So firstly it is good to hear from you. Secondly, the good news you are only reporting on surface rust, so that means mechanically your car is performing well. Your Town Car has given you value for your money. I have visited dealers recently and they all jack up the price of used and new cars. Wheel locks, door edge guards, window tinting, ceramic coating, scotch guard, market adjustments and $999 documentation fees. All this adds up to 50% of what you paid for your beautiful Lincoln. Thanks for another video.
Welcome back. I just fixed some rust on mine. I tried to do a little better job this time with bondo and paint. I'm no professional but I respect people that address rust rather than ignore it.
If a Panther is winter driven with salt getting into the interior of panels rust is the outcome. This applies to any vehicle as well. It has nothing to do with being garage kept. Salt with moisture creeps into every crease and crack. There is no way to stop or effectively repair rust once it starts on the interior of panels. There is only one way to prevent rust on winter driven vehicles where roadways are salted - that is Royal spray on the underbody and inside panels by drilling holes such as inside the door openings to reach inside the rocker panels and door pillars and front and rear fenders. The oil also needs to be light and with good capillary action to creep into every nook and crack in the middle. Once there is a film of oil build-up on all metal parts inside the salt will not be able to oxidize that metal. Here in Canada the best product is Krown be oil spray. But at the end of the day even the best oil spray comes down to getting a good thorough job of application which has become more difficult to obtain as shops do not want to spend the time involved and have gotten sloppy in their work. And a vehicle must be oil spray from brand-new if it's going to be winter driven in order to prevent rust from the inside. I have a 2003 Grand Marquis which is my primary winter vehicle. There is no underbody rust or rust from the inside of panels because it has been consistently oil sprayed since I purchased it used in 2006. There was little to no underbody rust at that point because it had spent Winters in Florida. The other thing you will find is that sand or rocksalt will be flung from the tire treads and chipped the paint around the wheel wells and along the rocker panels. Once there is a chip in the salt brine mixture in the winter will creep under the paint creating rust and causing the paint to peel further. What I do is spray a very sticky oil called seal and protect marketed buy Rust Check around the lip of the fender at each wheel well, along the entire rocker panels, along the outside of the bottom of the door panel as well as the inside, and along the bottom edge of the trunk lid. It's a mess to wash that dried on sticky oil off come spring, but the result is that even paint chips down to the bare metal do not rust during winter. Oil is the only thing that will prevent rust on any metal surface. I have seen people with rust covered guns while every one of my firearms sit in the safe cleaned and then wiped down with oil to leave an oily film over them with no rust.
You know this but I will say it again. I would at least use a rust converter to keep it from spreading too much. Flex seal covers it and it will rust underneath.
Unfortunately by the time you start seeing bubbling under the paint the backside of the panel has already rusted from the inside out unless you had a chip on the outside then it would rust from the outside first. Removing your paint is the worst thing to do as you are taking the protective layer off the metal and it will rust much faster. At this point even though I don’t like them I would get a set of the wheel arch moldings and just hide it and spray a generous amount of rust converter on the backside as nothing you’re doing is going to stop it at all. Hopefully that would buy you at least a few more years of looking decent.
Went through this too with my Crown Vic,had to go the body shop twice to Bondo the front fender when I should've replace the whole panel to begin with and rust is back. So fed up but now I'm upgrading to a lincoln town car 2004 all black next week
Wait I just bondoed mine. It was the driver front fender above the wheel. I have a video where I was just spraying dupli color perfect match over the problem. Well eventually it rusted through so I got some bondo and tried to fix it. It's not the best but it beats a rust hole.
Whether or not car is garage kept has little to do with the amount of rust or damage from corrosion. It is the frequency or how in-depth the car is cleaned when being washed. Your front seat bases are rusted because your TC leaked water below the windshield and caused water vapor/mist to settle on low lying metal surfaces. And i would imagine that a leaking sunroof might also cause condensation to build up inside cabin of automobile. The padding material beneath carpet will hold a large amount of moisture. If it is not allowed to dry out or sucked out be dry vacuum it will cause rust to form all around it. It is normal to have a small layer of surface rust to form on certain bare metal parts/brackets beneath dash due to damp air entering through fresh air intake. But it rarely causes seat bases, brackets, or tracks to rust. That damage is from constant exposure to moisture inside cabin. The rust in front of front door on fender is from leafs and debris building up from under the body. It is a bad design flaw on all panther platforms. Both drivers side and passenger side have same defect.
