I guess it was inevitable - rust...

[crimsonaudio]

I bought a northern car that has some rust underneath but not awful. Had it for a couple of years now, i've gotten quite adept at drilling and tapping...

Anyway, pull off the OEM rear bumper today in preparation for the Slee rear bumper that's on its way to find this on the rear passenger quarter panel:

Not sure how I'm going to proceed - quite a bit of cancer on the bottom but it's not too awful on the inner panel. As it will be covered by the new rear bumper, I'm leaning toward cutting it out, reading it, and moving on, but am also considering having a body shop replace the panel (which would be quite expensive - the OEM partial panel is $1k, plus labor and paint).

This is a DD but it's not a mall cruiser - I beat on it a good bit and am not worried about it being pristine. That said, I do take care of it and want it to last...

Driver's side is perfect, zero rust.

Thoughts?

 

[crimsonaudio]

Decided to just clean it up and bit, hit it with some rust preventer, and live with it. The only other option is replacing the panel, which I can always do later if I didn't stop it.

Here it is, ready for some rust preventer:

 

[landylover21]

Yup, seen a few 100s that have had that same problem, not to that extent but still bad. I looked at a truck for my friend a few months ago and thats an area I always inspect... Ended up poking a finger through the rust.

Can your shop fabricate a small section for the panel bottom? That is pretty far gone though... I had a similar problem on the old Mercedes wagon I had and my bodyshop said they could weld in new sheetmetal and paint to match. Luckily it was under a plastic trim cover so you couldn't see it.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Yah, I'm just going to hit it with rust preventive and let it stay as is - it's hidden behind the bumper, so it won't be seen, and by leaving it open the moisture that gets in there will dry out easily.