G'day, I've had problems with the boot leaking water on my VL sedan since I bought it about a year and a half ago. I've had a few goes at fixing it but never quite got around to it until the last week or so. As most will know we have had a very wet summer here in Brisbane and my car doesn't get parked under cover! This basically means that every couple of days I've had to open up the boot and dry it with towels. Also have to take anything out that has been of any value or it gets water damaged, a major pain in the ass! Well, I did some searching on here and found a few bits of info but not a single thread that covers all of the things that need to be done so that your boot is absolutely dry. So here goes... 1. As has been noted on here many times, the lip that the boot seal mounts on is prone to rust. I took my boot seal off and found that there was some surface rust starting here and one worse spot where a minor hole had rusted through at the forward left corner. I sandblasted the whole lip all the way around the boot opening and repaired the hole using fibre reinforced filler. There was about 6 inches of lip missing in one spot which was also rebuilt using the same product. Once repaired, the area was primed, painted and the boot seal refitted which leads me to the next problem. 2. Obviously, the boot seal needs to be in good condition (which mine was). After refitting it to the vehicle, I leak checked the boot again and found water was entering not over the top of the seal but under it. The fix? Take the seal off, clean the inside of the seal and refit it with non-hardening mastic (available at Bunnings). Some on this site have used silicone which is not advised as it causes rust and makes the seal impossible to get off if you ever want to repaint the car. Silicone is for tits and house roofs, don't use it on your car! 3. It was disheartening to find at this stage that the boot was still leaking so further inspection was called for. There was evidence of water stains on the inside of the rear window rubber so the rear window was removed for a look-see. A couple of small areas of surface rust under the seal were fixed at this stage also. We cleaned the rubber both where it contacts the body and where it contacts the glass. Holden never sealed the contact surface between the rubber and glass so a bead of mastic was applied before the seal was refitted. Another bead of mastic was applied to the seal in contact with the body of the car and the whole lot refitted. Result? A very dry rear window and no more wet parcel shelf. 4. Still more water in the boot, this was starting to really piss me off so I jumped inside with a torch while my mate equipped with a garden hose gave the old girl a squirt. Found some water leaking down above the wheel arches where the seat belt reels mount. Was wondering how the hell this could be leaking after the work we did on the window? Well, firstly you need to remove the C pillar window trim (the one behind the rear doors) on both sides. This will expose three vent holes in the C pillar. There is supposed to be foam sitting inside the pillar to prevent water running down off the roof from entering the C pillar and boot. So after 20 or so years the foam is long gone so the water just runs down off the roof gutters, under the trim, straight into the vent holes and into the boot. So here's the fix, go to a rubber supply shop. Buy a decent length of 1" wide rubber. Get some polyurethane sealant such as Sikaflex (available Bunnings also). Remove any trace of the old foam that is left and in it's place seal the rubber over the vent holes with the sealant. It's best to use two strips, one to cover one vent hole and another to cover the lower two, can be a fiddly job getting the rubber in place but to stop leaks those holes need to be totally watertight. By using two strips you don't cover over the hole that's required for the clip that holds the window trim on, have a look and you'll know what I mean. 5. Ok, so there's still water in the boot. Had a bit more of a look and found it was coming in through the holes where the clips go through that hold on the trims running along the top of the bumper, also more leaks where the tailight surrounds clip onto the top corners of the quarter panels. So I cap sealed all of the clips with more mastic. So that's my story so far. Gave the VL a good squirt with the hose today and she seems leak free for the first time since I've owned it. I've heard that sometimes tailight seals can leak also so that's something else to look out for. Hopefully this writeup will save a few people as many troubles as I've had and save a few cars from getting rusted out in the boot area! Happy motoring, Marty. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.