Stereorob

had my car up in the air a few weeks back and noticing my undercarriage has rust on it. quite a bit actually. no serious cancer but the rust is there and I know its not going away. I plan on keeping my car for the rest of my life (hopefully) so I probably need to plan for the long haul. is this going to develop into a problem in the near future? Im in florida and bought the car in florida but it spent the first ten years of its life in the rust belt. something else that was a little alarming is I took it into a self serve car wash last weekend and was spraying between the crack where the metal hits the plastic side panels and brown water came out.. (its rusting behind the plastic panels.. ) ****.. like I said nothing seen looking at the car. no evidence of rust anywhere except underneath and the rust water from the side panels, but ive never seen one with SERIOUS cancer with rust holes in the body, bad floors, and hearing things crumbling when closing the door..

anyone got a really bad one?

CELSI0R

I would recommend removing the side plastic rockers, putting the car on a lift, and spraying a rust reformer, such as Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer Spray Paint on the areas where you see rust. At the very least, this will slow down the corrosion quite a bit.

Make sure you mask off areas of the body that are close, so you don't get overspray on the panel paint.

dicer

If theres rust try to remove as much as possible then a converter and paint.

plexus914

Yes, corrosion on rear axle and wheel arch is common. If it is severe rusted then you won't be able to remove all of it. So remove as much as possible corrosion then put some rust encapsulator (I used boiled linseed oil - needs about 3 days to dry - and stays flexible) on it and for final coating some underbody wax.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Came across this video when thinking rust:


A bigger one:

dicer

Wow that is the coolest thing ever, and no mess like media blasting. How much and where do you get one of those?

Stereorob

update..

I was washing my car yesterday and found a rust bubble in the top left corner of the windshield. its about the size of a quarter and popped up fast as it wasn't there last month. I have beautiful paint and it will be hard to blend due to age. ideas??

dicer

Picture would be nice. Has the windshield ever been replaced.

Stereorob

[QUOTE=dicer;9680148]Picture would be nice. Has the windshield ever been replaced.[/QUOT

not sure if the windshield has ever been replaced or not. I don't think it has though. ill take some pics when I get out to the parking lot. car has cancer but wasn't starting to show till now. im planning on keeping it forever, as in till I die and im only 32, I wanted to go as long as possible without having to grind out the rust because it still has beautiful factory paint (pearl) which will be very hard to blend due to age, plus even if I got it repainted, nomatter how good of a job it seems like its never as good as the factory. undercarriage is getting pretty bad. I know theres rust behind the plastic body cladding because if I squirt water in the cracks brown water comes out, but its still not showing. the rust bubble above the windshield is the first visable sign of it. like I said, it was a rust belt car first ten years of its life. even though it was well kept, rust is absolutely impossible to get away from.

it sucks because I never used to see rusty ones, even ones that were absolutely beat to death with paint absolutely scorched by the sun down to the metal, I never saw rust. guess 20 years is the magic number. chemical breakdown in the steel I guess

Stereorob

Pretty sure the windshield is original. Here is the rest Bubble at the top of my windshield. The car is still in excellent condition

dicer

Yeah hard to say. On the older ones the glass said Lexus yours doesn't. If I was to guess that is caused by improper and careless cutting out of the original windshield. Or it could be done at the factory, for sure there is paint missing under that weather strip that allowed that to happen. I know the collision manual for gen 1 mentions brazing if the factory did that no no then all the cars would have galvanic blisters, so I'm guessing its not that. My dad had his truck painted back in the early 70s and where they brazed a hole shut is where the blister started.

plexus914

That windshield is not original equipment or from OEM. OEM would be Asahi Glass Co. aka AGC automotive.

Seen at:
http://www.carwindshields.info/dot_db

DOT177 / L-N SAFETY GLASS S.A.DE C.V. OF MEXACALI / TOLEDO, OH, USA

dicer

The fix ? The windshield comes out so all the rust in that area can be addressed because its started under the weather stripping. And since it was a careless windshield R and R job there is likely more areas on the way to that. Then either you or some expert needs to air brush that small area. Or pay the big bucks for a total paint job using only top quality Urethane with no water base crap paint, and whats even more important is someone that knows how to keep oils from hands off the surfaces to be painted, unlike all the TV shows we see with bare hands pushing cars in paint booths.

Stereorob

I need to get it replaced anyway. theres a rock chip down low that's been there since I got the car but the crack never creeped. plus the old windshield wipers were too old and grazed the glass. hmm.. now I have an excuse to replace it

dicer

Its not a wham bam rip out the old and in with the new windshield. Its take it out and spend a bunch of time fixing rusted areas.