Wow $1700 is brutal. How much was one door skin?

 

yeaha, cdnguy,
I don't think I'm gonna go as far as replacing the door, might just sell it and upgrade to an LS 460.

 

the stock panels are pretty rust resistant. I got hit by a pos who had no insurance in my 1996 avalon about 6 years ago. The quarter panel is destroyed and ive never done anything to fix it, and I almost never wash that car. After 6 years outdoors in Chicago its still surface rust on the parts that were bare metal before. It aint spreading on the stock zinc coated metal. No bubbles in the paint.

 

No rust here in KY. My LS430 was garaged for 6 years, but I've had to move other vehicles in the garage since then. I just keep it well polished, and no problems.

Sorry to hear about your LS430 man!

 

The door skin was $345 here in Canada. He showed me the old skin, and we were both thankful that we had gone the "new skin" route - there was rust at each rivet hole for the side molding, and all along the bottom of the door. I was also getting some rust around the rear license plate (!), and where the "cover" for the rear license plate lights touches the trunk. Because these are two separate pieces, they were rubbing, and hence the opportunity to chafe away protective paint. Anyway, it now looks new again, but as I say, disappointing. One other thing they fixed for me, was my driver's window - which creaks, and moves slowly - especially in the winter. According to my mechanic, this is common in the LS430 - the rubber ages over time (don't we all!) and becomes less slippery in the channel for the window to slide, and hence the slowness. He silicone sprayed the channel, which seemed to help.

 

Good thing too, 'cause bullet holes from drive-bys rust pretty quickly

 

I know this is an old thread but I have the Exact same issues as you...License plate, doors, etc.
I am looking at replacing the doors. What was the outcome of yours? Did the door skins hold up?

 

I will never ever ever buy any Chicago car. Missouri, Ohio, Mass etc I might take chances on, but Chicago cars for some reason are just brutally assaulted due to the sheer volume of snow and salt that they get hit with there. It's so bad that I feel like even when it just rains during the spring latent salt gets kicked around on the road because I've seen near exotic sports cars no one in their right mind would drive in the Winter that still had rusty components underneath in Chi-town. I remember I once pissed off a salesman at Arlington Lexus in Chicagoland because we had been going back and forth on this particular LS400 which he promised me was perfectly garage kept and had zero rust on it. Well, it certainly didn't pass my test when I got there and looked along the stamped metal underneath. Then I looked at other cars there trying to capitalize on the trip, and every single one was just brutalized underneath. Looked at some QX4s that if I had stepped on the running boards, they would have broken in half.

I think Chicagoans are used to either replacing their cars every 3 to 4 years, or just have a higher tolerance for it. But always keep the rust factor in mind when you're looking at a car in Chicago and you will be traveling to get it. Luckily I was only 300 or so miles away so it was just a drive there and back. I've had good luck with northern and central FL cars, TX, AZ and TN etc.

 

Any pictures of the effected area?

 

Sounds like a defective paint area. I have 180k on my LS and no rust to speak of. Ben a daily driver in the winter. I liked the post about the bullet holes though. I lived in Bishop Cali for 4 years they get like 2-3 inches of rain a year, simply amazing the underbodies looked perfect. Now bushings rubber mouldings and paint took a beating though.

 

I went to a car show in MN recently and was absolutely astonished by the car culture up there. I can confidently say it's bigger than even some places in Cali and elsewhere in the South. They literally lock up their good stuff for several months out of the year and drive beaters the rest of the time, then they do it all over again in the Spring. Some amazingly clean stuff there.

 

It's not just salt, salt+moisture causes rust. Here in NM, they salt the roads (salt+crushed volcanic pumice mix), but it's so dry that you just see dried salt caked on cars w/o any rust. Humidity here averages around 10% year 'round. It's odd, but it's like having a cold drink with ice cubes in the glass and the outside of the glass is cold but completely dry.

 

Sorry for the late reply - but yes - the new door skins are great - no problems at all. They're OEM - so I'm not expecting any problems going forward.

 

Same here in Vegas. Dry desert climate no salt. My 2005 LX 470 is a Vegas vehicle since new and it is rust free. I would not want to buy a used rust belt vehicle, they are now using salt on roads in all the states that get snow.

 

It's funny I just came upon this thread. I recently bought an '02 UL with 68k miles and actually, all 4 doors had rust along the belt moldings and behind the mirrors. I live in Hawaii and obviously we have a lot of salt in the air, but needless to say I was disappointed. I only was able to notice a small area on the left rear door, right below the belt molding, at first. The majority of the rust was actually under the belt molding near the rear. I figured we better check all the doors and sure enough, all 4 doors had rust either in the area that the mirrors mount to, or under the belt moldings. In any case, I figured it was time to do a complete re-spray since 3/4 was already disassembled . Car looks like new again