Rustproofing In the 70's, Can plugs be a good sign? Options

[orthobiz]

I'm looking at a 76 Laguna 2.0 (at the pic stage right now) and see plugs fore and aft of the door sill. Car appears fairly rust free and lived a pampered life in the dreaded East and Midwest. Do the plugs have to be a bad sign? Could the longs still be in good shape? Maybe the good news is the rustproofing worked and that's why the car has not broken in half!

Paterek rustproofed my old 76 in the 80s, hid any holes, used (I believe) an oil-based ?Bosch product that seemed to work well over the years, still hasn't rusted out to this day. From what I remember, he pulled back the sail vinyl for rustproofing as well.

Other products were some kind of spray foam, no? Where else would 914's commonly have plugs?

Thanks,

Paul

[aircooledboy]

The "rustiest" of my three parts cars had Ziebart rustproofing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) The plugs are literally everywhere. These are black in color, and about 1/2" in diameter. The car has plugs into every possible cavity, for instance, there are probably 4 in each door, 4-5 in the ribs of each trunk lid. I have never been under the car, so I don't know if there are any into the longs.

The "rust proofing" is a waxy tar-like crud, insanely heavy, and in now exposed places you can see where it has cracked badly, trapped water, and obviously caused substantial rust on those panels. The only way I have found to remove it from a part is with a wire wheel. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif) I would say conservatively, it added 10 to 15 lbs. to each door and trunk lid, and who knows how much to the body. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)