FAQ: Rust Areas & Concerns

Mine's about that size, but looks like it will be larger once all the rusty metal is cut out. It's not right by the shock mount, but close enough to worry me.

Dave, can you possibly get pic's of the area before repair. I thought i noticed some surface rust in right rear fender well when I was doing the brakes. Had every intention of going back in and sanding or spot sand blasting the area and coating it with the product that Albert recommended, I think it is POR-15.
Or something close to that. I have printed out what I want to buy for a starter kit and try it.
I'm hoping I haven't waited too long to revisit this fender well, it was last fall when i noticed it and forgot about it until you brought up your problem.
Good luck with your repair.

Rickw wrote:

Dave, can you possibly get pic's of the area before repair. I thought i noticed some surface rust in right rear fender well when I was doing the brakes. Had every intention of going back in and sanding or spot sand blasting the area and coating it with the product that Albert recommended, I think it is POR-15.
Or something close to that. I have printed out what I want to buy for a starter kit and try it.
I'm hoping I haven't waited too long to revisit this fender well, it was last fall when i noticed it and forgot about it until you brought up your problem.
Good luck with your repair.

That's what I thought it was at first, surface rust. Then my finger poked right through. This seems to be the Rivs weak spot when it comes to rust. I don't see any other rust problems except brake lines on my car, and it's lived it's entire life in the Northeast. Not a big deal IMHO. If you wire wheel it and use a rust converter, paint and undercoating, it should be an easy repair.

Sorry Rick, too late for pics. It's simply the top middle area of the wheel well. Mine is already a large hole about 2" across, maybe 5-6 long, running front to back. It's in the shop bright and early in the morning. I'm afraid they're going to need to remove more material than they realize. There's a fairly large rusty surface surrounding the hole, and that steel is NOT very thick.

Dave if its's too late for before pics do you think you can post some of the repair for us? I'm in the rust belt and if this is a problem for our cars it sure would be nice to get at it sooner than later...sorry about yours though

Actually, I think I DID take a couple pics a month or so ago. Will have to dig around the camera and HD and see if I can find them. I'll try to take some "after" shots also.

Huh, couldn't find any "before" pictures, sorry.

Picked the car up again today. It looks nice on the underside, although they could have resprayed the WHOLE wheel well, it would have looked a hell of a lot better. Inside the trunk, I'm not so sure. I pulled back the carpet, and on top of the wheel well patch, they had sprayed what looks like spray-on expanding foam sealant. And it's thick. Like a couple inches thick. So I have no idea what it looks like underneath. I'll be calling the shop tomorrow to ask what exactly they did on the top side. Odds are I'll be pulling that crap out and finishing it off with something else. Pics later, tomorrow.

Ok, here's the skinny on the foam sealant inside the trunk.

The metal patch plate is fitted to the underside of the wheel well hole, "adhesived" in place, and undercoated nicely. Really no complaints from the outside perspective. However, since the metal patch plate isn't a perfect fit against the hole in the oem surface, there are gaps on the TOP side of the plate inside the trunk. The expanding foam sealant was applied to the top to seal out air/moisture from the inside and keep the patched area clean and unexposed. Yes, they probably sprayed more than needed, and I can see where they did in fact already cut it back some. I plan to cut it back a bit more, then find some kind of light gray sealant to cover the yellow foam, so it's not quite so conspicuous. It's actually not even visible once the carpet pieces are back in place, but I just don't care for how it looks. It's actually partially surrounded the large wire harness that runs across the top of the wheel well.

Ok, off to snap a couple pics.....

BTW, after cleaning up the rust and removing old undercoating, they found several additional rust pinholes going down the back of the wheel well. These were cleaned up and sealed, at no additional charge to me. All in all, I certainly feel I got more than my money's worth for $232.

To bad you didn't live closer or I'd be bringing my car in for a quick fender well repair job for short money.

Rick, if I didn't have rust thru yet, like you, I'd have sanded it down and POR'd it myself. I wasn't up for dealing with a big hole though... Have you rechecked the condition of yours yet?

Also PM'd on the cone filter earlier.

Hi im new to the riv schene and im about to buy a 96. I for the most part know GM stuff good so I have more questions about other things to look for.

