How To Avoid Rust In The Rear End Of Your M35 Stagea

[walkoau]

Hi guys,

I was doing a mod to my tail lights today. After removing the inside black plastic trim and rear door rubber, to my shock i found 3 main points that could creat bad rust if not treated!

First point is the top bracket of the tail lights, mine had surface rust so i removed it from the light assembly and used a wire wheel on a grinder to remove all rust. I then cleaned it up, primed and painted.

Second point is behind the rear door striker rubbers. The mounting bracket seems to get a small amount of surface rust on the front side of them, but when i removed them there was even more rust behind them and it is in direct contact with the paint.

So same as above i removed the rust via a wire wheel, and painted. I also had to lightly sand the body at the bolt up contact point to remove a very same amount of surface rust starting to form on the paint to repair and touch up.

(this could turn into a major rust spot if left untreated as its in direct contact with the body, unlike the light bracket which has a rubber washer.)

Third point is at the top sill of the rear door/hatch. It appears the compliancer was a bit lazy when fitting the child restraint points in my car as there was metal shavings everywhere under the rubber at the top of the door. after drilling the holes to attach the restraint points they obviously did not vacuum or blow out the steel shaving and just left to sit there they will rust away and cause your paint to get rust spots or worse.

I also decided to remove the restraint points to clean under them and there was more shavings under them...... to clean up this area i highly recommend people to remove the restraints and scrap back the silicon under the bolting tab at the top of the sill. clean it all up and refit the restraints with new silicon.

Remember you wont be able to see these rust points unless you remove the door rubber and black plastic pieces on the side of the tail lights.

I hope this thread will help our cars last longer!

For some reason i cant attach the photos (not to big either)??????? if a mod wants me to email the pics to them so they can attach, no probs.

Thanks

Justin.

[Aegats]

Good pointing out. Pics would be great. My car sits out side so I'm worried.

[gleeson]

I did the same thing with mine when a while ago,im tipping its common thing with our cars as there is a lot of water run off from the back part of the roof

[walkoau]

Definitely!

[KiwiRS4T]

Re pics just use something like photobucket.com

Definitely!