Da Da DUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Davalos]

That music was the sound of impending doom ... death ...

 

I noticed water in my rear passenger’s floorpan the other day when driving in the rain. Got it on the lift and took a peek around the bottom and found a big-assed hole in front of the rear tire in the rear well, directly above and in-front of what looks to be like a torsion bar mount, but I'm sure it's not.

 

I’ll see if I can et some pics, but my guess is this is common enough that I don’t really need to show them. I can get 3-fingers in the hole on the passenger’s side, and with ONE finger, I MADE a hole in the identical spot on the driver’s side, so if I can do it with my finger ... it's kinda bad. Between the 2 places, I shot about a can of expanding foam as deeply as I could into the cavities. Sadly, this didn’t work as far as keeping the water out of the passenger floor pan, but I'm sure it made my car quieter . I haven’t torn out the plastic from above the rocker and the rear well from the inside, but I’m 100% sure that’s where it’s coming from.

 

So, aside from the question of “is it fixable”? … the question is more “is this the beginning of the end”? This car has been very good to me, and has served me well, so if it had to be the End, then I would walk away still proud to having been a Soobie owner. At the same time, I have been very good to IT, and I do have a lot of investment in it – I don't mind investing more, so long as it's not throwing good money after bad. I have seen a few threads about fixing rust when it starts to get too bad, but my general experience is that It’s uaually a losing battle.

 

It's a work vehile - not something I cruise for chicks in (not that there are chcks out there who say "Wooo! Check out that Sexy Loyale 2WD!!! I'm getting sooo wet!...", but keeping water out is kinda important ...

 

Whatayall think? Need Pics?

Edited October 25, 2009 by Davalos

[Davalos]

Okay, so instead of waiting for "Um, YES, Davalos, you moron - we need pics!"...

 

 

This is the rear passenger floorpan after only about 10 minutes on the road. It's all coming from the upper left side of the pic (under the plastic by the rear passenger door) - you can see the road sand building up there - anyway, it pools in the upper part there, and when WHOOSH! when you put on the breaks.

 

 

This is my (ahem!) "fix" that I thought might do ok ... but it didn't. Anyway, it tells you where the hole is, in case I didn't describe it well - I'm sure a lot of us out there know this one.

 

... Man, now that I think about it ... that expanding foam is gonna make welding SUCK if I end-up having to! hehe! Me & my big ideas! ...

[Qman]

You are right, expanding foam is not a structural fix. That area is structural and important. You will need to repair it properly or part it.

[Davalos]

But but but ... the can said "Structural Foam" haha!

 

Yeah - I was hoping just to keep water out of the cabin, but I couldn't even accomplish that.

 

I did a search but couldn't find other threads where people had done this repair - any idea which keywords to use in the search string?

[Bucky92]

I had it ALOT worse on my 92 Loyale...the whole inner wheel well was gone on both sides.. we ended up cutting it out and backwoodsboy welded in new metal, then I filled in the smaller holes with fiberglass.then after it was all done I put a couple heavy coats of undercoating in...needless to say..the car is still fine..and has passed a few years worth of NY inspections.

[hatchsub]

Looks like its time for you to get a welder lol. Seriously a welder is one of the best purchases ive made recently. Its the sole reason my subaru is going to be on the road still in 5 years or so.