Any typical rust area's on the undercarriage to look for , etc?

depends where it has ben driven but you could check the brake lines under the car, specialy the rear ones what seem to get rusty.
other then that i dont relly know. mine is 96 tho and so much as i know its been there where i live ower 4-5 years and driven on winter. on winters whe salt the roads to avoid ice.
so its easy for the rust to start eatign the car. but so much has i have looked under the car it seems to be fine. only some survice small rust you can notice.

ohh and one place is the trunk. some rivs have water leaks and the water gets into the trunk under the spear tire where it can start to rust.

Oh yeah, back to the original question: Look at the underside of the right rear wheel well. Mine rusted completely thru at the very top. I've heard others have seen this, pretty much on the R side only for some reason. Worth taking a peek up there.

Mine is starting to rust on the Right Side Only also.
Need to tend to this before the winter and before it rusts through completely.
Thanks for the reminder.!!!!

Rick, are you going to try to clean it out and patch it yourself?

Whoever decides to do this repair, please, please take pictures and turn this thread into a write-up. Thx.

1998 Riv wrote:

Oh yeah, back to the original question: Look at the underside of the right rear wheel well. Mine rusted completely thru at the very top. I've heard others have seen this, pretty much on the R side only for some reason. Worth taking a peek up there.

One reason might be grit used on the roads in the winter that is not washed away on purpose - that is, it stays on the road and when you drive over it tends to chip away at the paint in the wheel well. Why on the right? most secondary roads are crowned (higher in middle than at sides) and so stuff tends to wash from center to edges.

Albertj

That might make sense, except for the fact that there's a nice heavy layer of undercoating there. Something caused the undercoating to fail before anything got to the paint.

1998 Riv wrote:

Rick, are you going to try to clean it out and patch it yourself?

As of right now I plan on doing it myself.
Mine hasn't rusted through yet. I just have undercoat not bonded to the steel and surface rust, that I hope once i start grinding it down to bare metal does not prove to be in worse condition.
My plan is to use a 90* die grinder with 2" - 3" sanding disks to get it to bare metal. If I need to I'll use a Gravity feed abrasive sand blaster gun to clean out the area of the seam that I can see has some rust on it. I bought an inexpensive unit from Harbor freight with this job in mind and I already have various types and grits of media.
Once all is clean and rust free, I'll then prime, paint and spray undercoat. I'm also considering buying some POR-15 that Albert recommended. Need to research and see if I can buy the quantity I will need. Haven't got that far yet. but need to soon as the weather is turning here in New England. I will have to do this outside or maybe get some heated shop time down the road. They are always slow in the month of December and I can usually squeeze myself in for some maintenance.

I'm a big fan of cars from warm, dry climates. I lived in Phoenix for 22 years, and got spoiled by how clean the cars are when they're not exposed to the ravages of winter (and salt). I won't go look at a car here in the NorthEast unless it's been stored winters.

Rust is a four-letter word...

John:

You are soooo right.

My Riv is a Tucson, AZ car and it's as rust free on the underside as the day it rolled off the assembly line. The only thing with an AZ car ... be sure it's been protected from the intense summer sun. Temps reach 105+ for days on end in the desert and that dries out weatherstripping and interiors and absolutely eats clear coat.

Like you...I HATE RUST !!!

My '98 was sold new in Las Vegas, NV, and made its way to Tucson, AZ - the lady I bought it from came up to Phoenix, AZ on weekends, which is when I saw it. It took me 3 days (2,300 miles) to drive it back east - you will either really love (or really dislike) your purchase when you spend 11 hours a day for 3 days straight behind the wheel - I was in love about midway through day one...

You are correct - you can't leave anything nice outside for too long - covered (carport) or garage parking is a must. Window tinting and a dashmat are big improvements to keep things nice.

What surprises me is that the prices are pretty comparable across the country - if there's not a big discount for something rusty, I'll take a desert car everytime - they're alot easier to do any work on.

John: There are still nice Rivs to be found out here in the dry southwest and it is well worth the expense to transport them back east in my opinion.

I am originally from Kentucky and believe me, I know a little bit about rust !!! When I moved out here 18 years ago, I went absolutely nuts over the rust free vehicles. Going to a salvage yard out here is a wonderful experience. Cars that are 40 years old are sitting there with little or no rust. The interiors may be sun bleached, but the body panels and undercarriages are solid. It's funny, but when I went to look for an older car when I lived back east, the first thing I looked for was an exterior without cancer...out here in the desert, the first thing I look for is an interior without sunburn.

Haha!