Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Wow been over a year since I posted anything up in this thread....Well the wagon has been doing daily driver duty since the crewcab is down for it's 4wd conversion And since I'm driving in rainy wet coast weather I've noticed a few things...and had to fix some things as well.
First is the Heater/AC system. I had retrofitted all the underhood components to modern pieces. And when the heat/def is on the A/C pump cycles. Now I have no idea if the original RV2 AC compressor would do this as well? But I was thinking that since the AC compressor requires a bit of power to lock up I would unplug it and save a little draw on the electrical system. So I did this and noticed that the wagon would fog up horribly on the inside. It is getting a bit of water inside.
So I plugged the compressor back in and within about 5 minutes of driving down the road the interior glass was almost completely clear. Now I do understand what is happening, and thought that the original Auto Temp systems would be the only ones to function like this? But clearly my system is working the same way...with no complaints from me I might ad.
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
I noticed too that the tailgate carpet was getting wet...especially the small lower piece. It was completely soaked through. So I decided to pull everything and see what was going on.
Once I got it open I could kind of see why it was getting wet. The original tape was rotted out and allowing water to splash up and be soaked up by the fiber board backing. So I cleaned off all the old tape and residue...had to use lots of water and SOS pads.
Once it was clean I noticed some scale rust around a couple of the holes where the screws went through. Cleaned it up and I have a little rust out!! This is the only rust I've found so far on the entire car...little sad but should be an easy fix.
Joined: Wed Oct 12 2005, 01:10AM
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 2690
Once everything was clean and dry I used some aluminum tape to cover and seal up the holes. And put some plumber caulk around the big openings on the upper panel as well.
I then cut out a couple pieces of tar paper for a backing on the lower panel...just a little added water prevention.
And all sealed back up. I had to pound almost every screw hole flat again...they had been over tightened many times by the looks of things. I also put a little grease on each one since there was a little light rust around them as well....until I can clean them up properly and prime and paint.