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I bought a used Lexus over a year ago (my first car). I paid one mechanic to check it, but it was a complete scam. So, I ended up with a car that nobody took care of. Most of the issues were fixed during the year, but now I've found rust in a few places. The biggest spot is below the rear door on the left.
I found online a few ways to fix this, but I want to know how bad it is from a safety perspective. Is this part of the car’s frame (in which case I guess the car just belongs in the junkyard), or is it something that can be patched?
Hi, No need to junk it if everything else is still working fine on it. There's really not much you can do to fix that rust properly. If it still drives then keep driving it.
Not sure how good your DIY skills are, but if it were me I would grind all that rust off, use POR15 and epoxy putty on it, spray paint it and call it a day. and hit that area up with fluid film every year. That is my totally backyard crappy way of trying to prevent it from spreading but it will probably spread some more albeit just slower.
The proper way is to cut off all of the rusted parts, and beyond the visibly rusted parts and weld in new metal. I have zero metal welding skills so that's a nonstarter for me.
Thanks a lot for a quick response!
My DIY skills are not that great, but prices on new cars + lack of adequate mechanics in my area (eastern Slovakia, EU) - kinda pushes me to do such things myself.
Originally Posted by evident
Not sure how good your DIY skills are, but if it were me I would grind all that rust off, use POR15 and epoxy putty on it, spray paint it and call it a day. and hit that area up with fluid film every year.
That was pretty much my plan, I was just worried that this rusted part belongs to the frame and given its condition the frame could just collapse or something.
P.s. complete newbie here, after a first year of owning my first car - so thanks for your input, appreciate it a lot!
There's no repairing that rust damage, wire brusing, even sand blasting, will only remove exterior rust it'll do nothing for the rust inside the channels. The cost and effort to remove and weld in new metal is cost prohibitive. The damage is bad but I would just drive it until it gets a lot worse. With that amount of rust on the frame no doubt there is many many rusted bolts on suspension, brakes, exhaust etc so future maintenance will be fun trying to remove nuts/bolts. Sadly rust on 4Runners is quite common as well Toyopta did not do a good job of rust-proofing for several years. Clearly your country uses salt for snow that is brutal to older cars especially Toyotas sadly
Rust Bullet is not compared in the above tests but I use it the stuff is excellent. I'd try Mastercoat (#1 in the above test) but not available in Canada.
There's no repairing that rust damage, wire brusing, even sand blasting, will only remove exterior rust it'll do nothing for the rust inside the channels.
I completely understand that! My main goal here is to slower the damage, so I can drive this car for a few more years. I’ll also try to do it myself, so the cost would be around $60-70. Which is not much, even if it would just delay the inevitable.
At least that’s my perspective…
The rest of the frame is rusty, but holds solid (tried with a hammer). This is the worst place by far
Don't. POR-15 is tricky to use and usually results in failure
Originally Posted by LeX2K
Rust Bullet is not compared in the above tests but I use it the stuff is excellent. I'd try Mastercoat (#1 in the above test) but not available in Canada.
We have none of those here🥲 I’ll just go with something similar, should be good enough (I hope it can’t be worse than it already is)
Try finding a vendor that will ship POR-15 Patch* to you. It's a seam sealer like goop in a tube so can be shipped easily unlike liquids. Key to POR-15 is the area must be BONE DRY, zero moisture. If so then the POR-15 patch will stick like the devil. Combine it with some wire mesh and you'll have a repair that will last for awhile.
Top coat the POR-15 Patch after a few weeks with some spray paint as POR-15 is UV reactive.
* I'll mail you some if you can't find it elsewhere.
Rust Bullet is not compared in the above tests but I use it the stuff is excellent. I'd try Mastercoat (#1 in the above test) but not available in Canada.
I figured there was some better product out there now. Thanks for the info.
Best results I've had using POR-15 is NOT removing as much rust as possible just the loose stuff. Product is called Paint Over Rust for a reason have used it on mainly clean metal and in a few years it peeled off in sheets.
You'll need to clear all that rust, grind down to unaffected metal. I think you'll need to weld some hard steel to both the flat underside and the jack ridge to ensure against lift collapse.
Fill voids with Waxoyl – and yes paint with tough rust protector (plenty of good suggestions in thread)
05-30-24, 11:10 AM
Rust on Lexus RX 350 (2006)
