Rust :( - Honda Prelude Forum

quickprelude · 05-30-2003, 12:52 AM

whos car has developed the dreaded rear quarter cancer? my car started over the winter and now its almost right thru already

who here had theirs fixed and how much can i expect to pay? i just had the car repainted 2 years ago and this happened already

should i call that body shop and

with them? i mean i know all hondas have that weak spot in the rear but come on.....2 years ago....u think they woulda sealed it better or something.

Qveon · 05-30-2003, 01:07 AM

i have it a little, but i keep sealing it in till i can get it fixed

Mark94 · 05-30-2003, 06:41 AM

It's not the body shops fault that this happened. We all know of that problem and there is nothing the shop could have done or did to make worse.

The design flaw with Hondas is that the quarter panel is a dual panel design. There is actually another metal panel behind the outside panel that we see when looking at the car. If water gets caught between those two panels then it has no choice but eat its way through in the form of rust. The rust forms from the inside out (not from the surface).

Because of this, the rust had probably already started to form on the inside and was working its way through when the shop repainted your car 2 years ago but it couldn't be seen yet then.

I had the problem fixed on my previous Prelude about 5 years ago. It cost me about $400 to fix including a respray. The shop cut out all the rusted sheetmetal and then fabricated a new piece of metal and welded it to the quarter panel and sanded it flat. Finally it was prepped and repainted. This is the right way to correct the problem. Don't let the shop just cut out the infected area and bondo the hole. Another shop I took the car to in order to get an estimate wanted to do that and they actually wanted more money.

I would expect it to cost more now since I had mine done five years ago and I sort of got a hook up.

Good luck!

Mark

munscher · 05-30-2003, 07:02 AM

I have the rust on my left quarterpanel... my clearcot has also peeled off of half of the same quarterpanel... it looks like absolute crap but i don't have the money to get it fixed. What little money i do make i put into performance. I'm holding off on fixing the body work until i can afford to replace the quarterpanel and spray the whole car. Now if i could find someone who's willing to help me paint my car and knows what they're doing?!? that would be perfect and i would fix it sooner. But so far, no luck.

bk94si · 05-30-2003, 07:58 AM

I had mine fixed last year and was quoted $500 for the quarterpanels and the sunroof (I wound up doing the whole car). If you haven't already pull off that plastic thing on the inside of the fender lip also. Six months after the job, I could see some rust coming back.

The shop fixed it again for free (they had guaranteed it for a year) but I am worried that it is going to happen again.

quickprelude · 05-30-2003, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bk94si
I had mine fixed last year and was quoted $500 for the quarterpanels and the sunroof

so is that what they actually charged you? did they cut out the whole area and weld on new sheet metal?

bk94si · 05-30-2003, 10:07 AM

I paid $2000 to fix the rust spots, sand the whole car down to bare metal, repaint the whole car. They said they were cutting out the whole area and welding in new metal but since the rust came back so soon, I'm not sure that they did. The $500 quote was to fix both quarters and to paint the sunroof (I bought a new/used one to replace a rusted one).

Mark94 · 05-30-2003, 10:26 AM

When I had mine done, the shop could not gaurantee that they would get all the rust sposts. The area between the two panels is very tight and they could not physically see if they were getting all the infected areas. There can be other areas that are just starting to form and can't be detected.

The only thing that can be done is to cut out the entire half circle on the quarter panel and then fabricate a new piece.

That was expensive so I took my chances and just did the areas that were visible and luckily it never came back the remainder of the time I owned the car.

The cause of the water getting trapped is the rubber molding that is found under the wheel well lip. You should remove this molding every so often and clean that area thouroughly to get any water or dirt that is trapped under it. It is also a good idea to undercoat your wheelwells with a good rubberized undercoating which will stop the water from getting between the panels.

