Rust

[daves87rs]

Damn GM and their fit and finish!

Anyways, I've been cleaning up my cars this week, and I noticed the wife's Cavalier is growing some rust underneath the doors...(sad, because the car still looks good on the outside) I don't plsn to do a huge repaint or anything, but I do not want the doors to rust further.

I was thinking about sanding and putting on some Por, and calling it a day.

I was wondering if you guys have any good ideas....

[A Horse With No Name]

POR...good stuff.

That and move to Alabama and you should be all set.

Didn't you say something about needing to move because your neighborhood was rough? Here's your excuse. I think I hear Birmingham calling...

Chris

[Sixty8panther]

Sounds like a good plan!

[Robert Hall]

A friend of mine in NE Ohio back in the day would use duct tape covered with bondo on rusty door bottoms. Worked on rockers also, though there he would put layers of cardboard behind the duct tape.

[Cory Wolfe]

The Sunfire is starting to rust around the openings... fuel door, door sills, etc.

[A Horse With No Name]

Seriously, if the doors rust out 5 years from now, the rest of the car is prob. not far behind.

It's a Cavi...get your use out of it and move on to a Cruze or an HHR. Your wife and your son will enjoy the upgrade in a few years.

Chris

[daves87rs]

Seriously, if the doors rust out 5 years from now, the rest of the car is prob. not far behind.

It's a Cavi...get your use out of it and move on to a Cruze or an HHR. Your wife and your son will enjoy the upgrade in a few years.

Chris

Funny you say that...even her rocker panels are still in good shape....besides the doors, the car looks pretty good...it's strange.

Wifie wants a plastic Vue...hopefully the resale will help her get a nice one...05-07 I'm guesing.....

Cruze will be for me... Then the Cobalt will be the winter beater.....

[daves87rs]

Sounds like a good plan!

Which one? Por? Moving? Cavaliers?

[Daryl Z71]

Yea the freakin road salt around here is a PITA.

[A Horse With No Name]

Yea the freakin road salt around here is a PITA.

...but Cavi's do make great winter beaters. My friend Matt used one as a winter beater for years...that car would run through anything!

Chris

[Intrepidation]

If the rockers are still solid odds are rust isn't a huge issue. You can always take it to a shop, have them put it on a lift, and inspect it for yourself to be sure.

There's hints of rust starting to show on the inside of my doors, but I'm not concerned since I plan to have the car repainted within a year.

[daves87rs]

...but Cavi's do make great winter beaters. My friend Matt used one as a winter beater for years...that car would run through anything!

Chris

That they do...

[vonVeezelsnider]

Damn GM and their fit and finish!

Anyways, I've been cleaning up my cars this week, and I noticed the wife's Cavalier is growing some rust underneath the doors...(sad, because the car still looks good on the outside) I don't plsn to do a huge repaint or anything, but I do not want the doors to rust further.

I was thinking about sanding and putting on some Por, and calling it a day.

I was wondering if you guys have any good ideas....

Oh that's nothing. I just noticed a rust spot on the trunklid of the Impala... which has been garaged pretty much every day of its life and driven sparingly in winter.

[Sixty8panther]

Rust is exactly like cancer.

It never sleeps, and once it appears it's always an uphill battle getting it under control.

[A Horse With No Name]

Exactly, sixty eight.

BTW, how are you doing?

Chris

[Sixty8panther]

Exactly, sixty eight.

BTW, how are you doing?

Chris

As a friend likes to say:

Busier than a lesbian in hardware store.

I'll post an update soon.

[A Horse With No Name]

Hopefully your restoring that pre-WWII car you've been dreaming of...

Chris

[daves87rs]

Oh that's nothing. I just noticed a rust spot on the trunklid of the Impala... which has been garaged pretty much every day of its life and driven sparingly in winter.

Ouch!

[ocnblu]

Rust on the bottom inside of the doors usually means the drain holes have been clogged for a long time. I'd get down there, see if they are clogged, and if so, use a small screwdriver to open them, then take a hose and direct water up into the holes and watch them for good drainage, then do your POR thing, otherwise, do nothing. '94 and up Ram pickups are horrible for this, the bottom of the doors on those trucks rot away. Also, Ford 500 and Mercury Montego, there's a rubber seal at the bottom of the doors. On the rear door, when the door is closed, the seal is pushed against the drain holes, plugging them shut. Customers remark about hearing water sloshing around somewhere. We open the rear door, just hold the seal away from the drain hole and get deluged with like a half gallon of water. I predict a lot of those doors rusting out in the next few years because of inattentive owners.

Otherwise, yup, Sixty8 is right, rust is an unstoppable force, like Chuck Norris.

[A Horse With No Name]

...and really for a daily driver aren't that much to worry about. Chances are, the car will be much Hotter, Flatter, and more Crowded (to paraphrase a popular book title) in about 5 years anyway.

Amazing how some cars rust and others don't. I've seen identical Jettas lead identical lives...one car looks like a 4 month old car from Arizona, one will get you wet when you drive it through a big puddle because the floors/doors/firewall/every other metal part pretty much is an order of magnitude rustier than DF's Shadow. And I'm not making this up.

Sitting in a local junkyard...saw a poor Olds 98 From the 70's...rusted so bad that I could put my fist through the C pillar. Amazing. And then a 67 Olds that had been an Ohio car sitting not far away...ran my fingers alongside the rear quarters, under the doors...pretty much seemed like a car from the dry Southwest.

Go figure.

Chris