Stopping the growth of the rust

[Nick1994]

Well I bought my Camry in late November, the guy I bought it from said about a year before he had it repainted. It's quite obviously a cheap Maaco paint job and I'm pretty sure they just painted right over the rust. The car is from Colorado. It seems the rust has bubbled a little more since I bought it, and I imagine the wheel well will need to be cut out and replaced. It actually feels solid and doesn't feel rotted at all on the backside/ inner lip. It also looks like they spread bondo on the rocker panels, not sure if they were hiding anything there or what. The rest of the car such as underside, other wheel wells and everywhere else has NO rust whatsoever, not even a hint.

Being from Phoenix where cars could literally be driven for 100 years (with a few engine and tranny transplants) and they would never see a spec of rust, they don't sell your guys rust treatment like Fluid Film and that kind of stuff. It's not some fancy car, just my daily driver halfway decent good on gas partial beater. I'd rather it just not rot completely out.

Pictures are of the LR wheel well, LR door corner, left side corner with trunk open by the brake light, and the left side rocker panel. The passenger side is flawless. To be honest I've sprayed it several times with Liquid Wrench just for some oily stuff on there.

Any ideas?

 

[jcwit]

I had a few bubbles, nothing near what you show, on a used Fd Escort I bought 5 years ago and stopped dead with Fluid Film.

At least it worked till the valve seat dropped 3 weeks ago.

 

[jrustles]

Surprising to see that on a desert car. Mine was just a little worse from a life in Canada.

I use Rust Check products, one is a cherry scented penetrating oil (Fluid FIlm equiv perhaps?) and the other part is a "Coat & Protect" Which is sticky, but WORKS.

 

[spasm3]

Its a lot worse behind the panel than what you see, thats a lot of rust. That car looks like it was in ny or nj before colorado. In my opinion there is too much rust to be worth trying to fix, its achieved beater status.

 

[dave123]

Run it not worth the time or effort

 

[Nayov]

I'm scratching my head as to why you bought that thing when you live in the auto paradise of Arizona. The amount of rust it has actually is above average for that vintage here in Maine.

Anyway, what i've done to nurse a rust spot was to soak it with WD-40 weekly or so, and it worked surprisingly well at halting the rust (for years!).

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted By: jcwit
I had a few bubbles, nothing near what you show, on a used Fd Escort I bought 5 years ago and stopped dead with Fluid Film.

At least it worked till the valve seat dropped 3 weeks ago.
Sounds like my Mom's 1.9 Tracer wagon-90K of easy miles, no rust nor body damage, then one morning, bye-bye motor. And people wonder why I'm not a Ford fan...

 

[Trav]

Thats a lot of damage, a big repair job that goes half way up the quarter panel and the dog leg is toast.
Once you get all the bondo off and rust cut out you wont have much to work with.

It sounds like the rocker panels maybe gone also. Unless you are good with a mig welder and body work i would seriously consider unloading this thing.

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Originally Posted By: jcwit
I had a few bubbles, nothing near what you show, on a used Fd Escort I bought 5 years ago and stopped dead with Fluid Film.

At least it worked till the valve seat dropped 3 weeks ago.
Sounds like my Mom's 1.9 Tracer wagon-90K of easy miles, no rust nor body damage, then one morning, bye-bye motor. And people wonder why I'm not a Ford fan...


My 1995 Escort have lived it's entire lifetime in Maryland and I park it outside and drive it in the winter and it has way less rust than that. Once you get passed the whole dropped valve seat, the car is actually pretty good. If you go to http://www.feoa.net there is plenty of help to get you past that if you are interested.

 

[Turk]

Is Fluid Film as good/better/worse than Amsoil HDMP (Heavy Duty Metal Protector)??

 

[jcwit]

Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Originally Posted By: jcwit
I had a few bubbles, nothing near what you show, on a used Fd Escort I bought 5 years ago and stopped dead with Fluid Film.

At least it worked till the valve seat dropped 3 weeks ago.
Sounds like my Mom's 1.9 Tracer wagon-90K of easy miles, no rust nor body damage, then one morning, bye-bye motor. And people wonder why I'm not a Ford fan...


My 1995 Escort have lived it's entire lifetime in Maryland and I park it outside and drive it in the winter and it has way less rust than that. Once you get passed the whole dropped valve seat, the car is actually pretty good. If you go to http://www.feoa.net there is plenty of help to get you past that if you are interested.


I got past the valve seat with a Pontiac Vibe from AZ in cherry condition.

And to stay on topic its getting Rust Check next month. Undercarriage looks as good as the body, obviously never saw an Indiana winter.

 

[Tzu]

I live in the rust belt and if you start scraping the rust, your going to have decent sized holes in the body. Once rust starts, it is hard to stop. Fluid film or Carwell spray may slow it down, but some areas that are rusting badly might be hard to reach without long spray wands. There has to be tons of rust free used cars living in a desert. The repaint with bondo (fiberglass) would make me nervous.

 

[eljefino]

Don't do anything. Don't get emotionally attached. Trade it in during a rainstorm at night, if you ever get those.

 

[expat]

Yes, it's bad!
You could put a lot of effort into getting back to bare metal, Acid cleaning, priming, filling, painting etc. But that still won't be the end of it.

Drive it to death, sell it, squirt oil at it on a weekly basis.
But just don't get attached to it (financially.)

It has Cancer!

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: expat

Drive it to death, sell it, squirt oil at it on a weekly basis.
But just don't get attached to it (financially.)

It has Cancer!


Lol this car will be well maintained, but not over the top. I plan to drive it to 250k (if it makes it) and then sell it and find something nice. This car is just a tool, just transportation. It's ugly, slow, aside from the bits of ugly rust the interior is nice and it's got new struts so it drives pretty nice.

 

[JHZR2]

Sorry to see that... Painting over rust without any real prep (preferably cutting it out, welding new metal in and rustproofing the backside) will do that.

Nothing is going to help but cutting with a multi-thousand dollar job. Sorry...

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Don't do anything. Don't get emotionally attached. Trade it in during a rainstorm at night, if you ever get those.


This. It's not like it is going to get worse really fast, like up here. Just let it die in a few years, decent chance something else will take it out if service.

Seems like McMaster Carr had a good price on FF last I looked. They don't call it FF but it is.

 

[Papa Bear]

What year Camry is it?

Why would someone in AZ buy a used snow area car??!!

The best used cars come FROM Phoenix .. not TO Phoenix.

Just drive it and tell folks your uncle in Detroit gave it to you ...

DO NOT try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

 

[Nick1994]

I bought it because it was a decent price, ran good, and the previous owner spent $2,200 6 months before getting it new suspension and some other stuff.

 

[dishdude]

You can do nothing as long as it stays in Phoenix, and other than the paint fading it will look exactly the same in 10 years.

Take that same car into the rust belt and after 2 winters you'll have a real mess on your hands no matter what you try and do to stop it.