My 87 240 is pretty clean on the outside no rust other than a very tiny amount on the rear wheel wells. I have a problem inside the door on the top of the rocker panel. The water is flowing out of the rockers okay I can see it all drain out quickly when a hose is run through the intake on the hood. I now noticed a rust spot forming on the passenger side in the exact spot. The passenger door also is rusting on the inside corner. I wouldn't think this is because of the rocker pannels because of the rust on the door corner. Where is the water coming from? Could a seal on the door be bad or something? I plan on taking care of this hole asap to prevent my rocker from getting any worse. Below is a link to see some pictures of the rust. Any thoughts or suggestions? I need to stop this evil rust. Thanks.


http://www.geocities.com/myvolvo164e/rust.htm

The thread below, "wet doors," might be helpful as well.

The pix really help.

Pull the front door trip moldings (the black ones at the bottom of the door frame) and try to peel the carpet back from the rocker panel so you can see the plastic cups that seal the 2 inch dia. holes that access the inside of the rocker panels.

If you can't move the carpet enough, pull the front seats and the entire carpet. I you need to use the car, put the seats back in "raw" and cover the foot wells with 10 to 15 thicknesses of old newspaper, or an old piece of carpet.

A look inside the rocker panel may reveal the cause. Flowing drains are good, but there still can be some 10 year old leaves and such that are holding water.

To clean, remove the panel that holds the lower anchor for the seat belts, it makes a larger access hole. Then get in there with a vacuum cleaner. Suck out all you can, and - if possible - reverse the air flow and blow in there to dry things out and loosen up more grunge.

There may be some spray on sealer, undercoat or something, that you can put in there after cleaning. Protecting the drain holes, of course.

The door corners look like the (1) the drain holes are plugged and (2) the outside scraper moldings have shrunk leaving a gap at each end allowing rainwater to get in. Have you noticed water dripping out of the bottom of either front speaker?

Remove the trim panel and have a look. Again, clean as best you can, and seal it up. The inner surface of the outer door has a foot-square piece of some sort of sound deadening material glued to it and, after 16 years, the glue fails and the thing slides down into the bottom.

Best luck,

Bob

:>)

From what I can tell, the hole on top of the rocker panel is unusal. I believe it is caused by water getting in the trim fastener hole just below the spot. But I would expect that to have rusted downward, not upwards. Upon a second look at your pix, that hole looks like it started on the outside. I say this by the way the paint is rusted off way back from the hole. Is there a door drain above thiese spots? If so, what in the heck is going down inside the door? Some acid?

Is the door rubber holding water for a long period in these spots, allowing time to rust things? Why would the door rubber be doing that?

On the passenger side, it looks to be surface rust, coming from the outside-in. Maybe it is from some nick to the paint which escaped your eye and has now rusted. Or, as above.

The corner of the door is not too bad yet. My guess is that with age, repeated events of water sitting in the inside of the door eventually seem out of the dailing seam sealant and give this characteristic look.

I have the same things going on in both my 240's. I plan to grind out the seam sealer, sand the rust, prime with a rust encapsulating paint like Corroless (Eastwood Company) or POR-15, then re-seal and paint.

I would try sanding that minor rust on the one rocker panel.

The hole, I would cut our that in a square/rectangle to good metal alongside, then sheet metal over a patch of good metal using stainless screws availvble at any home improvement store. Also using a brush-on seam sealant under and over the edges of the patch.

By all means, though, figure out why the hole got there in the first place and correct it.
--
"Can't understand why people abort Volvos, either"