I bet if you think your car doesn't have rust, it actually MAY!

Here I went about my life with my TD as a kid, as a teen, now in my twenties. knowing this car well, VERY well, being obsessive about its care, detailing everything, and knowing every curve, every scratch, and chip- NEVER did I EVER think it had rust.

I looked outside, under, above, inside, under carpet everywhere, and never saw rust.

Low and behold, recent body work, and investigation revealed something to the contrary. Small pockets of rust were growing in my rear tail light, in my passenger floor pan and in a couple other small areas. I did some research and informed myself about rust and how it behaves.

Lesson #1
You can not elminate rust EVER. The way to eliminate it is to replace it. My body panel has rust, it must be cut out and replaced if I don't want it to continue to spread.

Lesson #2
Rust is a cancer. It can hide and you won't know it is there. I had a body shop repaint a panel on my car. They never saw any rust even after sanding it down. Turns out there was rust deep in the panel, under bondo from previous body work. There was NO way for me to know it was cultivating there.

Lesson #3
It spreads like a cancer. It will infect permanently everything around it in time. And continue to spread. Stop it ASAP.


So what is my plan? After dropping close to $7,000 into cosmetic issues on my car (seat rebuilds, collision repair, lighting upgrade), I am not going to spend much more YET.

Instead I've sanded these areas and put a Anti-rust chemical on them to seal them. None of these areas are on the paint yet. thankfully.

I am going to replace my floor pan in the next couple weeks. I can not stand to let water come in from underneath, so it must be fixed.

THE MORAL
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In my seemingly immaculate car, that I KNEW had no rust, I found some. Turns out it is from a collision my father was in and an inadequate repair. The floor pan rust ? I have no idea how that arrived.

INSPECT your car with a fine tooth comb. If you think you've done that already, you haven't!! Sometimes you can't see it. Be attentive. Monitor developing rust. AND don't freak out like I did. It's just money and if you love the car enough, fix it and keep it, and smile, knowing your car will NEVER be perfect.

__________________
1995 E320 Sportline Wagon "Bernard"
black on black leather

http://i.imgur.com/BdZ7jM3.png