Rust Hole

On my '86 turbo coupe, there is a rust hole at the bottom left of the rear window, just above the trunk. Should I attempt to find another TC to cut that section from and just weld it on? Or not put in the effort and just send it in to a body shop? The only Thunderbird I was able to find nearby was in a junkyard, and was an '87, which doesn't have the same build in the rear end.

you can fab up that section of metal and weld it in. Most are going to be rusty under the trim because it holds water and dirt.

That is a bad place on the pre 87 models. It just traps water and gunk all along the bottom edge and up around the corner. If it hasn't rusted all the way thru, I'll suggest taping everything off around it, glass included - have it carefully sand blasted, light pressure, then fill in with body filler or UV resistant epoxy, sand down, primer and color coat.

It won't look the best but if you let it go it will rust thru and then mildew will start in the trunk.

Probably not as much work as welding in replacement metal. You'll probably need to remove the window to weld in sheet metal.

It has already rusted through to the trunk. And found out about mold by leaving my throttle body in the trunk. Wasn't pretty, and was not fun to clean either. I'm decent with metal work and my uncle has all the welding equipment I'd need, so I'm going to see about fabricating a piece for there.

That same rust spot is what landed my last TC to the crusher

I mainly blame it on that metal strip or frame the goes around the rear window, the least they could have done from the factory was sealed it(maybe the did?)

All I can really say is good luck, it happened on the right side of my old TC when the last owner had it. He brought it down and had the rust cut out then had them weld in a metal plate, later when I got it the welds started to rust and another rust hole popped up on the left side. When I got it I sanded it all down to bare metal and bondo ed it, but the trunk still leaked. So I drilled in 3 1\2 holes into the bottom of the trunk so at least the trunk would quit pooling with water, lol then the trunk started to rust.

The only real way your going to be able to fix will be to find a TC that hasn't rusted there and cut out the whole piece from the trunk to were the speakers sit and weld it in, it sadly a lot of work and to find a pre 87-88 TC is becoming hard to find. If you strip down that whole area you'll find out its more then just a plain piece of sheet metal bent to shape, you maybe better off finding rolling chassis or bird and switching over part to there?

Ford didn't seal it from the factory.