Help me fix 'lil rusty

Prometheus · 05-29-07, 01:54

Hey guys,

So I've been struggling with some spots on my doors for the past two summers now, and this year will make three. Right at the bottom where the door skin folds around and is tack welded to the door frame it is starting to rust and pop off the paint. Yeah, I know, it basically happens to every car eventually, but it is really bugging me. The Pic below shows what I'm talking about

The part I'm talking about is on the actual door. The part that looks rusty right behind the wheel is actually part of the frame of the car, I apparently got low enough when I took the pic that you can see it. Anyway, I'm starting to get really frustrated with this. Two summers in a row now I've sand blasted away all the rust and paint surrounding it, primed it with some self-etching Zinc based primer and then proceeded to paint. On the inside I wire brushed it (with a grinder) and then proceeded to do the same thing except I put rubberized undercoating on it instead of regular paint (figured it would be better since water sits there longer). Anyway, as the pic shows, it is clearly back.

Being utterly fed up I took the car to a local body shop. The owner said he could/would paint both doors and the inside up to the horizontal trim line for about $150, but basically said the best I could hope for was a year and a half before the rust came back. I asked if I could do anything to prevent it from coming back, and he sheepishly said "buy new doors." Being the sick freak that I am, I considered and researched it, but the cheapest I can find doors is about $500 a piece. Living in Northern Michigan I don't exactly trust any junkyard doors because they'll probably be just as rusty. I realize that the car is 10 years old, but it is really sound mechanically and has got about 100k miles on it, and the car is good for at least double that mileage wise. I'm just frustrated and I don't know what I should do.

Basically, I'm seeking recommendations. Family members have already said just leave it and drive a rust bucket until I can afford a new car (which will be awhile). I'd like this car to get me through school (4 more years worth of Grad school), but I really don't know what else to do. Thanks for listening to me vent, any suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Accumulator · 05-29-07, 02:39

I've had this sort of thing on a few vehicles and have had it fixed with varying degrees of success.

Sometimes a pro repair will go great. I had some areas like that fixed on the Jag over 15 years ago and they're still fine today. I've had other such rust fixed on other vehicles and it came back

Good shops are hard to find and they aren't cheap. $150 isn't nearly enough for a good fix. I'd try to find somebody *good* who can fix it right and will stand behind his work.

DIY fixes never seem to hold up very well; this stuff is a lot harder than most people think. But if you want to try it again, skip the zinc primer, it never works all that well IME. I *have* had some incredible results with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. I did a quick fix on some similar areas on the Blazer: I ground down the rust, applied a rust converter, then painted over that with Rust Encapsulator. Put some touchup paint over the Rust Encapsulator. This was last summer and I didn't expect it to last very long. But here I am 9-10 months later and the repair is still holding up. That's not really very long in the big picture, but hey, it's a year's worth of improvement for not a lot of work or money.

For areas where you can't get to the rust, I'd coat it with Eastwood's Heavy Duty Anti-Rust or, better yet, AutoInt's rustproofing stuff (forget the name, I got some old MOPAR-label stuff from them when they changed packaging for Daimler-Chrysler).

Links: Eastwood Company Home Page and Automotive International - Valugard Product Line

pb_foots · 05-29-07, 02:40

Seems to me that the undercoating is part of the problem. Any moisture that gets trapped between the undercoat and the panel is going to start eating away.

Why not take it down to metal on both sides and use POR 15 on the inner surface? POR works great at stopping and preventing rust, but I don't think you'd want that on the outside, just where it won't be seen. They say you can paint over it, but I'm not sure about that one, the finish looks too bumpy to me.

Don't drive a rustbucket if you don't have to. 100K is nothing these days. Good luck!

Prometheus · 05-29-07, 02:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accumulator

I've had this sort of thing on a few vehicles and have had it fixed with varying degrees of success.

Sometimes a pro repair will go great. I had some areas like that fixed on the Jag over 15 years ago and they're still fine today. I've had other such rust fixed on other vehicles and it came back

Good shops are hard to find and they aren't cheap. $150 isn't nearly enough for a good fix. I'd try to find somebody *good* who can fix it right and will stand behind his work.

DIY fixes never seem to hold up very well; this stuff is a lot harder than most people think. But if you want to try it again, skip the zinc primer, it never works all that well IME. I *have* had some incredible results with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. I did a quick fix on some similar areas on the Blazer: I ground down the rust, applied a rust converter, then painted over that with Rust Encapsulator. Put some touchup paint over the Rust Encapsulator. This was last summer and I didn't expect it to last very long. But here I am 9-10 months later and the repair is still holding up. That's not really very long in the big picture, but hey, it's a year's worth of improvement for not a lot of work or money.

For areas where you can't get to the rust, I'd coat it with Eastwood's Heavy Duty Anti-Rust or, better yet, AutoInt's rustproofing stuff (forget the name, I got some old MOPAR-label stuff from them when they changed packaging for Daimler-Chrysler).

Links: Eastwood Company Home Page and Automotive International - Valugard Product Line

Was the AutoInt stuff called Aerosol Rust Inhibitor? That seems to be the only thing I can find on their page. As for the body shop, I wish I knew somebody who WAS *good.* There are a half dozen body shops in the town I live in, and I only really trust this one. One of the sucky things living in a town of 11,000 people thats 2+ hours from a town that is any bigger.

Thanks for the help thus far.