The Mystery Hole

After the dashboard, I decided to go back and attack an "interesting" aspect of the bodywork.  Just behind the passenger door is an area that clearly had some work done, and not completed.  I could see primer paint and some body filler underneath.  I put the wire wheel on the drill and started to grind off the primer and rust to get down to good metal.

I got to the point where I saw some white material underneath, so I stopped and poked at it with a screwdriver.  To my surprise it had some give to it, so I dug a bit out.  It turned out to be white acrylic bathroom caulk!  Instead of properly welding in a small piece of metal into the rusted area, somebody decided to squirt about two cups of caulking into the hole, then top it off with filler and primer.  It took me about half an hour to dig out all of the caulk.

I'll treat the remaining surface rust with Rust Reformer.  I'll work with The Sheet Metal Shop guys across from where I work to get a replacement piece fabricated, and then Gary from G-Rides will weld it in for me.  I've got a couple of other suspicious areas that I'll dig into and then we can take care of everything at once.