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Paint bubbling, rust forming....


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Anyways, if you just let it go, it will get worse. You may not see it, but the metal is being eaten from under the paint all the time. By the time the paint is bubbling, a decent amount of damage has been done.

If you plan on keeping the car, fix it. It's only going to get worse.

 

 

The thing is is the only way to fix it is to cut it out and replace it and how do you justify that expense on an almost 9 year old car? Just to paint it alone is $900 or so for one side and that wont stop it from coming back in a few months. Now i have it on both sides and i'm totally hosed. Life in the NE...

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Basically, or keep newer cars. I think it is a manufacturing flaw in that spot though. That shouldn't have happened that fast.

Like I've said, that rubber moulding is holding in water/contaminants/salt and that's why it started rusting. They should have never installed those rubber moulding there in first place.

If you were local I could've done whole repair for ~$500

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Its hard to remember to keep it up but wiping out the water from the gas cap area and at the bottoms of door jams during washes has helped me to prevent rust in those commonly rusting areas.
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Its hard to remember to keep it up but wiping out the water from the gas cap area and at the bottoms of door jams during washes has helped me to prevent rust in those commonly rusting areas.

 

Those areas are actually not weather-sealed, and wash water should not matter anyway. It's when salt water gets trapped somewhere that rust starts to form. It's unlikely that water will get trapped either next to the gas cap or in the door jambs -- it's more likely in the wheel well areas where there is trim that can either have water seep in between it (i.e. the rubber trim on the rear wheel wells), or collect organic material that will hold water (i.e. the fender liners, especially behind the front wheels).

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Just noticed the same rust spot on my 05 LGT Wagon LTD. I know a couple of body guys, so I'll see what they have to say. I've owned this car since August of 2004, so its unlikely I'll spend much money on it. More than likely, I'll be getting rid of it in 6 months to a year.
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recently acquired an 05 2.5i wagon and I bought it knowing that there is rust on the passenger side. same spot right above the metal panel thing above the skirt but it formed because the PO scraped the paint off on something on that spot and didn't get to it before rust formed

 

I plan on grinding off the rust before it gets any worse and repainting that small section but how do I remove that piece right over the skirt ??

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That piece pops right off easy, just pull. You can get a new quarter from Subaru to fix it right but you are talking about ~900$ for the quarter and ~1500$ body shop cost. Call me crazy but I may be going this route.
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So far, I have no rust on my 05 but I'm going to disassemble the inner fenders and spray everything with water with baking soda in it. This will neutralize any acid that could be forming although my car has only seen one day in the snow since I bought it new in 2004 and has no rust that I can see.

Once I have this done, I'm going to plastidip the inner fenders around the wheel wells and all of the spot weld joints on the undercarriage heavily and let it dry really well. I'm also going to remove the rear bumper cover and get those damn upper rear corners HEAVILY with the plastidip to hopefully stave off the possibility of the normal "Subaru Rust Pattern" in that spot. I think it (plastidip) will do a better job of sealing out the crap than undercoat does and it's peelable every year or so to check behind it and respray it with the baking soda solution if necessary.

 

I think that plastidip offers a LOT more options for sealing up and protecting the undercarriage of our cars than anybody thought. It fills in great, seals tightly to whatever you spray it on or brush it on, is extremely tough, and removable for future inspection. In my own opinion, I really think it's light years ahead of standard undercoating.

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  • 8 months later...

I just found the same corrosion issue on my LGT today. Drivers side.

 

I pulled off the panel, knocked off all of the loose paint and rust, treated the metal with POR rust neutralizer, and put on a primer coat. I also seam sealed the gap on the wheel well lip with undercoating.

 

This definitely looks like a manufacturing error and is probably the source for the rust. This is NOT due to the rubber lip mouldings... I haven't had any on my car for years and years. This is due to an improper / failed panel seam between the wheel well and the quarter panel.

 

I hope to keep a close eye on mine and slow it down as much as possible. Don't really want to go cutting the panel at this point.

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Galvanization is old technology. Modern cars are all E-coated (Electro Deposition primer). Essentially, the bare shell is cleaned, pretreated/etched, and then submerged in a charged bath of paint.

 

http://d2n4wb9orp1vta.cloudfront.net/resources/images/cdn/cms/PF_1012_ECOAT_BASF_HiddenCostofElectrocoat_2.jpg

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My '69 Chev was galvanized steel, it still rusted though. I'm pretty sure earlier years were too. Prevention is the key to rust on newer vehicles. My neighbor has a 21 year old Dodge minivan that's still on the road. You can see where the rustproofing is leeching out of the doors etc. It would've been scrapped years ago if he hadn't bothered as these cars were horrendous for rusting.
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