Rust woes

[underscore]

Poking around my car while working on other stuff I found two new rust spots. The first has a plastic trim thing on the outside that's a pain to get off, does the rust look like it's just starting on the inside here or is the outside likely much worse? Is there anything I can to to slow/stop this or am I just looking at having to cut it out and replace the metal at some point?





The second is more urgent, I saw a bit of flakiness and a small hole and ended up finding all this hiding under bondo. I'm not sure how someone managed to damage that spot in such a way that it needed bondo but whatever. I have some rear spats to put on that will at least cover this whole area, so I can at least cut out the nasty parts and hopefully clean/treat the rest to stop it spreading? I'm not sure what to use though.

The other issue here is this goes straight into the trunk area. There's a plastic trim panel inside but it's not sealed and I can already see where dust and dirt has come in from here. I need to figure out an easy way to close this off so crud doesn't make a mess, cause rust in other areas, and moisture doesn't get in and cause mold or something. I can get a bit of access from the inside but I need to come up with something that can fill a big space but won't hold water and make more problems like foam or something would.

[JDMDreams]

What car is this? The fender looks major, need to cut and new panel put in. Is it even worth the effort and $$ or is this a dispensable car

[underscore]

It's my Celica GTFour RC. The car only really has value to me, I don't think it'd be worth a lot to sell and I know proper bodywork is expensive, but I'm also unwilling to replace it with anything else and odds are I'll have this car as long as I can. Either way proper bodywork isn't in the budget right now so I just want to do what I can to slow it down and not cause any other problems until I do have the funds to fix it more permanently.

[trollface]

Cut and weld is the only way to actually fix and stop rust. If it's surface you can grind it away and paint.

[headhunt3r]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but since it's already crap, and your budget is limited, you can check out cheapautobody in Langley. He'll grind out as much as he can, and fix with fiberglass for relatively cheap. It won't be as proper as cut + weld, but it might be what you're looking for.

I got him to fix up some rocker rust that was already bondo'd over and he did a decent job for the money. It's by no means perfect, and I did it knowing that it's a half measure. Then again, cut + weld doesn't guarantee that it wont' rust again in the future either.

[SumAznGuy]

It's hard to say, especially since we don't know the history of the car.
It's not uncommon for JDM cars of that generation to have severe rust in those areas.
Check the other side, you may have rust there as well.
I see snow tires so I assume you drive this car in the snow?

It's possible it was a shitty repair job and water got inside the repairs, it's also possible someone did a cheap and quick fix to cover up the rust to sell the car.

As for now, the best fix is to cut out the old rust and put in new metal.
Best cheap fix is to remove the bondo, grind out as much of the rust, Por15 to keep the rust from coming back or spread. But you may have to bite the bullet and look into how bad the rust is.

[underscore]

The history on the car before I bought it is a little spotty, supposedly it was privately imported and sold in 2007 by a guy from Calgary or Edmonton who was a friend of the owner in Japan, to a guy who didn't really know much about cars who lived in Coquitlam. That guy had it repainted for some reason in 2009, and the shop told him afterwards they had found a little rust (why not before?), which is in a different spot on the opposite side. I've been keeping an eye on that spot and it hasn't changed much since I bought the car in 2011.

Yes I drive it in the snow and dirt, which is why I want to try to patch it up a bit now. Eventually I want to strip it down as much as I can and see what it will take to properly fix all the rust (there's 2 small spots on the opposite side as well), I'm just hoping to prevent letting things get too far gone before I can spend the cash on that though.

[snowball]

Is this a daily? I was in a similar situation a few years ago and have spent 10k fixing up a car that's only worth 3k.

It's only worth it if it's now a summer-only car. I recommend sourcing a whole panel and welding that in far from the rust, just patching it with some metal will be insufficient and a waste of money as the rust will come back.

[teggy604]

you got a pretty decent size rust hole already. Way pass the slowing down phase. Even if you do a temporary fix, its not going to stop the rust. It will only cost you more to fix in the long term. Better to do it now if you really want to keep this car. Once you start stripping the interior out, you will find new rust areas most likely. At that time you can figure out is it really worth keeping this car.

[twitchyzero]

+1 do it right the first time if you're keeping it

[underscore]

Alright so I'll have to do it right eventually, my issue now is what to do until I'm able to get it done. I can't drive it around with a big hole blowing crap into my trunk for the next couple years until I've got the funds to do the work, but I don't want to do something super ghetto like just shoving a bunched up plastic bag in there.

[68style]

Honestly if you just want to stop leakage, I know it’s ghetto but just clean it up/dry it out, buy some metal tape from Home Depot and throw that over it, spray it black and call it a day. Fix it proper when you got some $$$, it’s way too big a hole to do a half ass job on.

Shit is super sticky won’t come off: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/nas...ape/1000179072

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by 68style

Honestly if you just want to stop leakage, I know it’s ghetto but just clean it up/dry it out, buy some metal tape from Home Depot and throw that over it, spray it black and call it a day. Fix it proper when you got some $$$, it’s way too big a hole to do a half ass job on.

Shit is super sticky won’t come off: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/nas...ape/1000179072

Great idea 68.

And don't forget to use Por15 before the tape to keep the rust from getting worse.

[underscore]

That should do the trick. I'm assuming I should cut/clean as much as I can, then Por15, then tape? Or just Por15 it as it sits then tape it?

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by underscore

That should do the trick. I'm assuming I should cut/clean as much as I can, then Por15, then tape? Or just Por15 it as it sits then tape it?

Put the Por15 right over the rust and any other exposed metals.

https://por15.com/pages/faqs#:~:text...0to%20moisture.

POR-15 works because it chemically bonds to rusted metal and forms a rock- hard, non-porous coating that won't crack, chip, or peel. It keeps moisture away from metal with a coating that is strengthened by continued exposure to moisture.

[JDMDreams]

I recall many years ago like 10+, I bought a car with a scraped rear quarter fender that rusted. It was around $1300? To get it fixed and fully colour blended? It looked perfect though and lasted all through my ownership. But it was no wear near as bad as yours needing new metal

[underscore]

Now will Por-15 be a nightmare for welding in new metal later or is it not too bad?

[GIZZ]

POR now won't matter later. If you can get some patch panels you want to cut out all the rust from the car then trim the panel to fit. Having welded panels on my Honda I recommend to bond the new panels in place. Theres less chance of future rust with bonding and zero chance of warping the thin sheet metal.