Your tolerance for rust?

[Kurtatron]

I am not attached to my car. It’s old, slow, and starting to rust. I am not sure if I can stand the humiliation of driving around a Swiss cheese mobile with rust holes on the doors. My doors are getting ready to rust open for Christmas at the bottom.
At the same time I am too lazy to spray some kind of protectant in the doors. How much rust are you willing to accept in a car? Could you care less if you could see through the doors via rust holes? I am referring to cosmetics, not structural or safety compromises.
Like the old Dodge Rams with the rotten fenders, would you be ok with that?

 

[Chris142]

Zero. No rusty cars here.

 

[RooflessVW]

Zero body rust.

 

[JC1]

I don't like rust. Rustproof annually and try to fix anything that gets exposed to rust. I see some cars with body panels like that and wonder what else is neglected on those vehicles as well.

 

[ls1mike]

Zero now that I live in Western Washington .

 

[JTK]

I'd have no problem tolerating it provided the vehicle is paid for, still runs and drives reliably and will still pass mandatory yearly inspection.

Problem in the rust belt is, you typically have lots of other problems once you have see through body panels.

 

[AutoMechanic]

As much as I could get before the car actually physically falls apart. I’d fix an old rusty car before I would a new one. I spray my older cars with WD40 it helps prevent a lot of it.

 

[02SE]

I hate rust.

Everything will rust or corrode here, if it's neglected (which most vehicles are). I wash any vehicle as often as necessary to prevent rust getting a start, that travels out onto our salt-encrusted roads. I'd wander out to the road and take a picture, but just imagine a road that is white from all the salt and salt brine which is now dried on it.

 

[simple_gifts]

badge of honor IMHO; my 84 impala was a rolling eye sore; engine and transmission maintained to BITOG standards.

I don't wax or wash my cars or try to return them if there is a scratch.

 

[SHOZ]

My old Accent finally perforated though on one of the rear fenders. I took a couple of cans of spray tar and covered it up for now. But it's my winter car for Illinois. And I plan to drive it until it rust away. Just put in new front suspension parts and hubs in the rear. Runs great at 175k miles. Thinking of getting the rust fixed and a complete paint job......

 

[KGMtech]

I will tolerate a bit of surface rust on a subframe, maybe some scaling too, but NO surface rust allowed on the body. Don't want to cut myself when I wash the car, don't want to look at unsightly rust stains or bubbles. Glad so much of the new cars is plastic or aluminum to keep them looking good longer.

 

[AZjeff]

Moving from NW Rustylvania to Aridzona was like a gift from Heaven. Hated working on old rusty cars and hated what a new car looked like under the hood after 1 winter. Being able to loosen a nut or bolt under a 20 year old car then spin it off by hand is a wonderful thing. I bought a 20 year old Jeep Cherokee when we moved here and was able to turn the 02 sensor out of the bung with my fingers after breaking it loose.

 

[BHopkins]

I can't recall the last car I've owned that had body cancer. It would drive me nuts to have rust on a car. I hear comments about body rust from those of you in the Rust Belt, and I can't relate.

 

[Cujet]

I despise rust with every fiber of my being. It destroys perfectly good cars, and it can't be stopped.

If I lived up North, I'd simply purchase every few years and avoid the drama.

 

[#18FAN]

When you live with it al your life you begin to not even care and even give up washing a car it useless and a waste of time.

 

[DallasTexas]

No here in TX either.

 

[eljefino]

If it passes inspection I'm happy with it.

I don't like paying for body work and my own bondo looks terrible. But I still stay on top of perforations (eg rocker panels) so it doesn't get worse from the inside-out.

I give everything important a Fluid Film once-over. Structural parts, suspension, brake and fuel lines. Cavities up in the strut pockets and body folds that collect sand.

I can still find $500-1000 beaters that aren't too far along, maybe a few-inch hole in a rocker, that I can patch up and drive for a few years. Life goes on, man.

 

[Kestas]

When I was younger with more time than money, I used to stress over rust to the point I did DIY rustproofing for a handful of cars every 3 years. After all prevention is easier than repair. Now I don't do anything. By the time rust gets to it the car's value is around $1000, whether it rusted or not.

I switch cars seasonally. My summer car is nice and stays nice. But I don't expect to get more money for an old car with high mileage when the time comes to sell it because it's rust-free.

 

[LeakySeals]

I have 2 cheap salt cars. The only vehicle I care about hides all winter.

 

[Leo99]

Drive them more so they wear out before they rust out. But I've had good luck in NJ. Never had anything more than a little fender edge rust. Nothing close to a perforation. Back in college my roommate had a 70 something Celica that your feet got wet if the road was wet so he put in a cardboard floor board.