How Long Does It Take?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:44 pm
to check the tire pressure in the spare?
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. . .
. . .
All day?
Yep. See, when I took the spare out I thought, that looks like water has visited this spare tire well (and we all know that will not do).
The '73 Type 3 cars have a huge nerf bar attached to the bumper with ends that traverse the spare tire well and end up not 1/2" from the front beam. This monster is the "5mph bumper" standard required in 1973. You clonk the front bumper and this u-pipe sends the impact directly to the beam/front tunnel. So anyway, they have plastic accordian sleeves that had changed shape over the years, so I ultrablack-RTV'd the interface with the front sheetmetal. Then I saw daylight between the removeable spare tire bucket and the well's sheetmetal. If you are lazy and drop the wheel down, you bend the sheetmetal wonky, and no more seal for you. Oh, and the seal was torn and loose. Then I saw water incursion traces around the fender bolt seam as the piping has shrunk and distorted over the years.
Sooooo, after a little metalwork with my elbows and fingers, a good wax job on all the pretty paint in the trunk, a rust catalyzer touch-up, aforementioned RTV, some gluing of seals, I have a water-tight trunk, save for two discreet drain holes, one at the bottom of the tire bucket, and the other the factory snuck in under the bucket's forward retaining lip. Then I applied a coat of rubberized undercoating around the bottom perimeter of the spare tire bucket. Nice n snug, but I must say, that sure is delicate sheetmetal under there.
Colin
. . .
. . .
. . .
All day?
Yep. See, when I took the spare out I thought, that looks like water has visited this spare tire well (and we all know that will not do).
The '73 Type 3 cars have a huge nerf bar attached to the bumper with ends that traverse the spare tire well and end up not 1/2" from the front beam. This monster is the "5mph bumper" standard required in 1973. You clonk the front bumper and this u-pipe sends the impact directly to the beam/front tunnel. So anyway, they have plastic accordian sleeves that had changed shape over the years, so I ultrablack-RTV'd the interface with the front sheetmetal. Then I saw daylight between the removeable spare tire bucket and the well's sheetmetal. If you are lazy and drop the wheel down, you bend the sheetmetal wonky, and no more seal for you. Oh, and the seal was torn and loose. Then I saw water incursion traces around the fender bolt seam as the piping has shrunk and distorted over the years.
Sooooo, after a little metalwork with my elbows and fingers, a good wax job on all the pretty paint in the trunk, a rust catalyzer touch-up, aforementioned RTV, some gluing of seals, I have a water-tight trunk, save for two discreet drain holes, one at the bottom of the tire bucket, and the other the factory snuck in under the bucket's forward retaining lip. Then I applied a coat of rubberized undercoating around the bottom perimeter of the spare tire bucket. Nice n snug, but I must say, that sure is delicate sheetmetal under there.
Colin