Hello people,
another post from me about the Polo ...
I've got a quick question for you people, just two weeks ago I discovered rust on the frame of the drivers door of my car. It looked minor at first and was hardly noticible. Yet, just the other day, I discovered the magnitude of this and it looks like the rust is continuing well below the rubber of the door frame. On my previous car - a 1987 VW Golf - it went all along to the windscreen and would have cost someone heaps of money to fix.
In any case, the rust seems to be spreading too quickly and I don't have a garage here where I could work on it myself, which I would do. I took some pictures this morning - please excuse the quality - and I just thought I'd post them here as you people have much more experience with things like that. I hope they will be visible for you guys/ girls - if there are any on this forum. ;o)
The previous timing belt issue resulted in me spending $2,300.- on the engine so I would be reluctant to spend another fortune on this (which I don't have btw.). Hence I was hoping for a temporary and uncomplicated fix. An assessment would be great and maybe if anyone knows someone in the greater Sydney area that knows how to fix things like that.
I really appreciate your feedback.
Cheers and have a good one!
Regards,
- Nick
Btw. the computer here won't open the jpg files or allow me to reduce the size of the pictures so I will try uploading again later. Sorry!
Best way to stop the rust getting any worse man is some good ol' fish oil 'rust inhibitor'. There are a few other products that do the job too. Any supercheap, autobarn or repro will have something for ya to stop it getting any worse. And don't worry, it will be far from $2300 for a bottle of the stuff lol.
Saturate the rust with it and the areas around it and it will cease getting worse. (tis how we stop the rat rods from become a pile of rust flakes while maintaining a wildly rusted surface look.
Fixing it though, without a garage, its an irritating job. Without welding and if ur paint is a simple colour and u can find a can of touch up paint that matches ur colour, IF the holes are small enough, u could do a quick fix.
Wire brush ur rust holes and surface rust, put some rust convertor on it, degrease it with wax and grease remover, get some body filler and mix it up, putty it up with the filler, sand, spray a primer on it, (just buy an aerosol can thats NOT export quality from supercheap, they stuffed my bros car up bad, and alot don't recommend it), once primer applied, slap on the colour touch up paint coat, and let it dry.
Ur done then.
In a days work if the weather and rust isn't all that bad.
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You might want to grind it out first if you can. It's more than a days work too, because if you're going to bog it, you at least want the bog to cure before you sand it back and apply anything over the top of it.
Best though to wait for the paint and metal experts to answer this for you.
Personally, I'd just go and buy another door intead - it may cost more up front, but will be a better long term fix. (* now that the pics are up, it's not the door itself, so park this comment*)
Hi people,
here's the photo. Not sure how to add more than one. I would fix it myself but maybe the window has to come out? My feeling is that there may be water coming in somewhere. In the worst case scenario the rust is coming through at the area which I circled. The area underneath the rubber is totally rotten already.
Not sure here.
Cheers.
Well moisture has gotten under the paint...
if You are really lucky...
its just surface rust..
to be really sure, You need to scrape the paint off
and see if it turns into a hole....
if it does... it will cost to have it done...
I rarely see rust in modern cars... but then again I'm a long way from salt air...
do you wax Your cars??
I wax My cars - 68 beetle and 2001 Lancer every week or two... so water always beads on the paintwork..
If You scratch the bubbled paint off , and its going to be sunny for at least a day, use a good quality fish oil...
that will stop any rust already there..
If You can access the area behind the rust on the door
[like drilling a small hole under the rubber]
and spray heaps of fish oil in there.. that will stop any further rust... so long as the fish oil covers the rust...
best of luck
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Umm, don't know if this is going to be applicable, but Volkswagen Australia has a 12 year anti-corrosion warranty on new cars.
Apparently they've had it for a while, just not something they've publicised very well at all - I only know cos I went with a friend last weekend test-driving (and then ordering) a new Golf TDI.
Any chance your Polo is covered in that way ???
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Hi Lee,
surface rust wouldn't bother me too much either. I have no clue how this got there, the car is only a 1998! No holes at this stage, I reckon but it is really deep. Under the rubber - where the paint is gone already - it's just brown with small debris. Either way, I reckon that in order to get rid of the rust, the rubber would have to come off, wouldn't it. The fish oil seems to be a good solution, not sure as to how to cover the area under the rubber though.
We spoke on here before, haven't we? How's life treating you?
Nah, mate, haven't been waxing the car but it usually gets cleaned regularly.
- Nick
Hey Dave,
yeah, that's right mate! Thing is the car is not first hand but will try getting in touch with them!
Thank's mate, didn't think that existed here as well!
