[djthecat]

anyone have any tips on what i should do with this rust hole, it is starting to concern me. the rest of the car looks great it looks almost shiny and new except for this part. i love the car it is fun to drive i want to have it for a long time. can anyone recommend any diy method or who to bring it to that is good at dealing with stuff like this?

 

[hatch06]

anyone have any tips on what i should do with this rust hole, it is starting to concern me. the rest of the car looks great it looks almost shiny and new except for this part. i love the car it is fun to drive i want to have it for a long time. can anyone recommend any diy method or who to bring it to that is good at dealing with stuff like this?

If you park outside, for the winter, I'd take a power drill and wire-wheel/brush all that visible rust and loose/bubbled paint, then wipe with some isopropyl alcohol and hit it with Rustoleum rust converter. Get the pinch weld and inner wheel well surfaces as best you can, also.

If you've got a warm garage (or when warmer weather comes), ChrisFix (YouTube) has a rust repair video that happens to be on a 1st-Gen Mazda 3, with accessible DIY methods to get a pretty good result. It'll definitely still rust, but you can do a lot to slow it way down. Unfortunately, you lost a lot of metal there -- ideally, you'd get a substantial patch welded in. If you don't have the money or skill for that, you can still use the principles to slow its spread and make it look half-way decent.

 

[Mike4393]

anyone have any tips on what i should do with this rust hole, it is starting to concern me. the rest of the car looks great it looks almost shiny and new except for this part. i love the car it is fun to drive i want to have it for a long time. can anyone recommend any diy method or who to bring it to that is good at dealing with stuff like this?

How-to Repair a Rust Hole in Your Car

1. Remove the Rust. Before starting, it is essential to remove all of the existing rust. ...
2. Apply Fiberglass Over the Rust Hole. With gloves on the hands, a person must cut fiberglass pieces that will cover the hole. ...
3. Repaint. Apply a primer layer that gives a natural color to the body.

 

[Davids3]

Horrible advice above.

You have extensive damage here that likely involves a lot of metal behind the rusted out panel. The only way to fix this is cut back all the rusted panel until clean metal is achieved. Then cut out all damaged metal inside the panel and fabricate and weld in new metal.

The sad reality is that your car is basically totaled. Start searching for a better one and be prepared to part with this rust bucket

 

[VWandDodge]

Horrible advice above.

You have extensive damage here that likely involves a lot of metal behind the rusted out panel. The only way to fix this is cut back all the rusted panel until clean metal is achieved. Then cut out all damaged metal inside the panel and fabricate and weld in new metal.

The sad reality is that your car is basically totaled. Start searching for a better one and be prepared to part with this rust bucket

You consider that one bad spot as enough evidence to total the vehicle? Seriously?

 

[Davids3]

That spot would cost several thousand dollars to properly fix. Likely the other side, or other parts of the car are affected too but just not showing it yet. So yes it’s totaled in the sense that the repair costs more than that rust bucket is worth.

 

[VWandDodge]

That spot would cost several thousand dollars to properly fix. Likely the other side, or other parts of the car are affected too but just not showing it yet. So yes it’s totaled in the sense that the repair costs more than that rust bucket is worth.

You can tell by that picture with very little detail that the cost of repair would be "several thousand dollars"? Um, OK. Even if it isn't repaired, can you tell the vehicle's structural integrity has been compromised, or are you just spit-balling? (which I bet you are)

 

[hatch06]

That spot would cost several thousand dollars to properly fix. Likely the other side, or other parts of the car are affected too but just not showing it yet. So yes it’s totaled in the sense that the repair costs more than that rust bucket is worth.

You're presuming this one fraction of the car is representative of much more, but the person is telling you that this is the worst rust hole. They can see the whole car. Yeah, there's probably deeper rocker rust, and it's dicey when the pinch weld is getting eaten up, but that can be further assessed and possibly mitigated. I'd say it's foolish to look at this issue with tunnel vision and dump the car because of it -- there's a whole host of other factors to consider.

Fact is, there's plenty you don't know about that specific car, or the person's situation. Why are you so determined to deal in absolutes? That lower rocker is especially susceptible to corrosion on this generation, particularly in salted-road climates, but there isn't an "only way" to remedy it. Yes, one could put hundreds or thousands into an ideal fix -- cutting out all corrosion, welding in new metal, priming, paint matching -- but there's a spectrum of practical repair for older cars in rust-prone regions. There's no binary, black-and-white choice of "thousands of dollars, or junk it". This person could significantly mitigate the spread of that rust with elbow grease and less than $50 (I do that yearly). They could probably get better structural integrity and decent looks for less than $500. In my experience, silver is one of the easier colors to match, and even a $25 paint-matched rattle can will give a result leagues better than what they've got now.

What the person has is a good opportunity to practice inexpensive, DIY rust repair and mitigation methods on an older car, to buy them time. With their next car, they'll be prepared to catch and rectify rust earlier, long before it becomes this large of an issue.