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timstar92404 · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 2075 Location: richmond BC

If I get my exhaust leak fixed I will keep on driving my car in fall so I need to also fix the battery area leak.

when it rains or when I wash my car water runs down the passenger foot well area. here it rains everyday in the fall and winter so my car would become a pool.

I know the proper way is to cut the old metal out and weld in new metal but i've read that it would cost 500 bucks for a mechanic to do that.

I can't really afford 500 bucks just to fix a leak as the car needs other things as well.

is there a way I can remove the rubber coat or whatever covers the battery tray and then sand the metal apply por-15 or whatever and then fill the wholes and then apply new coating.

would this work?

I have no idea how to remove that hard coating all the way to the bare metal.

can anyone help me?

thanks.
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78 924 sold.
85.5 944

Gram · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:37 pm Post subject:

Are you sure it's leaking under the battery? Mine didn't leak, but that rubber coating you mentioned was cracking so I just gave it a couple of good coats of POR15, especially along the metal seams. Pour it on..

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'82 924 NA Euro (hers)
'98 Audi A4 TDI (ours)

ricomartinez · Joined: 22 Oct 2003 Posts: 63 Location: Prattville, AL

My '81 had a serious leak too when I got it. I tore off that rubber cover thinking it was a repair attempt from a previous owner. It looked like all it did was allow some water/acid to collect under it and stay there eating away metal.

When i got down to the metal there were huge holes and "flaps" of metal that didn't look like they were gonna hold a battery. I bought the POR-15 starter kit and the fiberglass matte they sell. I cleaned it up best I could and used all the stuff in the kit so that I could put the POR on all the metal. Once everything looked protected both on the outside battery area and inside the passenger area, I started the effort to make it structurally sound and leakproof. I cut a piece of the fiberglass to fit the tray and cover all the holes. I then painted the tray area with fresh POR and laid the matte over it. Then I painted all of the matte making sure it was saturated. Then it was just a process of waiting for it to dry and applying multiple coats until there were no more holes and it felt strong enough to support a battery. That was about 4 or 5 years ago and it hasn't leaked since. Of course it generally doesn't rain much in San Diego, but now that I'm in Alabama it'll get put to the test.

CBass · Joined: 03 Nov 2002 Posts: 2807 Location: Vancouver, Canada

Depends on how bad it is. If you get in there and find a few spots where you can poke through with a screwdriver, cut them out and paint with rust inhibiting paint, such as POR-15. Go over it with fiberglass as described, it's pretty easy. Coat it with asphalt undercoating in a can, give it 10 coats or so. This part will take a few days, since it takes 2 hours or so for a light coating of the stuff to dry enough for a second. Should help keep it nice and watertight.
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'81 931 in various states of assembly

timstar92404 · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 2075 Location: richmond BC

by fiberglass do you mean the putty ?

if you mean actual fiberglass for huge holes how would the fiberglass bond ot the metal?
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78 924 sold.
85.5 944

ricomartinez · Joined: 22 Oct 2003 Posts: 63 Location: Prattville, AL

The POR bonds to the metal, so put a few coats on the metal first to ensure it is covered well. Then take a fiberglass cloth vice the filler stuff and either ensure it is saturated first or put a coat on the tray area and lay the cloth on the wet POR and then put a good coat over the fiberglass to ensure it is saturated. Wait to dry, then just continue the process of putting coats on until you have a solid surface. The POR will gradually fill in the holes as you put on layers. If you like I suppose you could put two layers of fiberglass cloth. But, just keep putting layers until you're satisfied with the integrity.

I don't know if putting asphalt is a good idea though. It seems like that or something like it caused the problem in the first place. The POR itself should seal out the water. Putting asphalt just seems like it will let water seep in underneath and attack the non POR areas, just like it did with the previous rubber/asphalt material.

jpab924 · Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:45 am Post subject:

Chipping and-a-scraping to reveal all the bad spots. JB Weld and por-15 did the trick.