Body needs work, rust mostly, need guidance
 

My quarter panels are rusting through, and side skirt too.

Im looking to you guys to give me suggestions on how to address this issue.
Ideally it would be mix between cost savings and longevity with cost taking 70% of the focus.

obviously welding new quarters on is on my mind, but i wonder what i can do otherwise. Considering also bondo work, but i was warned taht might only last 8 months by a nay sayer.

Who knows how long i can keep the car, so my goal really is low cost solutions, clever is always welcome.

Thanks in advance!

I definitely would look into getting some new quarters to weld on, since the new metal can be properly primed and protected from rusting. Bondo work is not ideal since that's a bandage solution but will fall apart.

What is the year of the car, how many miles? because if it's like a 2000 with 200k on it, drive it into the ground, don't worry about it. If it's got at least a little value, maybe it's worth it, but you'd still need to paint it. Also, you doing all the work or you taking it to a body shop?

Tape and wrap the area around the problem. so it doesn't hurt the good areas.

grind or cut the bad metal out,then media blast the areas.

Then get POR 15 products cleaner ,metal prep and paint.

Then use the degreaser and then metal prep it. With their products. After this is done 100% to instructions. Coat couple times with POR 15 paint.Inside and out.Then use their fiber glass mesh from the inside.

The neat thing is ,is that the POR 15 paint is also epoxy. so seal the inside with the mesh and paint.This mesh will bridge the gaps with the missing metal.
Then after all this dries get fiberglass bondo and fill the outside and sand to shape.
When you finish this undercoat the wheel wells .

I am in the process of doing this now,and many other things to a 2001 max i just picked up. thread is in the 5th gen forums .

awesome suggestion man! im not likely to do this myself but this opens a lot of avenues for me.

i will be searching for a pro that does this method now

2002 maxima se, 270,000 km

still considering this

i was gonna do this but no aftermarket support and i have been to a few junkyards can't find 1 00-03 that is in good enough shape.

Can you please share the images of your car with rusted parts?

TheMafia,
I have a 5.5 and I am also in the process of getting quotes to get my driver side rear wheel well repaired. 4 years ago I had it fixed but it returned this year. I tried a diy patch with a grinder, Bondo and spray paint but I see the rust returning under the paint. I have collected 3 quotes already but I am going to see what my usual paint guy has to say. Maaco and two smaller shops want a range of $380 - $500.

I am in the northeast and was wondering if I should wait until the spring to get this fixed.

Please, for the good of your car, stay away from Maaco! It's likely in their profit model to totally misrepresent, decrease quality, and screw up an entire job and have to redo it regularly. Trust me from experience.

MadMax07SL,
Thanks for the confirmation on Maaco. They wanted 500 to clean up the rust and repaint but the guy encouraged me to get the whole car painted for $1500. He said that painting the whole car took the blending and matching aspect of the job out of the equation. The rest of the car looks great so I will just use one of the other shops to have the single panel fixed.

Macco paint, guaranteed to last 13 months...one month after the warrantee runs out. And every macco shop may be ran differently, but my experience was so bad. I paid for body work, clean rust along the bottom of one door, smooth a dent in the quarter, "heavy prep" they called a more compressive sanding job since the paint on the car was older. Week later I go to pick it up, they painted over the rust on the door and the dent in the quarter. I asked the guy to show me the invoice again...and I pointed at the work I paid for, and pointed at the car. Oh, and there was overspray all over the bottom half of the car, had a dull finish essentially...I told the guy, based on all of this, I wanted the car completely redone, including the heavy prep. Another week later I come to pick it up, it passed my test, but all the trunk and door moldings were missing...sitting in someone's toolbox, I guess they expected me to buy new ones and put them on myself. Yeah, worst experience of my life. At the time I think I only spent like $800 (mid 90's) but I was certain had I gone somewhere else I would have been much more satisfied, and would have had my car back in the first week. I went over 2 weeks without a car...

MadMax07SL,
I just scratched that Maaco quote off of the list. There are just way too many Maaco Horror Stories out there.

MadMax07SL,
I took your advice and went to a local shop. They finished the job in 5 days as promised. While they were doing this I had them spray the rear bumper and clean up some other annoying scratches that accumulated over the years.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/maxima....c077f1b803.jpg

Here is what it looked like before my failed attempt to repair it on my own with a spray can.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/maxima....69d180b591.jpg