should I be concerned about this?

A

asm505

New member
I was wiping out the inside of my door and noticed around the one bolt it looks like it was over tightened or something and it scraped the paint off and is rusting a little bit. What should I do?[/IMG]



What can be done about this to stop it? I don't really have the money to go to the body shop.
 
Clean the area. Sand off the rust if possible (or get rid of it somehow). Get some matched paint (maybe Duplicolor?) and paint the problem area. Don't make the project bigger than it needs to be.



If it's in the door jam - not too much to worry about appearance wise. The main thing is to keep that metal sealed from water and salt (rust).
 
I'd tweak that advice just a *little* bit- in between sanding the worst of the rust and using the touchup paint, put some rust converter on there to act as a rust neutralizer/sealer and primer. I've had great results with 3M's Rust Avenger. You really do need to include this step to ensure that the rust doesn't come back, usually worse than it was before.



Doorjamb or not (and I'll admit I treat mine the same as I treat the hood of the car :o ) you don't want rust. It spreads and as they say, it never sleeps.
 
Thanks for your responses but I am scared to make the problem worse. My husband tells me that if we take the bolt off to sand it down and touch it up, when we go to put the bolt back on, it will take the paint off again. I don't know what to do. What about using a rust convertor since it is only surface rust?
 
asm505 said:
Thanks for your responses but I am scared to make the problem worse. My husband tells me that if we take the bolt off to sand it down and touch it up, when we go to put the bolt back on, it will take the paint off again. I don't know what to do. What about using a rust convertor since it is only surface rust?
Click to expand...



You might do just fine merely sanding and applying the rust converter (and optionally topping with touchup paint) without removing the bolt.



It's not impossible to replace bolts without disturbing the paint, consider that during manufacture cars are bolted together after many of the panels are painted. Also, there are polypropolene (IIRC) washers you can use to prevent problems like that, I have some for use with powdercoated components, got them from Eastwood.



I'd give it some thought. Some bolts are easy to remove/replace and some aren't. But doing *something* about the rust (sooner rather than later) is a good idea.
 
How old is your car, how long do you intend on keeping it?

Are you looking for perfection or just to cover it up? I will guarantee you that there are far more rust spots on your car that you'll probably never notice that will have more impact that that bolt. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Some good feedback has aready been given above. The touch-up shouldn't be difficult and the suggestion about poly washers is a good one if you're very concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the bolts that make contact with painted panels have cut through to sheet metal to some degree :(
 
My car is a 2001 and I am planning on keeping it for another 3 or 4 years. I need your opinion on a product my husband bought to take care of this. It is by Krud Kutter and it is called "The Must For Rust, Rust Remover & Inhibitor". It is suppost to dissove rust by chemical action. The formulation penetrates into every void of a metal surface and dissolves the rust. Do you think this would work for my situation since it is not a major issue? Thanks again.
 
Hard to say if the Krud Kutter stuff will work as wonderfully as it says it will (they all say things like that and they all basically work the same) but it oughta be fine. Try it and see. Use it as directed and then put some touchup paint over top of it and just keep an eye on it. If the rust comes back you can always try something different/more involved later.
 
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