Has anyone had rust repaired professionally? I have a few rust spots that are temporarily fixed with a rust stop product and touch up paint but they don't look very good and probably will not keep the rust at bay forever and so thought about getting it fixed. Anyone have this done by a body shop? Wondering about the quality and cost.
professional rust repair
- Thread starter joaks
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It depends on the area and the size of the rust really, and the color code on your car, some cars have cheap paint, others are 200 dollars for a pint...
The only way to know is to drive around to 2-3 body shops that you know do quality work and ask for a quote.
JHZR2
Staff member
Cost is way too variable to give any real value.
Cutting out and welding in new metal is key. But the key to a good job is to properly seal the welds and make sure that the backside of the metal is very well protected and coated (often unaccessible after welding, but needs to be done after welding because it will get too hot otherwise).
If its a Subaru,I can imagine where the rust is....upper left or right of the rear wheelwell,at the bumper joint.Thats rust thats not going to stop.Anything you apply over it wont last and the rust will continue.Its a bad area that also effects Hondas and some Toyotas and Hyundais I have seen.There is no repair panel for that.Only option would be to cut it all out (with bumper cover off) and fabricate new metal and Bond it into place (welding will just make it rust again from the inside out).
be very carefull - most shops will NOT warranty rust work. and unless the work is done properly, the rust will return. sometimes within a year.
I did not answer your original question: yes, I have had rust repaired successfully a few times. I have also run into rust that returned that was not repaired properly. find a VERY reputable body shop. some shops wont touch rust work.
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Kestas
Staff member
There is no way a shop can return the car to its original rust resistant condition. I'm talking about the coating in the sheet metal used to make the Class A finish parts. Once the coatings are breached, there is no fixing it to original condition. They can make it <span style="font-style: italic">look</span> as good as original, but it won't be as rust resistant as the original part, and rust will return more quickly.
The rust spots I have: the ones I worry about are one at the windsheild on the top (this has been treated), one on the other side on the roof where the antaena mount is (this has not been treated).
I have one behind the front wheel close to the bottom of the door. This area can look bad and no one will notice. This area has been treated.
It depends a lot on which way it started, from the top through a paint chip, scratch, etc it can usually be media blasted, primed and painted with good success.
If it came from the rear side, usually shows up as a bubble in unbroken paint then its difficult to repair.
The rust needs to be cut out all the way to clean metal, any spots need to be media blasted.
The quality of the repair depends 100% on the guy doing the repair and how conscientious he is. Done right with high quality sheet metal, quality welding and weld seam treatment with proper rustproofing it can be as good as new, done bad it can come back in a short time.
Oh. The stuff on top showed up as bubbles. I suspect it will be difficult/expensive to fix. I will get an estimate at some point but just today a friend was telling me about some paint repair she had a quality shop after a ladder fell on the hood of her car and damaged the paint. Was a couple thousand dollars
Originally Posted By: Kestas
There is no way a shop can return the car to its original rust resistant condition. I'm talking about the coating in the sheet metal used to make the Class A finish parts. Once the coatings are breached, there is no fixing it to original condition. They can make it look as good as original, but it won't be as rust resistant as the original part, and rust will return more quickly.
True enough. when i rebuilt the inner and outer rockers on the GP i bought some sheet metal from a metal fabrication shop, a bit pricey but i left a small piece outside for almost a week naked and it had hardly any surface rust at all.
Another piece from an autobody supply place surface rusted completely overnight.
I use a high grade weld through zinc primer on all the metal before welding, it doesn't burn off.
A badly rotted Toyota rear quarter done this way is still rust free 5 yrs later in n.e. winters, the car was 7 yrs old when i did the repair.
Originally Posted By: joaks
Oh. The stuff on top showed up as bubbles. I suspect it will be difficult/expensive to fix. I will get an estimate at some point but just today a friend was telling me about some paint repair she had a quality shop after a ladder fell on the hood of her car and damaged the paint. Was a couple thousand dollars
You are reading that correctly. That is what I was told anyway.
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