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Rust Trouble Spots
The AC/Y bodies had a few rust spots to be on the watch for. All can be kept in check with the use of keeping the paint in good shape, a few of my tricks, and yearly touch ups at home, and professional touch ups every 5 years or so.
On this body, there are four main trouble spots on the body- the front fenders, rocker pannels/floor pans, trunk spare tire well, and the trunk's rain/water drainage groove. This is in addition to the other trouble spots which effect all cars (rust inside car from getting the carpet wet, firewall, areas around windows, seals, etc!).
The front fenders
One of the key features of the AC/Y body was an extensive water drainage system which basically takes water which pools up in specific areas, and drains it to the ground. The idea is that this would prevent rust by keeping water from staying in a specific spot. This may look good on paper, but caused a rust problem for the front fenders.
There is a plastic trim piece which fits between the top of the firewall in the engine bay and the bottom of the windshield. This piece has vents in it. These vent slats allow for water, leaves, dirt, etc., to drain from the windshield, hood, and engine bay into a little area between the windshield and the firewall (this is where the windshiled washer tank is located). This small area is also where the heater/AC system gets its external air. This little area would then collect water, dirt, leaves, etc. Over time, the dirt will build up in this area and hold water. This will lead to rust on the firewall, under the windshield, and the tops of the front fenders.
Two holes are on each side of this collection area, one by each fender (you can find them by lifting up the hood and looking by the two hinges for the hood lid). These holes basically drained water into the front fenders, where the idea was that the water would basically drain onto the ground. However, in trueth, the water which would drain into the fenders would often carry dirt and leaves. These leaves and dirt will go into the front fenders, and will have no where else to go, and so they will build up. This will in return fill the fenders with dirt which will hold water and rot out the metal (as a side note, water drains out of the front fenders through the crack between the bottoms of the fenders with the rest of the car's body).
The next time you step out of your car, look where I've shown in the picture below.
You will notice that you can actually see into the bottom of the front fenders, there is an open space in there which is where I'm talking about.
So by now you're wondering what to do about this. Its simple. You can clean out all of these spots I've mentioned every so often, and then touch up the paint as needed.
You may want to consider cutting a small, sqaure hole at the bottom of the front fender (out of sight) big enough to easily remove the buildup of dirt and leaves that can be found inside this area. Be careful not to scratch the paint while removing junk in this spot- since any exposed metal will rust quickly.
In climates that use road salt in the winter, this area rusts even quicker due to the metal being attacked by dirt on the inside of the fenders, and road salt on the outside. When looking at a new EEK (FWD mopar based on the 80s-early 90s platform), check the bottom of these fenders first (when looking for rust), If the paint is boubling up, it means you have a rust problem. Usually by the time it boubles the paint, you have rust all the way threw that section of the metal, and the only solution is removing the infected metal, filling in the hole (with either welded in metal or body filler) and repainting. leaving it alone is a very bad idea since it would only continue to attack you're car's body. This is especially important on unibody cars, since you can not simply remove the body from the frame to restore the car later (pretty much everthing is welded together with rear exceptions).
The rocker pannels/floor pans
The rocker pannels are the first body pannels to rust from exposer to road salt and common use. There is no true way to repair these rocker pannels. The best course of action with badly rusted rockers is replacement of the infected areas. As far as preventative measures go, the best method is to keep the rockers clean, touched up, and covered with proper undercoating paint.
Here is a picture of what will happen to rocker pannels on these cars if left to rust.
Also, if the rockers are left to rust, this body damage will often also progress to the door jams. BE SURE TO keep your door jams clean and touched up every spring to remove road salt and keep rust from starting.
Trunk Spare-tire Well
The spare-tire well collects dirt, and can collect water if the trunk's weather seal leaks or if you leave the trunk lid up during rain. If left alone, it will rust out. I try to keep my spare tire well clean and touched up. Failing to keep the trunk's weather seal intact and keeping the trunk's floor boards as is, will lead to this:
As you can see by this picture of the bottom of the trunk, Chrysler did not exactly paint the entire underbody of the car (i.e trunk area), its mildly protected via rust proofing and primer but it helps to add a good coat of either POR, rustoliem or typical car paint. Also looks good when finished...
Trunk's water drainage system/groove
You will find with your AC/Y body that the trunk has a groove between the fenders and the trunk's weather seal. This area is covered when the trunk lid is closed by the trunk lid, and allows for water to drain to the rear bumper from around the trunk lid. This area can rust over time, due to the extent that water comes in contact with it. This groove also continues from the rear window, under a body pannel. This body pannel is held on by screws, and rests between the trunk lid and the rear window. Dirt can build up in this part of the groove under this body pannel and will lead to rust which is quite hard to repair.
The only solution is paint. Lots of paint. Keep everything clean and painted as often as possible, and then rust can be kept at bay. Don't forget what you can't see! Most rust damage starts in places you do not see every day, like under the carpet, behind body pannels, under the car, etc. It would be a smart move to get a set of ramps so you could get under the car and touch up any damage caused by rocks, salt, etc. How often you should clean and touch up your car depends on your environment. For me, I live in an area where we get snow from Oct-April, and typically, the local politic-idiots dump 2 feet of road salt for every foot of snow! So I will spend about 60 man hours in the spring to get ALL the road salt off, and then touch up and paint job problems, and then go and wash and wax the car every 2-3 weeks after until winter when I stop and wait for spring.
The bottom of the doors will also rust, normally from the interior side out because this area will collect road salt and such and most people don't think to wash it when they wash the rest of the car.
Trunklid's lock cover
All the AC/AYs got a lock cover on the trunklid. Basically this is a pentistar shaped piece that goes over the lock, and slides to the side to reveal the lock. It uses a spring to slide back into place after you turn your key.
This part commonly brakes of or gets bent from use. When people are rough with it, it can break or bend the spring inside it, causing it to eat into the paint of the trunk lid.
With time, the cover also may hold water- and allow rust to start.
If the cover is broken, I suggest taking it off and/or replacing it. When you do that, you can see if it has rust spots starting behind it and repair it as if you would any other rust spot on your car.
To remove the cover, you must drill out the two rivets- one on the top, one at the bottom left corner of the cover (slide the cover to the side and its the base thats riveted).