Rust Repair and Post Body Work Clean Up

[BRZN]

Bought the car used in March of '15, she's a 2012. The car originally came from Michigan, and I have no idea how she was cared for those first few years. A bit of surface rust on the underside, but that's it, I thought. A few years ago it was obvious some rust was beginning on the left rear wheel arch. Last summer I had it taken care of. The seam sealer at the inner to outer rear quarter panel, inside the wheel arch was rubbed off somehow and it had allowed water, dirt, and debris inside the panel. Two weeks after the repair I could see tiny rust bubbles starting again. The same body shop attempted the repair again. This time it took two months for the rust to begin again.

Early this month I had it at a different body shop (owner has a 2014 Camaro) and used a clean section of left rear quarter panel secured, both inner and outer, from a wrecked car to be used to graft into the damaged area.
















After the body work, the car needed cleaned up badly. The interior was overly dusty.




The exterior was covered in overspray. A nice two bucket wash and clayed, this took care of the overspray.







I applied a Graphene Ceramic Coating to everything on the car except the repaired left rear quarter panel. That area I'll address deeper into the winter after the fresh paint has had time to completely gas off.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed the rust has now been taken care of. I'm not ready to get rid of her yet.

[myold88]

This is the only rust issue I've ever seen here on camaro5 in 10+ years. I would
bet that area has had prior body work on that 1/4 panel. My 11 year old '10 SS
doesn't have a speck of body rust after 8 winters in Northern Connecticut and 3
here in Florida. I hope your new repair holds up.

[BRZN]

Nope, absolutely no evidence of prior bodywork in that area. Like I'd stated the seam sealer had been rubbed off somehow. Could have been from the plastic inner fender liner. It's now been replaced too.
Here's a pic of what was found on the first rust repair attempt once the inner fender liner was removed.

Yea, I've put larger wheels and tires on and lowered her, but there's no sign of any rubbing in the rear at all from the tires.

[Valkyrie14]

I live in Wisconsin and this is a big concern for me. So far all I have seen are a couple of spots on the bumpers when I had the covers off. Good luck, looks like the shop did it the right way.

[drew peacock]

this is why my camaro will never see a winter or even a wet road..it's too precious for me personally to risk rust..plus my OCD will never allow it

[myold88]

Originally Posted by drew peacock

this is why my camaro will never see a winter or even a wet road..it's too precious for me personally to risk rust..plus my OCD will never allow it

These cars don't rust like the old days. keep it in the garage and watch it depreciate. Not me. Mines been on several trips to
Florida, Georgia, Indianapolis, up and down I-95, Canada, etc. 63,000 miles in almost 12 years and still looks like new.
I drove it for 8 winters in CT when the roads were dry. Sorry, I just don't get the garage queens.

[prod]

I have seen rust starting on the rear quarters of a 2010 that was for sale here in Toronto Canada, where you just dont drive your good car in the winter.
It was rust bubbles under the paint right on the horizontal line where the rear quarter meets the bumper cover. It looked like the original paint, carfax showed no previous work. It is a spot I will watch out for. I pointed it out to the salesman, but when I came back they had done a quick respray that was obviously meant to cover it up rather than repair it properly.
Another is the bottom of the doors, just above the seam. I have seen rust there on 2-3 camaros as new as 2013.

[BRZN]

My '06 GTO "Garage Queen" sits in our garage. We don't have garage space for the rest of our vehicles, including my daily driven company car, my Dodge Magnum (utility vehicle), and our daily driven Camaro. The GTO is a garage queen because it doesn't have to be driven often, it's my toy, and what I spend winters constantly modifying.

Our '12 Camaro also had slight rust bubbles at the door skin seam under the passenger's side door. I had the body shop grind that off and re-spray that area too. I believe I got that taken care of way ahead of any type of major problem to the door. Time will tell.

prod, you should get that taken care of like I did soon. The first time I took ours to a body shop for repair we had a spot similar to the larger one in your pic. The body man told me there was no metal behind the paint. As soon as he sanded the paint off there was a hole. The problem with the first two attempts of rust repair to our car, was that just the exterior panel was repaired, nothing was done to the inner fender where the problem was originating. The rust began to show up again rather quickly. You may need to source another section of quarter panel to graft in as I did. The salvage yard where I found my repair piece had five different gen5 Camaros there, they can also be found on eBay.

[Cheap Guy]

Michigan with its road salt is just brutal on cars. You’ll see cars that look perfect inside or from the waist up but then you check the wheel wells and pinch seams and the rot is terrible.

When I’m looking for used cars one of the first things I ask is where did the car come from. A lot of the issue with Michigan cars is owners don’t wash the undercarriage or don’t wash them at all after a snowfall that requires salting the road. Even on my beaters or daily drivers I’ll run them through a wash immediately once the roads are clear. I know folks here frown on drive through car washes but it’s the lesser of the evils.

[BRZN]

I'm one of those that frowns on drive through car washes.

I own, and use an MTM Undercarriage Cleaner to spray down the undersides of our daily's. The tool connects to my (gas powered) pressure washer and blasts the undersides of vehicles with four 45 degree nozzles.

https://adamspolishes.com/products/a...AaAmr2EALw_wcB

[TheFlyingBananaSS]

The factory seam sealer gets brittle over the years and just falls off. Common issue on most cars from GM.

[lbls1]

(laughing) Double sided galvanized steel panels. Phooey. It reminds me of my old cavalier. That thing was supposed to have double sided galvanized panels, but it had some of the worst rust I've seen on a 90's car.

Make sure that all of the rust has been cut out of the area to be repaired. It could be a bit late for this right now, but take note that on your next new car, you should seriously consider undercoating and/or a Ziebart type rustproofing. These are proven rust fighting methods that have been very effective against corrosion in the past. If you keep your car out of the weather and the salt treated roads, then you could gamble and not have the rustproofing. Otherwise, if you drive it in the weather then I seriously would recommend rustproofing and a good dose of cleaning and detailing.

Rust is very difficult to correct depending on how severe it is. Just grinding it off and applying bondo is like flushing money down the toilet. Rust has an uncanny way of showing its ugly head, as it will surely come back. Rust has to be completely cut out in order to effectively rid yourself of it. Do your best to keep your car out of the weather and treated roads. Have a designated daily driver for the harsh stuff.

[SaReNi]

nice work. car looks great.

[moose517]

haha dang my car is doing it in the exact same spot! From IN so we see the same road conditions and such, odd that it started the exact same way! I'm actually about to tackle it again for the second time and I'm not hopeful on it not coming back, but finding shops around here that will even touch rust repair is hard to find XD