bits-o-rust

J

jedovaty

New member
I bought a used non-california car. Paint chips are known and expected, however, over the last several months have noticed these paint chips look like a little surface rust is there (color is rust-brown). The top of the car has a small, dime-sized spot that looks like clear coat failure (it's a 16 year old car).



My options appear as follows:

1. do nothing

2. paint the largest chips (about 12)

3. paint all the chips (easily over 100)

4. repaint the car



I'm not sure what's the best option here. Thoughts? Experiences? Words of wisdom?
 
I was faced with a similar situation regarding an old car that I still to this day hold near and dear to my heart (no idea why, lol). It has severe cc failure and many times I contemplated painting it, but my rational mind kept telling me it wasn't worth the hassle and cost. The paint job probably would have cost more than the car is worth.



I'd say if you can live with the damage, and hopefully it doesn't spread, just work on the paint chips and leave it at that. Just what I would do.



Best of luck!
 
Other than the rust, this sounds kinda like the '93 Audi I got recently. I'm *NOT* doing anything about the cc failure at this point and I'm sure not in a hurry to put a $10K paintjob on a $5K car ;)



I wonder how the acidic portion of a decon system would work on the surface rust that's apparently started in the chips.



I had some to-the-metal chips in the hood of my Jag for about 20 years (until my painter decided he couldn't stand them and touched them up). They'd sometimes get a bit of surface rust started in them, but all I ever did was polish them a bit by hand (with regular, mildly abrasive, car polish) and wax them They never got significantly worse and the rust never got serious...after a few years they just didn't bother me any more and I started thinking of them as "patina" from the car having actually been used like a real vehicle.



So *I* sure wouldn't sweat the chips in this case either, at least not unless they somehow got alarming.



If any of them are really significant, I'd consider some very careful abrading to remove most of the rust, followed by treatment with a rust converter...maybe followed by some touchup paint. But I wouldn't go crazy trying to touch up every one of 'em, even though I'm sure there are people here who'd be all over that.



I can see putting a bit of clear on that dime-size spot, but eh...I haven't bothered doing that on my Audi and it hasn't gotten any worse that I've noticed. When I first detailed the car for the original owner back in '08 I did a tiny bit of wetsanding around the rough edges of the worst areas of cc failure, where I feared the paint was gonna chip/peel/etc. some more making the problem areas worse. I just "feathered" them in and then compounded so it was a smooth transition into the surrounding OK paint. Yeah, that did make the problems a bit bigger/"worse" in one sense. Since then I've just kept the whole car well detailed, including keeping the LSP healthy, and it seems to be the same as it was back then.



I'd really just prioritize keeping the car clean and well-waxed. Dirt will retain moisture, which will promote worse rusting.
 
I'd first figure out what sort of condition would make you happy as an owner and work back from there. If all the spots are going to make you ill everytime you see the car, paint it. If you just want to stop it from getting worse, get a fiberglass pen, clean out the rust, treat and paint the big spots and watch the others.
 
Hmm, the car is worth more than a decent paint job, even if I spent a grandoise amount to results I'd be happy with. I don't think I'd be happy with a "decent" paint job, if I'm spending money, it'd have to be really good.



My biggest concern lays with the rust.. I don't know if it's a problem I should address now, since I've never had to deal with it.



And final item is whether of not a really good paintjob is actually worth it on a car that has these chips and rust issues. Of course, it's my decision to make, and I'm probably making a much bigger deal out of the rust than it really is.. :D
 
jedovaty- Any way you could post some pics of the worst of it? I can't help but think that things aren't as dire as you'd expect, but it's jus a wild guess without seeing what's going on.



My beater-Blazer had a lot of rusty chips and some areas of geniune rust concerns. I did a really half-@$$ed job with rust converters/rust sealer paints/touch up paint and things worked out incredibly well. I sold it to my painter's son (also a paint/body guy) a few years ago, and he's so satisfied that he's never bothered fixing it "right".
 
A little rust converter on the ones with rust followed by touch up paint and a road rash kit for the tons of little ones. Polish it up and live in peace!
 
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