I took my car to a local body shop to see about getting my front bumper repainted and the guy noticed a problem!

It appears that my rear driver side quarter panel was replaced at some point. He said that it was some of the best work he has seen so I guess thats why the guy I paid $250 to check out my car before buying it didnt notice.

Anyways, he pointed out some bubbling under the paint. I dont know how I never noticed seeing as it is just inside the driver side door about half way up the frame and goes a little under the rubber door seal. There is also a small amount of bubbling on the outside of the car a little ways down between the back side window and the rear window. He said that type of paint bubbling is the metal rusting under the paint.

So......how bad is this? Im going to put a little mark on it so that I can see if it is slowly spreading. Is it a minor annoyance that will need to be replaced some day? Or is it a major problem?

I got a good deal on the car and can most likely sell it for a profit. So that may be my best option if this is a huge expensive problem.

 

From my experience rust is like cancer, it will only spread and get worse. If you can get it fixed now then do it, otherwise don't dump a ton of money into this car because you may want to sell it in the future if the rust poses a significant problem.

 

Yep, jump on it now before this small problem gets to be a huge problem. It'll also cost you less now since you will have it at the body shop to have the bumper done so the paint will already be mixed and ready to go. Kill two birds with one stone.

 

I agree, I had an old Toyota Camry that had the same thing start on the front quarter panel. It was the origional factory panel with origional paint and it just started out of the blue. Got very bad after just 1 year.

 

There are a few products that you spread over the rust problem areas and it stops the rust dead in its tracks. This would be a good TEMPORARY idea because wherever you cover up rust on the outside of the car where it's visible, there's a good chance there's rust on the same panel in an area that you can't get to. I wish I could remember the names of the products I've used. Sorry, man. Good luck with the rust, though!