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Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - MarkJF

Hi,

I was after some help if possible.

I came back to my car a few days ago to find someone had kindly driven into the back of my car and destroyed the rear drivers side tail light and pushed the bodywork to the side of the light housing in. I've had the new tail light fitted today but because of the gap between the light housing and where the bodywork has been pushed in the garage have warned me that water will get into the housing.

I'm not keen on replacing the whole rear quarter panel of the car and it doesn't look like I can pull the bodywork back out, other than using some sort of tape to cover the gap is there anything else I can use to seal it and stop water getting in without it looking terrible?

Hope that makes sense and thanks for any help.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - elekie&a/c doctor
Clear silicone sealer is probably your best product here .
Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - MarkJF

The problem I've got is that the gap between light housing and bodywork is reasonably wide, so assume a sealant wouldn't be any good for that?

Don't think I can post a picture to show where and how I mean.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Xileno

How wide is the gap? 1cm more, less?

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - MarkJF

I'd say a couple of centimetres if not a little more. The bodywork on the rear quarter panel has essentially been pushed in and bent under so I can't just pull it back out.

Apologies if that sounds a bit vague but I'm not a car person or mechanically minded in any way.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Xileno

Silicone sealant won't be any good for that sort of gap, I don't think you have any other option apart from strong tape such as waterproof cloth gaffer tape or similar. It might be worth trying to get a bodyshop to try and get the gap a bit tighter, even if it's a quick and rough job.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Gibbo_Wirral

Get a sheet of 5-6mm neoprene off Ebay and make yourself a new gasket, use the old one as a template.

The old stuff will be pretty brittle now anyway and will have moulded itself to the shape of the bodywork.

Edited by Gibbo_Wirral on 21/05/2021 at 12:24

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Galaxy

You might possibly be able to do something with expanding foam. If you mask the outside of the wing and lamp assembly with tape and spray from the inside it should seal the gap that you have.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - bathtub tom

Drill a hole in the bottom of the housing, so that any water that gets in can drain out?

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Galaxy

A few photos of the damage might help us to give you some more ideas. From your description, OP, it's very hard to visualize, I'm afraid.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - sammy1

Why not try body filler to bridge the gap? Easy to use and maintain the shape

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - edlithgow

Why not try body filler to bridge the gap? Easy to use and maintain the shape

Probably what I would do in the UK, but AFAIK you cant get it here (in Taiwan).

Rust holes on the Skywing were filled with some kind of mastick bedding compound when I bought it. This is less likely to encourage further rust (filler soaks up water) but I'd think more difficult to apply to gaps. I didn't put it there so I'm speculating.

My local improvisations for this sort of thing are

(a) Chewing gum. Works OK but you'd need an awful lot for the gap you describe and your jaws would really ache by the time you'd finished

(b) Crumpled and compressed aluminium foil wetted with sunflower oil. This can be pressed to rough shape and then sanded. I've only used it on a couple of small holes, though, and never used it on a gap as big as the one you describe.

If you use filler, try and waterproof it well before painting. I'd use a vegetable oil (linseed probably best) or an alkyd resin like Penetrol

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Bolt

Why not try body filler to bridge the gap? Easy to use and maintain the shape

Probably what I would do in the UK, but AFAIK you cant get it here (in Taiwan).

Rust holes on the Skywing were filled with some kind of mastick bedding compound when I bought it. This is less likely to encourage further rust (filler soaks up water) but I'd think more difficult to apply to gaps. I didn't put it there so I'm speculating.

My local improvisations for this sort of thing are

(a) Chewing gum. Works OK but you'd need an awful lot for the gap you describe and your jaws would really ache by the time you'd finished

(b) Crumpled and compressed aluminium foil wetted with sunflower oil. This can be pressed to rough shape and then sanded. I've only used it on a couple of small holes, though, and never used it on a gap as big as the one you describe.

If you use filler, try and waterproof it well before painting. I'd use a vegetable oil (linseed probably best) or an alkyd resin like Penetrol

It would be easier to use Gorilla tape, just cut to shape, place in and stick around gap wait to harden, its waterproof as well

I wouldn't normally recommend this type of repair but have seen better body finishes with tape than using fillers on small areas if done right and hardens within the hour

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - edlithgow

It would be easier to use Gorilla tape, just cut to shape, place in and stick around gap wait to harden, its waterproof as well

I wouldn't normally recommend this type of repair but have seen better body finishes with tape than using fillers on small areas if done right and hardens within the hour

Not seen that. Perhaps it didn't exist when I was banger-bodging in the UK.

People (myself included) used to use actual fibreglass to fill / bridge big gaps and holes, which sounds similar but less convenient.

I can remember putting some really quite big patches on the rot traps in the inner wing of my Marina, filling the cavity with bonding plaster (or was it called "browning"? Can't remember now) which had expanded vermiculite in it and could be easily shaped, then removed once the fibreglass patch had set. Wasnt intended for the purpose but worked quite well.

I'd guess no one does that kind of thing to cars nowadays. I originally bought the fibreglass to fix a dinghy.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - Xileno

It all depends on the quality of the repair you want. If the car is near end of life, then a bodge using fibreglass matting, body filler or waterproof tape should suffice. If it's a car that you intend keeping I still would recommend taking it to a bodyshop to get a quote for doing a quick job at trying to close that gap, not to do a top job but enough to mean clear silicone sealant can then be used, so probably a gap of maybe 5 mm.

Ford Mondeo 2006 - Rear Tailight Housing/Leak - edlithgow

Half a centimeter of clear silicone sealant versus maybe a couple of centimetres of fibreglass, seems a pretty fine (aesthetic?) distinction to me. Filler does tend to promote rust but it can be painted, which silicone sealant, AFAIK, cannot. Appearance doesn't bother me but it does most people

Tis, however, true that nearly all my cars have been obviously near end of life when I got them and for all the time I've had them, 8 years in the case of the current one.

The exception (apart from company cars which don't really count) was a fairly new and shiny Renault 5 I took over when my mother stopped driving. Burst into flames a couple of years later.