Any fixes for rust in trunk lip?

[Accumulator]

gpshumway- Yeah, I`m all about direct, personal experience

[Accumulator]

Hey, getting back to the original topic of this thread....



I repaired some rust on the lower seam of the left "barn door" on my Tahoe. It was one of those "hopeless cases" where the real solution is to just get a new door shell since you can never get into the area to really fix the rust. Note the scare-quotes around "hopeless case" though



Any expert would say the door was toast though, it`s just one of those things where no repair can be expected to last. I`d even called my paint/body guy about having it done, but then I started thinking about DIYing it. Hey, this thing`s my POS dog-truck and I spend stupid money on it as it is!



So...I ground out the rust as best I could with my Dremel and various diamond burrs. Did a pretty thorough job, spent quite a few hours on it over the course of a few days. Managed to grind out all the rust that I could see, but still....gotta be more that I couldn`t get to, where the panels are folded over and welded. By the time I was finished it was awfully ground-up, but nothing that`d show when the door was closed; luckily, I`d gotten to it just before it spread just a *little* farther to where it *would`ve* been visible.



I treated the area with a product called MetalBlast (best rust remover/etch stuff I`ve ever used) and painted it with RustBullet. Three applications, then sanded a bit and redid the sanded areas with two more. Got it down into the seam as best I could using both brushes and a paint syringe.



Brushed touchup paint on the part that`s visible (oh man did I do a terrible job of this part ).



That was over a year ago, and the Tahoe got *VERY* salty over the winter...like caked-on in this area. A thorough inspection shows that the repair is still doing great. Zero new (visible) rust.



For comparison, the last time I had a shop do a fix like this it started rusting again within six months and was downright awfull after the first winter. That`s why I`d been thinking that the only real fix would be a new door.



Was this the "right" fix? Depends how you look at it. It`s not as good as a new door with proper rustproofing and professional painting, no question about that. But for a *very* inexpensive fix of an area that doesn`t show...well, I`m satisfied. At least for now.



If/when it rots out, I`ll post back...but for now all is well.