After the last update little was done in all that time. Well, it seems small/little but it’s a big effort. I’ve wire wheeled the rust and acid treated it on the roof in the above pic, along the RHS upper door arches and across the top of the tailgate jamb on the main body - seems libertys like to peel paint then rust in this hard to see and access area.
I got a day to work on the RS, I and it needed this time. I decided to pull the outer trim off the LHS to check it all out and do it properly. These beasts aren’t like the MY or L series - can’t just pull one bit of trim off that you want to deal with...
To remove the roof garnish trims the door rubber seals and support panel/brackets need to be removed, as does the roof lining! To remove the roof lining the interior trim panels at each pillar, above the doors and wagon side windows needs to be removed. To do this you need to remove the rear cargo side trim pieces... see what I mean by not an easy job. So do the LHS while I have everything apart now.
This is where I realised how the water was getting in on the RHS, and I reckon my RS isn’t the only one out there doing this (while quietly rusting in sections under this):
This is the factory silicone that seals the roof panel to rest of body pinch weld seam, it’s separated from the typical ridge cars had pre-90’s (and probably some in the 90’s). Get enough water in that ridge and it looks like it would use that gap as an outlet. I tested this with some grease and wax remover and I was sure this was the issue. So I went in deeper:
^ some sections came off easy. At this point I was only using a flat head screw driver to scrape it off, this was relatively common along the ridge:
The silicone hides this rust. If your RS or liberty of the same era lives inside but spent a good majority of its life outside, I dare say this will be occurring to yours too.
With more work via the wire wheel, I’ve currently got this result:
Now to decide, after a treatment with the Rustbuster, do I paint with etch primer, red oxide or just silicone the seam with something like sikaflex then paint over the whole exposed area covering the sikaflex too? Is there a better silicone to use (have thought about three bond but think this might not be the best idea)?
The windscreen isn’t any better. With a windscreen replacement some time in its past, it lost paint around the windscreen area, couple this with a wobbly rubber sealing the windscreen that trapped dirt and water, you have a perfect environment for rust to form. Ultimately I want to pull the windscreen, if I was in a shed I would be looking down the barrel of that job right now. Here’s what’s there at the moment after cutting the rubber to the shape of the windscreen then wire wheeling the area the best I can:
Here’s a section above the trim line that I was forced to treat, it’s already had the rust buster applied but will require a tidy up before paint:
Currently the aim for this RS is to get into the rust while it’s still young and solve that issue. My RS won’t be the greatest example out there, but it will live on as an RS with plenty of the original RS spirit.
Once this stuff is all sorted out, I’ll get stuck into some mechanicals. I picked up a good TD05H to replace the one that was on there as it looks like the compressor wheel tried to eat something and it’s difficult to rotate like a bit of engine bearing is in the turbo bearing (highly likely!).
I would like to get the rear diff back in so it can roll again. It needs new seals. I’ve got what I need, just need time to do it then refit (the not fun bit).
I’ll leave off here as I’ve gone essay again. Hopefully the next update isn’t so long between drinks.
Cheers
Bennie