Mark

Porschify · 05-30-2003, 10:47 AM

Mine is starting to form, but I dont have the money to fix it so it will continue to grow

iamlost · 06-05-2003, 07:37 AM

I just got quoted a little less than $500. He also said it is the rubber molding is actually holding the water in there. They are saying they can replace it with something different that will help prevent a recurrence. They will not guarantee that it will not return though.

munscher · 06-05-2003, 07:44 AM

was that 500 to replace the quarterpanel? or just to cut out the infected section.... i want to get my entire quarterpanel replaced to fix the problem.... the thing is the quarterpanel goes all the way around to the front of the door so what they do is cut it off above the door where it is skinny.... then weld in the new quarterpanel and smooth it down.... i want to get a quarterpanel off of a car being parted out and have it welded in place.... i dont think they should charge too much just to cut one off and weld another in place and smooth it over.... i can do all the sanding/primering myself to save on the cost too....

only thing i worry about is the quarterpanel i buy needs to be 100% rust free. Anybody thought of this option or does everyone just simply get sections cut out and replaced with sheet metal?

i have rust all along the wheel well and its real bad behind where the bumper cover covers the quarterpanel... would be a pretty big section to cut out, and they'd have to replicate the curves in the sheet metal.

VTEC Shore Lude · 06-05-2003, 08:01 AM

the lude's quarter panel is really 2 peices molded toghether under the paint I beleive...could be wrong though. Refabricating the curves isnt that hard for a good body shop. Any yes it might be hard to find a clean rust free quarterpanel since they dont make them anymore and all the others are probably at junk yards sitting outside. Problem seems overwhelming huh. Ive had mine fixed 3 times for free with bondo at 3 different times i had paint/body work done and it came back all three times so bondo is not the way to go. I cant really complain about it since he did it all for free but next time its gonna hit me hard in the piggy bank.

I wonder if you could have the body shop separate the 2 panels and just put only one of them back on...wouldnt that gaurentee no reoccurance?

Dukespeed · 06-05-2003, 08:04 AM

I have this same scenario. I had a repaint last year and one bad winter I gots the cancer agian. I am going to get the shop to cut it out and weld in a new piece. I also wonder if there is something like a coating or lining we could put there to prevent the entrapment of water. I actually work for a Resin manufacturere we do industrial coatings, linings, floorings, mostly heavy corrosin environments. I bet if I found the entrance and stuck like a 1-2 mil coating of a clear 100% solids epoxy on there we would stop this ish. Something that you would not even notice is on there??? hmmm, I will talk with my engineering folk here and see what they think. Peace

matt

quickprelude · 06-05-2003, 08:16 AM

i bet if they strip out all the rust and spay a heavy rubberized undercoating in there it will prevent most of the moisture from getting back in. i am going to the body shop this weekend.....i will see what they say. but i am going to have them actually cut out the rust and reweld new pieces on so it doesnt come back in the near future. bondo to me is just a bandaid on a bullet hole

iamlost · 06-05-2003, 08:30 AM

the quote i mentioned was to cut out a square, weld in a new piece, paint, put in new molding, and another undercoating. Its a good body shop, I just didn't know if that was too much money

quickprelude · 06-05-2003, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by iamlost
the quote i mentioned was to cut out a square, weld in a new piece, paint, put in new molding, and another undercoating. Its a good body shop, I just didn't know if that was too much money

thats around what im expecting to pay.....sucks tho right?

Dukespeed · 06-05-2003, 08:33 AM

Yeah rubberized material is the way to go. An epoxy will not flex as much. No way do not let them just bondo it. That will be like throwing money down the drian. let us know how it goes

bk94si · 06-05-2003, 09:14 AM

I think if it happens to me again I'm going to ask them to put some por-15 on everything. Maybe that will keep it from coming back.

Dukespeed · 06-05-2003, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bk94si
I think if it happens to me again I'm going to ask them to put some por-15 on everything. Maybe that will keep it from coming back.

what exactly is por-15???

bk94si · 06-05-2003, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dukespeed

what exactly is por-15???

POR-15