not the prettiest job ever, but at least up front it did the trick. Here's what it looks like:

Like I said, not pretty, but it survived the water test. On the back, it turns out that the grommet was not the problem. It seems that the water is getting in near the top center around where you adjust the shift coupler. It wasn't clear exactly where it was coming in, so I just sealed all possibilities symmetrically on both sides.. and the grommet as well. Will water test tomorrow.

Once this is done here's what's left to do before the body shop: (1) cut spot welds and get the new apron ready, and (2) drop the engine to be able to weld it. I am leaning towards having the body shop weld it, although I'm still toying with (3) welding it myself of finding myself a new welding buddy. Last is to (4) remove the steering column and (5) catalog all the work that needs to be done. It's possible that I may still do a little bit of cleaning out the electrical and air in the trunk area... at any rate, we're getting close. Today I studied the engine removal procedure, and tomorrow I'll give it a shot after finishing the water testing... It's gonna be a scorcher (high 90s or 100) so I may not stand doing too much work.

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Tuesday 3.5 hours, Friday 30 min, Saturday 1 hour