got a crack in the hatch

i have read about this before and i cant seem to find it on here.. i got this water leak in the back of the wagon and i belive its a common problem.. i am painting the roof and hood of the wagon because i have this leak and i figured if i have off my roof rack headliner and all that i should just paint it.. but besides that this leak is located in the back corner of the hatch i guess u wanna say.. its the seem that meets up with the quarter panel and the back of the roof.. am im wondering if i should weld it and seal it up for good?.. but my next door neightboor had brough up a good point.. they filled it with that puddy stuff due to the movment of the wagon cuz it needs to flex.. so i was thinkin maybe some urathane caulk?.. so if anyone can help me out and chime in and educate me on what they did and if welding is the way to go or not..

ill try and get pics up but i gotta borrow my buddy camra so its hard to get pics sometimes..

The factory used a butyl caulk for the roof. The problem is more likely the quarter window reveal. They seperate along the top edge, and water can get in. It only take about 1/32 of and inch to cause a problem. The water dripps on the backside of the headliner, runs downhill to the grab handle, out of the grab handle at the rear, and into the tray on the storage panel, or the spare tire cover. The windows are a real pain to remove and reseal. I had someone reseal mine from the inside, but you have to remove the headliner to do that. It has been reasonably successful, but I have another leak from the back of the vista window, so I still get a few drops at my DS speaker cover.

fred its actually on the other side on my storage compartment.. but i guess either way i have to re-seal the quarter window is what your saying?..

They can/will leak on either side, both of mine do. It has done quite a job on my driver side D pillar and everything below it

Did some poking around on a wagon at the junk yard and the repairs need for d pillar damage are quite extensive. There is a ton of nooks and crannies back in that area and many different panels involving, spot welds and heavy seam sealer.

^ That scares me. I have a rust spot on the bottom of my d-pillar. I was debating getting all the body work done to the wagon around Christmas...

Mine didn't look too bad until I started messing with it of course. Since I am removing the dings and such I decided to assess the area back there since I knew it was rotted slightly. Found lots of rust everywhere underneath the seam sealer. The area covered by the tailgate seals has some bad spots. The panel the driver tail bolts to is rotted and that is a mother to replace. It is spot welded in an area only accessible once the D pillar skin is removed.

The D Pillar skin rots inside because of a giant piece of foam/goo that is in the area for what ever reason. It retains the water that leaks into there over the years and the result aren't pretty.



The rusted area you see here disappeared once I finally started poking around.



Couple this with the rot in the gate area, rotted rear wheel wells and rotted quarter

I don't have the money or desire to repair it all properly so it's gonna get done the best I can and the old wagon will serve me for as long as it can.

I have similar rust above my tail light, but I want to repair it properly. It's like the only rust spot I have, except for some light surface rust on the bottom of the car like behind the wheel well on the side (rear quarter-ish). The inside where my tailgate seals is rust free (from appearances).

Is it worth taking a look or will it make me sad?

WagonLover wrote:

fred its actually on the other side on my storage compartment.. but i guess either way i have to re-seal the quarter window is what your saying?..

Pretty much.

I thought I addressed both sides as possible leaks. Mine leaked on the DS over the storage compartment. You can have the window removed and resealed at an exhorbatant price or have someone try sealing it from the inside with butyl caulk. The guy who did the interior caulking did not want to remove the window, for fear of breaking it. Expect $180-200/window if you can get someone to do it. If they break it I was told a new one is about $900. JY ones are about $45, but you have to figure out how to remove them. Heat works best with a hot knife to cut the butyl. You also have to remove 5-6 nuts from the inside. There is a tool that inductively heats the metal, and not the glass. Costs big bucks.

I thought about taping the paint along the reveal moulding and on the molding, and squirting gorilla glue in the gap. The glue expands as it cures, so it would fill the gap, and the tape would keep the glue off of the paint, so you could trim any overrun with a razor blade.

Stingroo wrote:

I have similar rust above my tail light, but I want to repair it properly. It's like the only rust spot I have, except for some light surface rust on the bottom of the car like behind the wheel well on the side (rear quarter-ish). The inside where my tailgate seals is rust free (from appearances).

Is it worth taking a look or will it make me sad?

Unless you are able to repair it now I would not touch it, especially if there are no holes. Mine had one already on the bottom, when I started poking at things the rotted area fell apart and now there are a few holes, lol. The water leaks into that area and there are several hidden areas that get wet as well.

How do the insides of your quarters look?

I never really got down there to look.

I'll take a peek, and some pics, tomorrow.

wow.. this is bumming news.. i guess imma be callin around to see who can seal this window up.. thanks..

Local glass place said they would do mine. Just have to bring it in before they will give me a price. Should be about 120 a piece but they want to see exactly what they are dealing with.