Repairing rust WOO-HOO!

Food?

So I just bought a 1998 Volkswagen Cabrio. It's in terrific shape, but it has two small rust spots that I'd like to take care of immediately, so they don't spread. There's a spot on the driver's side wheel well, and another above the windshield that created enough pressure to crack the windshield. Pictures? Well alright!




What are the odds of me being able to fix these on my own, inexpensively? I'm pretty sure I'll have to get the windshield removed to get the rust spot above it, but I'm open to any alternatives. Ssppeeaakkk.

b0bd0d

Hit it with some sort of rust remover. Try home depot or the auto part store. My dad always says to use Lime-away or something like that and I've used bar keepers friend to remove rust. That or a lot of PB Blaster or other penetrating oil. I guess you could get a wire brush and brush it off. Maybe try sandpaper with a heavy grit. Or use a wire wheel that goes on a drill or grinder attachment. Get the rust off to the bare metal. May be hit it with some primer then a coat or two of paint. The auto part store might have some spray paint that you can buy that will match your color. You wanna blend it to the surrounding paint.
uh...I'm guessing 20 bucks, on the high side. Depending on how you wanna fix it and what tools you already got.

Diomedes240z

To add a bit to the previous post:

If you aren't going to take the windscreen completely off, you aren't going to remove all the rust. If it were me, and If I had decided I didn't want to go to the trouble, I'd just fish-oil it. Then I'd spray fish oil into every chassis rail, nook and cranny I could find. Your car will smell terrible for a week. It is the smell of victory. This will slow the rust down a lot.

If you do want to take out the windscreen, and put in a new one, you'd be surprised how nice pressure-pack paint can look if applied properly. I'd sand it back to get the loose scale off, then use a rust killer, then prime and paint with pressure pack. It won't look perfect, but it'll be cheap and will look OK. It's hard to tell just how bad it is from photos... if there's holes...

Improvolone

Yea, that glass will have to come off. To remove the rust, I suggest a rotary tool.

wmelon

The fender should be fairly easy to take care of. I'd suggest taking it off the car then getting a grinder and grinding it down. Then I'd suggest getting some POR-15. A kit like this would work perfect. Then go pick up a spray can of the color paint your cabrio is from the dealer to paint over that.

The windsheild frame, i'd probably have that done professionally. You don't want to warp the frame and cause your top not to seal properly.

Food?

Yeah, I'm kinda planning on getting the windshield part done professionally, as there's a lot of things that could go wrong if I do it myself.

Food?

I forgot to ask, how much time would this consume? I'm hoping to take care of the rust spots and everything with in an hour or so, and be able to drive the car within a few more hours (I realize the windshield spot isn't going to be anywhere near that quick, so this question applies more to the spot near the wheel).

Fats

When it comes to body work, the quality of the result is directly correlated to how long you spent on it. You could do it in an hour, but it'd look like you did it in an hour.

Honestly, looking at the fender I'm worried there's more rust between the two exposed bits, and that makes me wonder if there's much metal left. It may be more than a strip and repaint job, though it's hard to say from here.