I went in to remove my old trunk seal today, and I did not like what I saw. The channel where the seal sits is in fairly bad shape: at the inner right corner, by the right hinge, the channel is totally rotten on the inner side, bottom, AND the outer side. I punched some holes with the screwdriver...

The good news is that the channel still has a structure there, and the rust hasn't totally broke it. The bad news is that the trunk seal won't be able to stop water leakage from the hole on the outer side (i.e., immediately next to the windshield seal).

Here's what I did for now, and this is silly, but I did not have any brighter ideas or any other tools. I cleaned the holes and around them, dressed them with 3M weatherstrip adhesive, and put strips of black electrical tape over the holes.

For now, I installed my new (URO-made) trunk seal without weatherstrip adhesive. Reason? I want to seat the seal and let it deform as it may for a couple days. Also, I need to think about my course of action and figure out how to clean out the rest of the channel - it's got a lot of old weatherstripping sealant on it, which is a PITA getting out. I am resorting to scraping it out because it's so resistant, but I need some kind of a sander, ideally, to clean things up when all is said and done, and then some touch-up paint. After that, I *may* have a chance at a leak-free seal.

I don't know yet how my band-aid fiasco will fare... It looks like the 3M adhesive may be reacting with the plastic in the tape, which means it *may* hold up. But what else could I do there? Find thin strips of metal, lay them over the channel in that spot, and silicone the heck out of them to seal the holes? Anyone know of some sort of "liquid metal" or "liquid plastic" that you can goop on and seal this kind of thing?

P.S. Welding is not an option because I cannot weld, don't have the tools, don't know of any friends who can, and can't afford a body shop at this time.

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84 300SD - bought in April '06 with 237,000 mi