Hi, not been on in awhile. Have had my adorable 1990 Custom Cruiser for about 4 mo. now. I dutifully have been washing it about every 2 wks, since our weather is psycho in Ohio...gets back to 44 degrees post snowstorm. haha. I've noticed two things. New small razor-like cuts in vinyl near upper of wheel wells and to the front of them ( in back ). Don't know how to protect / fix this. I've discovered teeny pin dot yellow rust dots...all of a sudden, passenger RT back below back-most window. !!!???? Yikes ! Don't wanna let this get worse. And....whenever I wash the wagon...TONS of black S*** flakes out of the back window moldings, onto the white and down. What ?? Is there rubbery deteriorating stuff underneath....like I saw beneath the luggage rack rails ? Does one SEAL this or should the moulding be removed and re---whatever'd. ?? Help ! Am trying to keep this as Porsche -like as possible. LOL * I have photos in the gallery. Lorkav....
I know very little about those vinyl woodgrained panels on wagons. But I do know it shrinks with age.............Opposite of what humans do! That creates the wrinkles and cracks. Same as on people. Those tiny dots are just the beginning of rust out sections sure to come. Even Porsche's rust in time. Sadly you can just keep wax on the surface areas to maybe slow it some, live with it, or spend a fortune having large sections removed and replaced with welded in metal patches. Which means a repaint and possibly removal of trim and maybe interior. Rust is like cancer, you can slow it down but never stop it for good. Most likely the black specks is the rubber deteriorating. Possibly you can treat it with Armoral or a similar rubber preservative. All of these things are why good wagons are getting rarer and harder to find. Where you live is not friendly to rubber, vinyl, metal, or people.
The pin holes suggest that somebody tried to install new stuff on it. That's how the DIYers (us), get the air bubbles out. The muck from the trim sounds like old leaves and road dust. Pull off the trim with a trim removal tool, and clean that stuff out, before it rusts the sheetmetal behind the trim. Autozone should have the tools - cheap.
They wrote that those tiny pin holes suddenly appeared and look like rust spots. That would be a different problem. A temp fix would be minor touchup or wax. Before i would remove any trim and possibly damage it or scratch paint or vinyl I would try air pressure, water hose, or a pressure washer on medium.
So, when they say knock on wood, that vinyl stuff doesn't count ? :confused: Amazingly I have never had any vehicles with real or fake wood sides and I love them. Is there such a thing as living where it's too cold for cars to rust ?
The lack of oxygen and moisture on the moon may hinder the rust a little too. Hey fellow N.E. Ohioan, if you want to have a good experienced body man look at it and tell you what he thinks about the rust and the vinyl and whatever else you want to know send me a PM and I'll shoot you his name and the shop's address and my name so you can say who recommended him. It's in Troy Township on route 422 in Geauga county, he usually does stuff like that between 10-12 on Saturdays and no charges to look, he's a good guy and real easy to deal with too.
