i was just wondering if and where i should watch my car for rust. i know all about interior leaks and such, but im talking about bubbling of the paint. one of my girlfriends with a 95 ssei is having rust problems in the seal between the rear wheel wells and the rear door. that plastic weatherstriping fell out cuz the metal gave way. my car looks fine there, prolly cuz it was a southern car. where is your car rusting? how bad do you think the paint looks under the ground effects, cuz i know water sneaks in there on mine.

I think that'* just the hardware underneath rusting. It'* a galvanized body, so that usually doesn't rust. One place i'm keeping an eye on is where the chrome trim ends at the rear door, where the body has that seam in it.

Where Jason said. Also check around the door frames.

Front of the hood... by the lights/grill

I noticed a few small rust spots on mine... most likely from rock chips that cut into the metal over the years.

Below the gass filler.

In the wheelwell seams right over the center of the rear wheels. The folded, spot-welded seam apparently traps road splash and rusts from the inside out.

Bubbling through fender flares. It'* brown there, you can't see it in the photo, though


left-most circle is a bubble. trunklid is also beginning to rust through right where the spoiler meets the lid... underneath, you can't see it from outside. bigass circle is a big soft spot under the trunk, probably redone by the previous owner'* repainting job. right-bottom-most circle is just slight bubbling on the quarter panel where it and the rear (plastic?) piece under the taillights meet.


When I bought my car, it did NOT have a grille. The previous owner(*) had a minor front end collision that resulted in a smashing of the grille (only the outer frame was left) and a crack running down the hood (shown in green). Around this crack are a few bubbles, some pretty big - slightly bigger than a Candian two dollar coin. Under the hood, this rust is really nasty. So, there'* some body filler just messily there now to retain some of the stucture or prevent it from rotting through altogether.





My car'* rotting

If you have bubbling, get at it as soon as possible. I had some bubbling when I bought my Bonne, didn't try to fix it until at least 18 months later. When I finally did start to sand it down, it just crumbled and I was left with a huge hole through my rear quarter panel.

Well, yeah... if it'* bubbling through from underneath, then by the time you see it, it'* too late.

If the bubbles are forming from the top side going in (e.g. a paint scratch that was left untreated), then prompt action may save that panel.