my rustic protege 5

[daniel]

I've got myself some rust issue that's driving me nuts lately. It's gone from barely noticeable to this in a couple of months.
The bottom of the car is nothing but rust. But I mostly just see this spot on both sides of the car, which is a somewhat common issue with older cars, especially mazdas, but especially mazda protege5.

I took it in for a quote today, and the paint job was estimated at about 7k and I'm not willing to pay 1/4 of it...
My plan was to sand it and do as much of prep as I can, and get someone that has a good paint gun and knows how to use it to do the rest.

Is there a way I can fix + paint the body rust for under $1000?

2012-05-15T22-32-18.jpg
2012-05-15T22-31-59.jpg

[Bob K]

It kind of looks like the rust is coming from the back side of the metal so sanding the front side won’t help. You can do it but the rust will be back in a short time. To fix it you need to cut out the rusty metal and replace it with new metal and get it sealed up so water and salt don’t get back there again.

Bob K

[style]

I've got myself some rust issue that's driving me nuts lately. It's gone from barely noticeable to this in a couple of months.
The bottom of the car is nothing but rust. But I mostly just see this spot on both sides of the car, which is a somewhat common issue with older cars, especially mazdas, but especially mazda protege5.

I took it in for a quote today, and the paint job was estimated at about 7k and I'm not willing to pay 1/4 of it...
My plan was to sand it and do as much of prep as I can, and get someone that has a good paint gun and knows how to use it to do the rest.

Is there a way I can fix + paint the body rust for under $1000?

2012-05-15T22-32-18.jpg
2012-05-15T22-31-59.jpg

is it just the pic or has that panel already been worked?

[piper]

I agreed with Bobk cut all the bad junk out and replace it! is that pic. a ford, every ford I ever owned did the same thing.
I live in new england so rust is something I know about. man the about of salt they dump on the roads up hear
is sickening!!!!!
Back to the rust( Personel opin.) clean it up as best you can , and trade it in ..... unless you do the work yourself it seems awfull lot of $ to send on a couple of rusty areas..

[daniel]

I thought there was enough metal to sand down to, protect from rust, and paint to last about 2-3 years.

[daniel]

If I decide to give up on it, anything I do to at least slow down the rate of it rusting?

[piper]

I guest you can grind out as much as you can and try to repaint. seems like the pros are right trying to repair a small area like the one in the pic would be a bitch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!8)

[James M]

I agree with Style, that area has already been mudded up. (bondo'd). It could have been done due to some previous collision damage or the area was rusting before and someone took the cheap easy (but very temporary) route to hid the existing rust by covering up the rust damage with body filler. Why would a shop quote you $7,000 for a paint job when only the quarter panel dogleg is rusty ?

[daniel]

Thanks for the replies,

The body is, as far as I can tell, original. The douche I bought it from covered up the rusty part with a bit of spray paint, and claimed it was rust free. (I should have inspected it better, mea culpa)

I don't see any bondo work there though, I'll take some more pictures to show the area better.

I'm scared of doing anything more than sanding down, patching and repainting, as I've never done any welding...

[James M]

Thanks for the replies,

The body is, as far as I can tell, original. The douche I bought it from covered up the rusty part with a bit of spray paint, and claimed it was rust free. (I should have inspected it better, mea culpa)

I don't see any bondo work there though, I'll take some more pictures to show the area better.

I'm scared of doing anything more than sanding down, patching and repainting, as I've never done any welding...

I've been doing auto body work professionally full time for the last several decades and I'm telling you that based on the picture you provided of the rust area it has had previous filler/bondo work done.

[Bob K]

I don't see any bondo work there though

On the top quarter of your bottom picture it sure looks like filler work on the inside lip of the wheel well arch. It looks like someone didn’t put enough filler on to blend into the radius of the lip where it bends away from the quarter panel. Then to make maters worse he didn’t sand out the 80 grit marks with 180 or even bother to spray surfacer on and block it out. Or is it just my imagination?

Bob K

[daniel]

On the top quarter of your bottom picture it sure looks like filler work on the inside lip of the wheel well arch. It looks like someone didn’t put enough filler on to blend into the radius of the lip where it bends away from the quarter panel. Then to make maters worse he didn’t sand out the 80 grit marks with 180 or even bother to spray surfacer on and block it out. Or is it just my imagination?

Bob K

Oh I see what you mean, there is no rust on the bottom, because there is no metal.
I lent the car yesterday to someone, I'll have to get a better look when I get it back in a couple days.

[James M]

Daniel, as you probably know the lower part in the pictures you posted is a urethane rocker panel cover/ground effect. Why I bring that up is the odds are really high that when you remove that rocker molding the rust is most likely going to be a lot worse behind that molding than what is visible now. I know that vehicles like the Ford Explorer were really bad for quarter panel dog leg area and rocker panel rust near the dog leg area. Before you start any sanding or grinding you need to pull that rocker molding off and see how bad the rust is behind that molding. If you want to see if its just surface rust or serious rot with holes then take a sharp tip pocket knife or something like an ice pick and push a little on the rust bubbles. If it feels solid then its probably just surface rust but if the knife/ice pick push right through then you know the area is rust rotted.

I looked in my aftermarket parts book and there are no patch panels available for the Mazda 5 (no dog leg or rocker patch panels).

[daniel]

Dear internet,

FML


okay, so the rust is much worse than I had anticipated. There is so much rust on the inside...

Any recommendations?

I think I need to cut a big chunk of the side panel off and replace it with new metal, what do I do with the wheel well inside?


I couldn't post all the images so I put them on ImageShack (the order is in reverse though)
http://img194.imageshack.us/slidesho...=img1654sm.jpg

[Bob K]

I don’t know how much fabrication work you want to do yourself but there are some shortcuts you could do. There are a lot of Ford and Chevrolet wheel well repair parts out there. You could get something close and cut and modify it to make pieces that you could use. Mind you nothing is going to just fit in but it is better than starting with flat sheet metal and building every part from scratch.

I don’t know anything about your Mazda but look at other vehicles and try to find a common one that has a close profile to keep the modification to a minimum.

Bob K