dominb

Does anybody experienced the body corrosion on LS460?
Looks like my car has some signs of it on the rear left quarter panel. I am totally shocked, because this car never had any body repair done.
I see much older Lexus cars around me and they don't have anything like that. I asked Lexus dealer if they can help with this this, but they told me that the rust perforation warranty expired already, and they are not going to cover any cost related to this repair.
I spoke also with two body repair shops. One place told me, that if this is corroded thru, the entire quarter panel needs to be replaced, total cost ~.2.5-3K, the other place told me that they can cut off and replaced only the corroded piece of panel, total cost less than $500. I am kind of concern that if I go with the cheaper method I will have this problem back soon again, because the welded areas can start corroded from the inside out.
Does anyone has idea what to do with this?
Moreover, should I do anything to prevent the body corrosion in other areas of this car? for example inject the corrosion neutralizer in some areas?
Thanks for any suggestions.

Tec80

That doesn't look like more than surface rust. Weird that it is bubbling without any chips that might have let salt water in (like when a hood bubbles due to rock chips). Sanding, treatment with rust converter and touch-up should fix it for less than $200.

greg3852

Never seen that before and my car came from Maine.

dal20402

Ouch. Did you buy the car new? If not, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of minor repair before you bought it. If so, I wonder if it was damaged in transit before you took delivery.

dlbuckls10

I agree. Years ago I had a similar problem on my rear door and I was told it was due to cheap body work.

Gbp

OP, time to talk with your friend, whom you bought your car from.

roadfrog

I have a bit of bubbling corrosion on the fender lip of the passenger side rear quarter panel. I was quoted a couple hundred bucks to repair it.

Doublebase

I've seen that type of corrosion on some vehicles, but not on a LS460. When it's under the paint like that it has gotten into the metal, but I'd go the cheaper route to fix it. Something like that is pretty manageable and can be corrected for a long time. Why spend 3k on something that small and a car that old?

dominb

Thanks for replies
Hopefully this is only the surface rust like "Tec80" said
I am not the first owner of this car, but I know the previous owner, and this car didn't have any body work done before. I am going to schedule the repair and then i will see what is going on. I will keep you posted

dominb

thanks for replay
so how would you repair something like this?
Cut off and replace the corroded piece?
or just grind it down and fill it out with the auto body filler and paint?

Doublebase

Oh Jesus! I don't know, I'm not a body guy, but I assume they'll just grind it down, treat it, fill it, sand it and then paint it.

Once they get through the paint they'll see how bad it is....doesn't look that bad to me. The thing with rust is, once it gets into the paint there really isn't a way to get rid of all of it, and then it just grows like cancer. But you can treat it, and you can mask the problem for years. By then the car will probably be 12 years old and you'll either get rid of it, or repair it again.

It shouldn't cost much just to have it filled and painted (200-400 bucks).

Devh

Most all cars since the early 90s are double galvanized and rarely ever have rust issues unless it had previous repair work where the galvanic coating was compromised. Rust may spread but it will be limited to the body panel. If it gets so bad you can pick up a new used body panel and have a body shop weld it on.

roadfrog

In my case, I may just do the repair myself. I'll grind/sand the area (it's about an inch long), down to bare metal, extending to about a half inch past the rust, then apply an anti-rust primer and paint with several light coats. Because the area is relatively hidden, it'll be good enough until I trade or sell it.

dominb

Are lexus cars double galvanized? I know for sure that some german brand cars are galvanized, that's way BMW, Audi or Mercedes offer 12years warranty for body rust. Lexus and other Japanese brands offers only 6 years.

dominb

In my case the rusted area I more visible so I have to hire someone with experience to do it.