Kgilly

FYI, to all you Mustang lovers.
I recently sealed the rear quarter wheel well lips & the bottom of the doors where the lip bends over. If anyone has noticed, water sits in the lip on the bottom of the doors and also in that rear wheel well lip opening. (if you can get your fingernail in there it will hold water) Ford did a poor job of sealing these areas. I also took the rear inner wheel well liners out and lower rocker panels off and undercoated those areas and i was amazed to see how much road dirt and crap had been trapped behind those areas..
3M makes a Seam Seal tape for the doors and when you brush paint on it, it is activated and the sealer and it becomes harder but yet stays flexible. I did body work for years so these areas are prone to rust.
Just some info I wanted to pass on especially for those of us who live in the north and drive our cars in the winter.

2011 Performance White GT Premium 400A, GT500 axle backs, Airaid CAI, BMR Panhard Bar, GT500 mud guards, Side window vents, 35% window tinting, 3M clear body armor on front, GT strut bar, JLT oil separator.

kylerohde

Good ideas Kgilly - got any pictures or anything of the process to share?

Stevedotmil

Yeah pictures please. I want to do this before I send her to Germany.

bones302

I noticed pooling of water in the trunk in the inner fender wells after heavy rain storms.

I finally determined that water was coming in these extra holes in the rear deck behind the taillights. I sealed those and the rest of the inner rear quarters with sealer and rubberized undercoating both in the trunk and the outside wheel wells. also sprayed the whole trunk with undercoating as well in order to help sound deaden. dry as a bone now and much quieter in the cabin.

I suggest everyone check their cars after a heavy rain. go in the trunk on the sides and pull out the carpet and reach in to see if there is any water pooled in there.

Tron84

Thanks for bringing this up, i notice this issue every time i dry the car after washing it and it bugs the crap out of me.

I never thought about sealing the seams, that is next on my to do list now!

Auto426

Sounds like the new Mustangs will eventually hold up to their old "Rustang" moniker .

Kgilly

See above image... good idea on the trunk also..

GreenCars

Part of the problem is you need to remove the drain plugs. The 1st pic above shows the drain plug still in the door. When the door window gets wet the water needs to go some where. By sealing these compartments you are thus holding in the water. If the water stays in it will rust out. The rear of the car also has these plugs that need to be removed. So I am puzzled by the whole sealing thing.. Have I missed something??

Kgilly

I am sorry but I thought everyone would figure out that I removed the drain plugs and cut the sealing tape around the holes, painted the tape then reinserted the plugs since they are slotted, i guess you could leave them out?
And I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "rear of the car?" the wheel well lip is bent over and not sealed together.

UOP Shadow

This thread would be better with more details & pictures of the process as you are doing it. Do you have any pictures of the trunk areas that you sealed?

Kgilly

Sorry, I figured with everyone doing all types of mods to their cars; ex. CAI, suspension items, exhausts, brakes, etc. that everyone would be able to put some seam sealer or silicone on gaps or areas that the factory didn't seal..
I will do better in the future....

MAR302

Thanks for the tips, Kgilly and bones302!

I just placed an order for a ’13 GT (Prem, Brembo) and I want to do this sealing to protect it.

Kgilly – did you also use the same 3M seam sealing tape on the rear wheel well lip opening? If so, what did you “paint” over it with to activate it?

For those that said they did their trunk/inner rear quarters/outside wheel wells, what type and brand of “rubberized undercoating” do you guys like?

Hopefully these aren’t silly questions, but I have no familiarity with sealers and I want to do it correctly. Thanks!

Tron84

The black plug In the picture is no way in any sort a water tight plug.
If i just barely brush mine with a rag it falls out, there are gaps all around it and it's hard plastic, pretty sure it's not meant to seal water in or out. Maybe rocks or childrens fingers, but not water.
At least that's how they are on my car.

Kgilly

I actually just used body seam sealer in a caulk tube for the wheel well lips. I have done nothing with my trunk area but may do that now. I also undercoated the entire underneath of the car with standard undercoating from Advance Auto. Any paint you use over the 3M seam seal tape activates it. It is in the directions that this will happen when you paint it. One side has clear plastic that you peel off and this is the sticky side and the other side is non-sticky and this is what you paint. Hope this helps.

Rando

These areas definitely are prone to rust. Open the door on any car that isn't garage kept and is around 10 years old. You will see rust spots.

Kgilly

This is an FYI on the body sealing with the seam seal tape at the bottom of the doors that I did to mine about 2 months ago and started this thread. I just washed it again this past weekend and water continued to drip out of the corners and I pulled some of the tape off and the V groove at the bottom of the door was filled with water. I think I may have some areas that are not sealed inside the doors at the bottom correctly from the factory and just wanted to let everyone know that I pulled the seam seal tape off my doors until I figure out what to do next?

Bucko

Water is going to get inside the doors. The rubber seal at the edge of the door windows is supposed to help seal against the window, but it's not perfect. This is why there are rubber stops at the bottom; to allow the door to be drained I'll guess. My 2005 F150 will have a good amount of water in it's door sills after a hard rain; I have tried everything including bit**ing at the dealership about this. On the drivers side, a large wiring harness passes through this area! I end up having to pop out a round rubber plug to allow the sills to drain.

I would think that using sealing tape at the bottom of the door would only trap the water within the door, making the matter worse. Finding where (other than from the door glass bottom) the water is getting into the door is where you need to investigate, and then seal.

Kgilly

I didn't cover the holes up at the bottom of the door with sealer, only where the outer door skin fold into a "V" at the bottom. The two skins (inner & outer) are supposed to be sealed so all the water drains out of those two slotted holes. So water is getting in somewhere else and draining at the extreme corners of the doors?
I have a compressor so i will just keep blowing the water out. Then I will squirt oil up inside the doors as i have on other vehicles i have owned to help prevent rust.

2011 Premium GT, MT82, Performance white, 400A, Airaid CAI, JLT oil separator, GT500 axle-backs, BMR panhard bar, 35% window tint, side window louvers.

JScottGT

The hem at the bottom of most Ford's are designed that way. It's. Called an "open hem" and it's done that way on purpose. It does not trap the moisture, allowing it to evaporate. Sealing that area will now make it more prone to rusting because the moisture cannot getting out. The black "plugs" at either end of the door do allow the water drain, but you will not hurt anything by removing them. They are more of a NVH plug blocking some air. The older cars you see with the bottoms of their doors rusting had traditional closed hems that trap moisture.

Follow the link below to see the Ford patent on the open hem.
http://www.google.com/patents/US7115322

Bucko

Good link. Thanks for posting it.