More leaky fuselage info

[Mark McDonald <tomswift@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm amazed at how much I learned today.  Okay, it's trivial-- I guess.
But if you've spent as much time as I have removing your carpet and
drying it out, and then doing it all over again a few days later when it
rains again, it's a big deal.

I think I fixed my leak.  It's raining now, so I should know for sure
tomorrow AM.

The leak was coming from a single hole in the trunk where the end cap is
attached.  There are 4 bolts there, arranged in a square pattern on a
vertical piece of metal above the taillight.  If you look at the 4
holes, it is the upper left hole-- the one at the top, nearest the trunk
lid.  When I removed the end cap, I noticed that a trail of water was
flowing down the top of the fender directly into that hole, and that
hole only.  It's just a curious result of the way that fender is shaped
on the fuselage cars, I guess.  It's almost as if there's a "gutter"
there from the roof down the fender to the taillight.  In a heavy rain,
the water pours off the roof and travels down the gutter into the crack
at the top of the end cap, where it goes into that hole.

I have never had a leak on the left side of the trunk, but I was going
to gunk that side up too, just in case.  But when I looked at it I
suddenly realized why it never leaked on that side.  The factory had put
a big mound of rubbery stuff over that one bolt-- it kind of had the
consistency of kneaded rubber, or maybe modeling clay.  (There is a name
for this stuff, but I can't remember it.)  Evidently, at some point, the
engineers realized the possibility of a leak at this point and put a gob
of this stuff on there to solve it.  (There is also a hole in the lip of
metal that forms the bottom of the end cap, so that water can't get
trapped in there.)

Before I bought my car, I think it was damaged on the right side near
the end cap and whoever did the repair did not bother to put any gunk
over the hole on that side.

The fuselage cars have a reputation as being leaky.  Having seen the
stuff they put around the bolt I feel a little better about the quality
of these cars now.  The leak was due to later meddling-- not the
manufacturer's carelessness.

If any of you have a leaky trunk in your fuselage, check that bolt.

Mark