Help! Rust on my 99 Solara! What do I do?

by **tglove** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:32 am

hi folks,

i really need your great ideas and opinions on this one. i've been the proud owner of a 99 solara for 3 years now (bought used). i live in toronto, canada and have not had any rustproofing done in the past. as the subject says, i'm now the owner of a rusty solara...take a look at these pics below....

basically these are small (~1 cm diameter) rust "spots" right where the windshield and roof of the car meet (someone mentioned to me that rustproofing likely would not prevent rust here anyway so i'd really be interested to know if other solara owners have seen this). anyway, there are about 4-5 of these spots now and i don't trust my local toyota dealer with this...i'm sure they'd clean my bank account given the chance..

so my questions are:

1) what's the surefire (probably most costly) way to get rid of these spots and to prevent more and about how much would/should that cost?

2) are there any lower cost alternatives to either stopping the rust or removing the rust? anyone had any success with coatings/sprays to protect that area from spreading?

as you can tell budget is a concern...but i'd love to have my pristine solara back so i'm willing to spend....please advise!

thanks guys...

by **WhiteSLEV6** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:04 am

I had like the exact same problem. You should take it to Toyota.. that's what i did and for a cost of $160 they fixed it good.

the bad part was they kept my car for 2 days. :cry:

well worth the wait though.

by **tglove** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:25 am

do you know what they did? has the problem returned?

if you don't mind, please let me know the dealer you went to (i see you're in kitchener area...)

thx

by **Astro** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:56 am

Don't they have to sand/cut out the rust? Then repaint the area?

by **Jai_Jai_Binks** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:32 am

Do do a clean job, u need to sand down the area first, then you need to prime and paint.

by **WhiteSLEV6** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:42 am

tglove wrote:do you know what they did? has the problem returned?

if you don't mind, please let me know the dealer you went to (i see you're in kitchener area...)

thx

I'm not really sure what they did to it.. maybe sand it down?? But they did do a great job on it. I'm gonna ask them next time i go to the dealer. Btw i did it at Heffner Lexus Toyota

http://heffner.toyota.ca/dwp/grouppage.jsp

by **Jon11582** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:15 am

To get it fixed right, they do need to sand it down and repaint it.

To get it fixed cheap, use touch up paint to cover it so it cant oxidize anymore. (If you do get it fixed right eventually, you should still throw some touchup paint on for the time being, they can sand through it later.)

I say touch it up for now, and if the touchup look annoys you, bring it in to get it done right.

by **tglove** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:19 pm

thanks for the replies everyone...

to the last poster: would the standard Toyota touch up paint stop the rust from spreading? i've heard horror stories of ppl who've seen a bit of rust and then discovered that there is actually a large corrosion underneath or around that area....do you think i have to be concerned about this?

my other question is with the sanding/paint fix....does anyone know if this really stops the rust process....i guess short of replacing the whole sheet metal of the hood...i don't have a choice....this all seems weird to me for a car that's only 5-6 years old and is indoors (out of the rain) most of the time....seems like toyota have not done well with this....

by **Mandarinsolara** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:35 pm

I have no insite to toyota's stand on this, but my moms expidition had some oxidation on the hood, and under their warranty it was repaired bc of some rust act. im not looking into it though. and mom said she doesnt know anything about cars and stuff or what the problem was, but it was fixed for free, thats all she knows.

by **Astro** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:29 pm

^^Like he was saying, try calling a dealership and explaining your problem. At least you can find out if Toyota warranties their paint from rust. Also, it couldn't hurt to find out what it'll take to get it taken care of at the dealer.

by **Jon11582** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:42 am

Toyota has a 5 year/unlimited mile warrantee on rust in the US.
99's right outside of the 5 year, so hes out of luck for the warrantee.

But it doesnt hurt to ask.

by **tglove** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 5:54 am

dealer tells me there's no warranty coverage so i am SOL....

since these spots are not too big, what could i use to sand out these areas and then use touch up paint to cover? is there some special sanding pen or device to do this?

by **Jon11582** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 7:29 am

I would not try to do rust repair myself. I think you have more of a chance to screw up the paint worse than to fix it if you are not skilled in paint repair.

Like I said before, I would just cover it with touchup paint to prevent it from rusting anymore. Of course its going to look a little crude, but if it doesnt bother you, dont worry about it. If it does, then bring it into a shop whenever you have time to get an estimate on repair - At least the touchup paint will prevent the rust from spreading.

Help! Rust on my 99 Solara! What do I do?

Help! Rust on my 99 Solara! What do I do?

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