Hood hinge drain rust repair

[Chad300tdt]

So I was washing my wagon on Sunday afternoon and saw water in my interior AGAIN!! I thought I had all the leaks addressed and now I have another one.

Anyway, I tracked it down to the driver side hood hinge area. I treated the upper drain after taking out the hood spring for easier access ... it still leaked.

I remembered reading a post about the screws that hold the wheel well liner in place being an entry point for water, so I removed the liner. It was loaded up with dirt and I found a surprise that I've been dealing with since.

Just below the lower drain opening was a hole at the back of the emergency brake pedal assembly.


Here it is with the e-brake pedal removed. It's all wet with Metal Ready to neutralize the rust:


Here's the rest of the floor after I removed that sound deadener crap that hides rust:


I cleaned everything up carefully, treated with POR-15 and shaped some sheet metal. I then buttered the back of the sheet metal patch with JB Weld and pop riveted it in place. You can see there was a second hole a littler lower that I patched with sheet metal as well.


After the JB Weld set up, I filled the edges of the patch with more JB Weld.


I also filled the wheel well side of the patch with JB Weld.


Tomorrow I will coat everything again with POR-15, drill the bottom hole for the e-brake pedal, put everything back together, lay some dynamat back where I removed the original sound deadener, Under coat the wheel well and be back on the road with a leak free wagon AGAIN.

I'll post more pics after I finish the job tomorrow.