Roof rust
 

Okay this has gotten bad enough for me to finally do something about it. Either fix it or sell the car. Car is a 1992 SC300, 5 speed, 94,000 original miles, in beautiful shape. Other than the rust the paint is perfect, there isn't a door ding on the car. Other than this one spot of rust, there isn't any. Underneath the car is clean as a whistle, 1st owner never drove it in winter and I live in the south. Interior is great as well, all the leather feels soft, no stains, rips or anything. I'm the 2nd owner, always garaged until I bought it in 2012, since then it sits under my carport.

Anyways its rusting right along the leading edge near the windshield. At some point in the car's history, it had a new windshield put in, I'm thinking it was 10-15 years ago, I have the reciept(and every other service document for the car). The joker who put the windshield in either broke the paint or put in the wrong seal, put in a cheap seal that trapped water, well anyways, now I have this problem, see the pictures. It isn't leaking, and hasn't gotten MUCH worse over the past year, but I'm starting to see the rust pop up in a couple of new spots along the windshield lip, meaning that the whole seal and metal is going bad along the whole top of the windshield.

http://i67.tinypic.com/11i0ht4.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/2elchtv.jpg

Anyways, I've been quoted almost $2k(three different places quoted me $1800 or $1900, a couple said they wouldn't even do it). Problem is once you grind out the rust, you of course primer, repaint the white, then the pearl, then the clear on the part you ground on at that leading edge of the roof. The problem is, and this is why it is so expensive, is that you basically have to repaint the clear coat on the whole roof and both rear quarter panels. There is no body line break for them to quit painting at on this car, the roof flows into the d-pillar which flows into the quarter. All of the body shop guys told me that if you were to just fade the clear coat out into the existing paint it wouldn't hold up, it would start flaking off.

Anyways, I need advice on how to fix this. Been thinking about selling the car as well and letting the next owner deal with it, as it just isn't the same now that it wouldn't be 100% original body and paint. Plus I don't want to spend $2k and have this come back or the body shop screw up the color and not have it match, etc.

Let me know if you think the cheaper route of taking the windshield out, grinding the rust out, and then just blending the clear into the roof is a good idea. I know one guy quoted me $800-900 to do it that way, but he didn't put it in writing.

Just have them fade it.... it's BS them saying it will flake off. Lol, maybe in another 20 years. Speaking from personal experience. Spot painting it it won't be 100 percent perfect, but on a pearl white you gotta repaint entire car for it to look perfect, painting just quarters, the color won't match with the doors or bumper anyway. These are the consequences of buying a used car that had windshield replacement.... seen this way too many times. You're lucky it took this long for the rust to come. In the north, it would have started rusting in a couple of years.

Strip the paint along the edges of that windshield so you see how much damage or rust there is , That will dictate the correct repair to be done and whether the windshield has to be taken out. Got to be done right or the rust will just be back .The bulging paint would be the worst rusted area. Usually there would be more which is just covered by the paint. That is why we compare rust to cancer , looks good outside but inside the metal is being eaten by rust.

Do the repair if you are planning to keep the car for a long time cause that's money down the drain you will never get back. Other option , sell it and just inform the buyer about it and let him deal with it. It's a 5speed so it still has a good market value .

My had the same thing....eventually it did bubble up....and I had to chip away the paint..it was only surface rust.....it didnt eat away metal yet

I tried to do whole roof with plastidip...but didnt like the look....

I just did a temp fix....chipped away the paint in affected area....and sanded surface rust and sealed it with some clear....but I dont drive my car in rain or snow....etc....so not a concern of it continuing to rust for me

Best thing to do would remove upper windshield molding....and clean it up and have it sealed....and either wrap roof with vinyl or have it painted again.

Attachment 418742

Oh the windshield is coming out if I do this repair, rust is getting ground out. I just thought it was overkill to have to repaint half of the car for this problem.

A good body man/painter should be able to do a blend at the rear window pillar with no problem as these base coat clear coat urethane paints can be used very similar to the old lacquer type paints.

My windshield was replaced a year before I bought it (2000). The car came from Omaha, NE-the Rust Belt.
I think Lexus used the Glue from Hell and installers had to pry and tear the windshield out of our cars. The Rust is slow growing.
And Rust breaks the glass.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...8c0cb9c54e.jpg

Safelite told me they would remove the glass and I could do the Rust repair and they would put in a new windshield. My Paint is Royal Jade Mica.
I'm grinding the Rust and using POR15.
What does the windshield trim pieces cost?

See post #10 of our build thread here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/bui...ml#post9400979

Basically I just took the glass out, ground it all down, put rust treatment on it and body filler and paint. Ours was very, very bad, and after I finished with it you couldn't really tell it was ever an issue. After getting it all fixed we vinyl wrapped the roof black rather than get it repainted for now. Looks pretty good I think.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...b45fb1885e.jpg

I own windshield business this is very common and repairable yes you might have to paint the whole roof because it has to be blended but you can stop the rust. Find someone to pull the windshield out, you will have to grind down the pinch weld the rust started behind the molding. Prime and eventually paint but stop the rust.

I usually charge $150 for the remove and reinstall the old glass, there is always a chance of it breaking on extraction but 95% i am able to save it. Then the pinch is grinded down to bare metal primed with only sika products. If someone is charging 800 dollar that is nuts.

That's one reason I will not let other people work on my stuff, they always rush. I'm happy to say what would take them 1 hour to do may take me a week or more, But I wouldn't mess it up. If it was mine I'd remove the windshield and NOT use POR, and do the prep and then air brush spot the area, I'd first find someone that could match the color, there is a tool that can match it very close. It would be better to sand it well then etch it then epoxy primer, and the color and clear. Yeah really too bad on a super nice condition car. So is it a Lexus windshield in it? If not then some goof messed it up.

I'm in the same boat and am wondering if it's worth the repair. My driver side has a tiny hole the size of a pinky nail

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...039b710448.jpg

You're not in the same boat.... You WERE in the same boat as the OP about ten years ago when you should've taken care of the rust when it started. Now you need a complete roof replacement. There's no fixing that. I guarantee you, if you visit 10 of the most reputable bodyshops in Chicagoland, they will all tell you that cannot be patched up. Something that far gone needs to be completely cut out and a new section welded in. RUN from any place that tells you otherwise.

So how exactly does this form bad windshield job, or clear coat cracking then water getting under? I see it in the same spots on so many SC's.

If you're talking about the last picture posted in the thread, that's not even an SC. That's a 2GS.

But yes, 100% of the time that is from a bad windshield install. Too many hacks out there. This does NOT happen to cars with factory glass that was not messed with. Always the result of either a bad glass install or bad bodywork (in case the car was repainted or was stripped down to metal in that section for whatever reason and not treated properly).