Pic of weird rust on the car... April 20, 2007, 11:22:43 PM This in a place I've never seen a car rust. It's not serious rust like the left front fender was (that was so bad the fender had to be replaced). It's not even visible rust. I have been picking away at the body work, fixing door dings, stone chips, scratches, etc. The place where the B-pillar is attached to the rocker panel had some slight surface rust, so I decided to sandblast it. In order to do so I pulled the rubber weatherstripping off. When I did so I found some very large surface rust spots under the weatherstripping.But wait. It's not down along the bottom of the door opening like you would expect. It goes from the rocker panel UP almost all the way to the quarter window. I'd have never have noticed it if I hadn't pulled that rubber off, but I have never had any car, and I have owned some serious rustbuckets, develop rust in that spot!Here's a pic: Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #1 – April 21, 2007, 12:38:19 PM That IS bizarre! Wonder if it just didn't have enough paint on it and since the water runs down there from the roof??? Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #2 – April 21, 2007, 03:16:04 PM I changed the pic above to reflect the actual rust, not just where it is on another car.Mike: The paint was plenty thick. I sed it off before taking that pic. The only reason I found the rust at all was because I pulled the rubber off (the rubber is not there in the pic - that's the inner panel you see) to fix the bit of rust you can see in the very bottom of the photo. I thought that little bit of rust was responsible for the rust stains streaking the paint on the rocker panel. Turned out that most of the staining was coming from up higher.Best I can figure is some water got in there and stayed in there. Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #3 – April 21, 2007, 03:40:55 PM Just get it down to bare metal, mask it off and get some paint on there to keep it from rusting anymore. That is the oddest place for rust though. Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #4 – April 21, 2007, 05:49:08 PM the only rust i've seen like that is on a REAL rust bucket.. im talking no floor rusted out. its crazy! i bet the rubber seals went bad and trapped water in there and it just ate at it.... did this car serve any time in a field or musty damp garage for a long time? thats the ONLY explaination i can come up with at all. Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #5 – April 21, 2007, 06:07:50 PM That is odd. Now you have me thinking about checking mine out.I've noticed some water occasionally getting into my car in heavy rains. Not through the moonroof like you'd expect, that has never leaked but through the tops of the doors. It seems easy for water to get in there so like you said, it must have just settled in. 19 years of water settling there would surely lead to rust. Quote Selected
Pic of weird rust on the car... Reply #6 – April 21, 2007, 06:15:27 PM Quote from: cougrrr302;141824Just get it down to bare metal, mask it off and get some paint on there to keep it from rusting anymore. That is the oddest place for rust though.That's the plan -I will sandblast it, treat it with a rust inhibitor to get anything the sandblasting misses, prime it, and paint it. Since it's hidden under the rubber seal I'm not even gonna bother putting any bodyfill in it to smooth it out.Quote from: Autocat;141844the only rust i've seen like that is on a REAL rust bucket.. im talking no floor rusted out. its crazy! i bet the rubber seals went bad and trapped water in there and it just ate at it.... did this car serve any time in a field or musty damp garage for a long time? thats the ONLY explaination i can come up with at all.That's the funny thing - this is a 65k mile car with a virtually rust-free body. Up until I drove it in the winter last year (had no choice, I blew the engine in my DD and needed transportation) there was not so much as a speck of rust anywhere on the car. That one winter did some damage though - it caused the left fender to start blistering. Once I started stripping the blistering paint I found holes, so I replaced the fender. It also caused some surface rust inside the rear wheel openings, but that was an easy fix (strip/treat/prime/paint) since it was only minor.Now that I think of it, I do have a theory about that rust inside the door jamb, though: Not last winter, but the two winters before it, we had lots and lots and lots of snow. The car was completely buried for much of both winters (I did not have a garage then). Worse, the way the car was situated in the driveway the snow drifted up against the right side. I shoveled it away from the left side because I had to to be able to walk by, but the snow stayed on the right side all winter. F'rexample, you can see how the snow is on the right side of the car in this pic, where I had cleared it off just enough to open the hood: Quote Selected