fixed the dreaded rust!

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good afternoon boys!
thanks for all your advice and help! the body shop had my car for a week. he seems quite honest, recommended by many people i know, has been in business since 1977. i told him to search out and fix any rust. he found rust on all four doors, at the bottom. on one, it also went up the side. both rear wheel wells, and the brackets that hold the rear bumper. he removed the brackets, sand blasted them, paint and replace. he took lots of photos, of the car with the doors being painted, bumper off, car totally covered! LOTS of work. parts and paint were around $200
total bill was $964. when i saw the photos, i was quite convinced he did a very thorough job, and my car will last a long ,long time.
2008 cadillac DTS, 55,000 original miles. in GREAT shape.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? my take on it, is the car is paid for, the car payment was $525, so paying $1,000 ONCE for fix it is very good. i LOVE my car and want to keep it long term

THANKS GUYS! and tell me what you think!
Bob
 
Good on catching it early. Did body man give you any tips on sealing it out the 2nd time?
 
It's very frustrating seeing those bubbles and that orange. Hopefully the brake lines aren't to bad.

I'd get rustproofing applied to prevent this from reoccurring. Not sure about your location but there are Krown rustproofing centers in NY and VT.

How about some pictures of the job?
 
yeah, let's see some pics! That sounds like a steal for $1k. If it keeps your car on the road an additional year, worth it, and it sounds like it'll keep your car on the road much longer than that!

Are Caddies notorious rusters in your area? Was there any visible rust on the exterior? Or was this done just as pure preventative maintenance?
 
photos on the way. live in massachusetts. TONS of salt on the roads.

dumb question: what rustproofing, if any, should i use?

best regards,

Bob
grin.gif
 
IMHO, I would strongly recommend an oil based rust inhibitor spray like Krown or Rust Check.

You need something that creeps into the cracks and displaces moisture, the Krown and Rust Check products both have an affinity for metal, so these get down underneath any water, even through a light amount of dirt in my experience.

Re-apply every year or 18 months and you'll not see the rust come back for a long time.
 
I have an 01 Protege in the shop right now which I will not see til February. Its getting two new rear quarters, all new door lowers and a complete repaint. This was after I welded in a new rear strut tower myself. After looking at a bunch of used cars, I felt it was worth it. Your 2008 Cadillac DTS is less money to fix and three times the car, so I would say good move. Sometimes all those bubbles appear regardless of what is sprayed on the underside. Especially todays newer cars with water based base coats. Most independent shops use oil based base coats, so if properly applied, it could last longer than the original job.
 
I agree with KrisZ and KGMtech. Though the areas fixed on your car are painted, the factory applied anti corrosion treatments are now gone, and your car is no more rust resistant than a car from the 50s and 60s. Corrosion will be back in 2-3 years.

Rustproof coatings will help a lot. I wish people had more foresight to rustproof their cars when new and have the coatings reapplied every few years. It's a lot cheaper to pay for these treatments than to shell out $1K for remediation.
 
Originally Posted By: Robertslowpoke
people i know, has been in business since 1977. i told him to search out and fix any rust. he found rust on all four doors, at the bottom. on one, it also went up the side. both rear wheel wells, and the brackets that hold the rear bumper. he removed the brackets, sand blasted them, paint and replace. he took lots of photos, of the car with the doors being painted, bumper off, car totally covered!


Please post the pics here!
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I agree with KrisZ and KGMtech. Though the areas fixed on your car are painted, the factory applied anti corrosion treatments are now gone, and your car is no more rust resistant than a car from the 50s and 60s. Corrosion will be back in 2-3 years.

Rustproof coatings will help a lot. I wish people had more foresight to rustproof their cars when new and have the coatings reapplied every few years. It's a lot cheaper to pay for these treatments than to shell out $1K for remediation.


Yup.. I always tell people how cheap rustproofing is in the long run. I guess people have to learn the hard way at least once.. (I Krown yearly)
 
A 2008MY vehicle is already rusted in multiple places? That's just not right, even in a place like the NE. I'm from WI, so I know a municipality's affinity for salt.

My 2003 Audi is just starting to show two spots of rust on the lower corners of two doors, and one is from a body repair that wasn't done correctly. The vehicle is still under factory 12 year/unlimited mileage perforation warranty for another month and I hope that they will take care of the one door under warranty.

A new vehicle should make it a minimum of 10 years before showing any signs of body rust. Our last Mercury SUV didn't even see its 6 birthday before a rear quarter was perforated with rust. Only a 5 year/unlimited mileage warranty on that heap.
 
I think $964 was one heck of a deal for this.

A lot of shops wouldn't even want to tackle it.
 
smile.gif

thanks guys! when i get back to work i will get the photos. being a car dummy, i thought they did a LOT of work for $900. the photos were amazing. doors opened up, bumper off, bumper brackets off, sandblasted, painted, entire car masked, rust areas in wheel wells totally ground down, primed painted, etc. he kept in a whole week. he told me he did not even charge me for all the labor hours. he said he makes a ton of money on collisions, but not on rust.

he is local, and highly recommended by all my friends. i also agree that a 6 year old caddy, always washed and waxed, always undercarrieage washed during winter, should not rust so soon!!!!!!

people tease me about how often i wash and wax my car! other than this rust, a GREAT car so far, and it is paid off. have a GREAT Christmas!
bob
 
good morning Miller!
YES. do park in a heated garage at home, probably 50-60 degrees. garage at work is pretty cold. surface of driveway is blacktop, but garage IS concrete.

does that matter?
your advice? i had a general plan to have the body shop inspect the car every spring for rust, and fix. would rather pay $900 every 6 years than $500/month for a new Caddy! ha!

i have heard so much conflicting info about rustproofing, that i am afraid to do it!
would love to hear ANY of your ideas! have a great Christmas! bob
 
There's two big things that will contribute to your car rusting!

1) Parking cars in heated garages significantly contribute to rust issues. When it's cold and the water/snow/ice is just frozen, there's no moisture for the salt to do anything. When you park in a warm garage, the moisture is able to help "wick" the salt around ... along with the road salt being more corrosive. Heat acts as a catalyst for these type of reactions.

2) The concrete floor is porous. When you park your car on the concrete floor in the heated garage ... what happens? The salt encrusted snow and ice melts and drips onto the floor. The water evaporates relatively quickly (and when it does that, you have the salt going right back underneath your car ... into the door seems, etc). Throughout the year, every time you park on the concrete floor and it's raining out ... the water drips down, eventually evaporates and takes some remaining salt with it onto your car and helps rust it out.

I'd strongly recommend something that isn't porous - epoxy the garage floor or something. That way, if you *do* have to heat it, at least you can wash the salt off the floor and get it out so it won't be released into your car all year.
Grease and oil based undercoatings are good. Stuff like Ziebart is not as it tends to plug drain holes and causes the car to rust from the inside out.
 
I don't buy that. Once the winter solution drips down, it's only water that evaporates from the floor. Anybody who's been introduced to desalination techniques to produce drinkable water knows that.

Heated garages are worst for corrosion for different reasons. The warm surroundings keep the winter solution wet, where it does the worst damage. Letting the solution freeze on the car will temporarily halt corrosive activity. Temperature also plays a part in speed of reaction. A warm garage will hasten corrosion.
 
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