rust, and what to do about it

[rayeve]

I recently bought a 2009 Outback from Carmax -- by "long distance" purchase, so to speak. When the car arrived it had a surprising amount of rust on the bottom of the car, especially the exhaust system, but spots of rust on some suspension bolts, etc. The car came from the far northeast US, so maybe it's just road salt damage? In any case, my question for the forum is: "Is it worth it economically to have a body shop clean up all the rust NOW (at about 40,000 miles, or just wait until nature takes it's course and the mufflers develop holes and other "normal" negative impacts of the rust? All opinions gratefully accepted.

 

(Funny thing is, I have a 1969 Datsun 2000 with barely a speck of rust on the underside -- after 50 years! Just goes to show).

[DrD123]

pictures would be helpful, but generally speaking, unless you live in the southwest where they don't generally use much road salt, or you are anal about rinsing off the underbody after driving when road salt is on the ground, or something like that, some rust is normal (on suspension components, hubs, exhaust, etc.) - it's typically cosmetic and won't impact performance of the vehicle.

 

By comparison - our van (which we bought new and now has 245k miles on it) - when I do work on the car, bolts I remove generally look brand new (dirty, but new) - my Legacy, being a 12, also looks brand new for the most part.

[MilesA]

Where are you (helps to put that in your profile, BTW). I'm guessing CA or the Southwest somewhere? It does sound pretty normal. Probably not a big concern. I would just keep an eye on the body panels that are prone to rust, such as in front of the rear wheels and under the doors.

 

When the Air Force wants to preserve old airplanes, they park them in the desert Southwest. The dry climate tends to reduce corrosion to a minimum.

[derp]

pics would assist greatly.

[rayeve]

Thanks, guys. I will try to get some pictures posted asap.

[apexi]

You could do what I did. I bought a little container of rustoleum rust reformer at walmart for $5, then topcoated that with black rustoleum paint. The bottle of rust reformer is small, but it's like water and a little bit goes a long way.

 

Of course you can't really do that with the exhaust, but for the other parts it's a cheap option.

 

The pictures below are before I top coated with black rustoleum.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5406831&postcount=11249