Just need to vent a bit...
I have some very small rust bubbles coming in by the driver's side rear wheel. I want to get it fixed before winter. I took it to a body shop today after work and they said that they wouldn't touch it. REALLY?! My dad did body work for years and I know that tehre is nothing too difficult to fixing this. I just don't have a place to do it myself these days. I almost wanted to ask the guy if he was serious. I know that they're money is in doing insurance work... but come on. Money is money. I have some pretty significant funds to get this taken care of. The tiny rust bubbles are the only flaw in the body of the car. So, I'm supposed to just let the car rust away because they don't want to fix it? I guess I'll have to try and find a body shop who will do it. Or, I guess I could drive 2 hours to my parents and have my dad do it in his spare time, and be without the car for an extended period of time.

Geez this is frustrating!!

 

they may not touch it because the bubbles are from the rust on the other side, meaning it's nearly rusted all the way through

 

They gave me some speach about how they woulod have to take the seam apart around the wheel well and all that jazz. My Dad said that he would just cut out the rusted spot all together and fabricate a patch to weld in in its place. Then take the car and have the hell undercoated out of it. I can understand why they are hesitant, but come on. I have the money and am willing to pay for it. I'm more interested in saving the car and keeping the rust at bay than I am with the cost of doing the work.

 

my 03 did the same thing. i got quoted 1600 to fix it so i traded it in. Iowa winters are hard on these cars for sure.

 

Rust repair is a touchy subject for shops. No matter what you do to fix it, it will end up coming back in the future. We stay away from rust work at our shop. Its ALWAYS worse than it looks and no matter how many times you tell the customers that we dont warranty the repair and that it will come back, someone always brings their car back wanting it fixed again for free.

 

Yeah, the problem is being able to safely "guarentee" the rust NOT to return. The sheet steel these cars are made of is really thin (not like the old days), so dealing with rust may involve replacing large body panels AND still hoping the work is done well enough to ensure the rust will not re-surface.

You may want to look into a body shop that does restoration NOT collision repair.

 

Good points guys. I appreciate the input.

 

This is happening to my 05 in the same place. I hope I can afford to buy another car before this starts to look bad.

 

I have the same rust. I figure I am going to eventually do a full repaint on the car one day, so hopefully it can wait until then to get worked on lol.

 

I had a car fixed up for rust in the rear wheel wells a couple years back and the shop I went to only charged me 200 a side and they cut it out and patched it, matched and blended the paint and the rust hasnt come back on it yet, going on 3 years now in minnesota salty winters