I don't think it'll be that drastic. I have seen no sign of water or anything getting in there when I took it apart. it was the cleanest section on my jeep. A shot of WD-40 on the bare metal should take care of it. My tire carrier didn't carry any ground to the tailgate. It was quite the PITA. I figured everything would have been grounded. I was way off.

 

The trouble I had was the tire carrier carried no ground to the tailgate. I would of had to remove powdercoating somewhere to just make that connection. I may slap some waterproof conductive grease on it. something like NO-OX-ID "A-Special". Amazing stuff, works well. when i removed the tire carrier i could see that no moisture had gotten inside. As an example when I took my mirrors off there was a fine film where you could see water worked it's way in between the mirror plate and door(i don't mean from the water filling the mirrors). I could also run a very small bead of rtv along the top making an upside u shape/ 7/8th of a circle too. NC has ample rain and we are 1.5 hrs from the beach. I'll follow up in a couple of months and see how things are looking.

 

Or a ground wire from the antenna mount to the tailgate. If your tailgate doesn't have good grounding, it's a pretty simple operation to run a grounding wire to the tub with a wire through the strap at the hinge.

 

The longer the ground wire the more it effects the ground plane from everything I could read about it. I really don't think it's too big of a deal, guys drill hole to put on adjustable track brackets all the time. the first hole, scratch, ding, dent, wrinkle, grind, is the hardest. I was more worried about cracking the glass on the hardtop after someone mentioned that I removed a little more metal, just to be safe.

 

Did you cut away some of the tire carrier to make it sit flush or is it just the camera playing tricks?

 

camera trick.. i cut the antenna bracket, and put some thick rubber belt behind it to bring it out even with the carrier ribs.

 

I gotta say... I can't believe you took the paint off like that. If it gets any moisture at all, even humidity, it WILL rust. Eventually bare metal, outdoors, WILL rust. I'd paint it over and do something else.

Besides, what you have done is not near as good as a ground to the frame. The door is not a good ground because it relies on conductivity through the hinge, which is a moving part and is often an insufficient ground. I ran a ground wire from my antenna mount through the tailgate (with the coax) to the frame, to make sure it is grounded.

Sorry, dude, but I think you messed up. No offense intended.

 

I'm getting a 1 on channel 19 and a 1.4 low and high so no offense taken...

 

The metal isn't exposed to the elements. I disassymbled it to see if any of the WD-40 that I've been spraying on the joint everyday worked it's way in. None has worked it's way in. Still as clean as when I wiped it with alcohol.

But since I had it apart I coated the bare metal on both surfaces with dielectric grease and used permatex (form a gasket sealant #2). So if water thought about working it's way in, which it hasn't, now it has a seal around it to further waterproof it.

On your recommendation I ran a 10 gage stranded ground wire from the door to the Jeep through the existing wire bundle. No difference noticed BUT if I open and close the back gate a 1,000 times I won't have to worry about losing continuity. Before installing the groundwire I ran continuity checks by opening and closing the rear gate and never lost continuity, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure on all levels.
Thanks for the inputs

 

Taking your advice I coated the bolts and holes in dielectric grease and sealed around the edge of the plate on the front and back with permatex form a gasket 2. That should keep out any water plus the metal (drill holes) have a coating of grease.

Thanks for the ideas/info