Hi again,
prise the rubber off the body slightly with a screwdriver etc
and spray heaps of fish oil onto the rusted area..
let it go round the windscreen etc...
just wipe any excess fish oil off...
repeat the process a few times after it has dried..
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Seriously, I can't believe the comments in this thread.
Whilst I respect that every backyard person has their 20c of knowledge, in reality, the professionals who do this for their business who are on AVD should be answering this.
To me, it looks like this needs to be ground out. Spraying and bogging up is only going to mask the problem. Not getting in and digging and grinding it out, is going to create a larger problem later on. But....that's my backyard advice.
I'd wait for Helbus, Dasdubber, and anyone else who does this for their line of work to answer your query.
Chase up the VW factory body corrosion warranty with VW first.
As previously mentioned, most manufacturer's body corrosion warranty exceed the standard mechanical warranty. Any attempt to rectify the rust prior to speaking to VW, will certainly result in voiding any body corrosion warranty the car may have.
G'day Euro,
I already emailed them yesterday but they haven't gotten back to me yet. My feeling is that they refuse or something as I am not the initial owner of the car. In addition, I am not sure whether the Polo of '98 already had that warranty at all!?? I will check the logbook tonight. Good thought though, mate! Cheers!
To the others, if I pull the rubber off, the water will run into the cabbin when it starts raining, I reckon. What I do is I'll try to chase up VW Australia and if I can't reach a settlement I'll see as to who would like to treat the area.
This shouldn't happen though as the car was garaged all its life. Maybe it's because the initial owner lived right at the beach and I suppose that the salty air could have done some of this. You never know. Thank's for the comments though people. It is good to see that one isn't left alone with these probs. 👍
it certainly shouldn't have happened
as these cars are sold in Europe
where many of the countries are close to the sea & salt air.
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Corrosion warranties usually are 'perforation' corrosion, that being if there is not an actual hole through the panel, then it is not applicable. It will cost nothing to at least ask VW Australia about it.
The real way to attack the problem for one and all would be to remove any closely related components like rubbers and other ancillary mechanical components. Then harsh mechanical removal of any rust back to bare steel by grinding or sandblasting. Any residual rust stains have the potential to cause problems.
If you have removed all loose rust particles and have some 'stains' then an acid conversion removal process done by phosphoric acid based products like De-ox-it or De-oxidine or any of the other brands available. Then you can put an etch primer, then preferably a two part epoxy primer, then proceed from there.
Fish oil is designed as a product to put on finished cars to prevent rust from starting. It is not actually designed to stop rust, however it will slow down existing rust.
Rust converter products are an even better, however they are still not as good as raw steel protected properly. At the end of the day they are just doing a fix on existing Iron Oxide (rust) particles.
Helbus,
I reckon you're right about the perforation only guarantee. That would have only been too good to be true. Any ideas where I can fix it for little money in the North of Sydney area? Labour costs are the problem. I used to do all that myself but with no materials or garage there is little that I can do. I don't want to paint it over but can't do with an expensive job as I will probably have to leave Australia soon since I can't find work here - as silly as this sounds, I know.
Anyway, thank's for the feedback though!
Progress:
Hi everyone, thought some of you may be interested to hear about the progress regarding the rust! Looks like you people were right and it is covered by VW's 12-year anti-corrosion warranty. The car has since been inspected by a smash repairer and the rust will be fixed over the following weeks which is great news indeed!
Cheers!
- Nick
Wow. Now that's one reason to get an older watercooled VW.
68AutoBug wrote:it certainly shouldn't have happened
as these cars are sold in Europe
where many of the countries are close to the sea & salt air.
Lee
Cars don't last long over there. I have seen things like Golf Cabs and MX5s dumped in London.. and that's the 'second-gen' version, not the old pop-up light model!
Pay your debts, CxxT
back in 1998 it was only 6 years for the rust warranty . Double check your logbook as it did change with the mk4 Golf , not sure on Polo , but being the older generation Polo I woild be guessing only 6 years
Vw would never come to the party for warranty on this so you may as well forget that, the only way to fix it is spot blast it and i reakon there will be some holes under it so it would have to be cut out and welded up.If you didnt buy the car new you never know the history and i can tell you even new ones get dodged up(ive seen damaged new cars and had to fix them myself, they go straight back on the lot).The w/s area may be something as simple as its had a screen replacement at some stage and the w/s guy who cut the old one out went through the paint with the cutter resulting in rust down the track, as for the other area, looks a bit sus, it may be coming from the inside out.I have written off close to 1000 cars for my job inc water damaged cars, a lot of these cars get put back on the road by whoever buys them and obviously rust out in funny places.Dont mean to make you panic but you could try and find out some history on the car, it may be something as simple as the previous owner living accross from the ocean and the salt air got to it, who knows.
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