Northern rusty Q's? (weak spot?) Fix

["Fred Munro" <munrof@isys.ca>]

Daniel Hussy wrote:

> There is one spot where these cars (and I've had two of them do it) tend
to
> rust, and that is right below the tailights and just above the rear
bumper.
> This metal stip just didn't get the sane rust proofing as the rest of the
> body and also this is an area that collects a lot of water and it tends to
> sit up in there for long periods of time.  I just had a little bit of body
> work done on the car this summer from a little mishap and I had them strip
> this part down and repaint it while it was there.  It was just surface
rust
> and cleaned up nicely, but it is an area to watch for.  Not that expensive
> to have professionally repaired as well.
>

The problem with this area is that the chrome trim strip above the rear
bumper is bolted (or screwed in the '89-'91 Type 44) directly to the body.
The bosses on the strip wear through the paint and then a galvanic cell is
set up between the chrome on the trim and the body metal, accelerating
corrosion.
After several failed attempts to resolve this problem on the '86 & '91, I
finally came up with a lasting fix. After sandblasting and painting the
corroded areas around the screw holes, I cut out grey plastic washers the
size of the trim bosses (my '91 was Titanium Grey). I sealed the washers to
the body at each screw hole with dumdum, and mounted the trim strip to the
washers. No paint contact, no further problem. The whole setup looked stock
as the washers were not visible unless you looked very closely and knew what
to look for.

Fred Munro
'94 S4  94k km