Are there any bodywork experts out there?
I have noticed a few tiny patches of rust on my car which I want to treat before they turn into giant paper thin rust patches. This winter has been exceptionally mild here, but we usually have quite a lot of snow with attendant salt and grit, which is not ideal when you have rust.
I think I remember from the days of driving £100 heaps, we used to sand the rust patches then paint on some grey stuff - the car then looked like it had mange, but at least the rust was kept at bay!
I went to the local Norauto who were completely useless - the 'assistant' simply took stuff off the shelf and read the labels (I can do that too!) so we got no further forward.
The rust is round one of the wheel arches and a couple of small chips lower down on the doors - probably caused by stone chips. The car is a silver Mercedes ML350 - 10 years old. Can't afford to pay garage fees, but I want to do something before it becomes a big expensive job.
Can anybody advise me? Many thanks. And if you can tell me what the products are in french, that would be super-handy!
Before you start spending time and money on this, you need to determine where the rust is coming from. Around wheel arches and door sills, you may find that the metal has rusted through from the underside and the lifting of the paint is just the final stage in the complete rotting through of the panel. You can check this out by probing the rust patch with the blade of a small screwdriver. If it penetrates the metal, no "refinishing" will be effective. You will need to replace the rusted panels or sills, a skilled job that may or may not make economic sense, depending on the overall condition of the vehicle.
If you are lucky and the rust is only superficial, there is plenty of advice and demonstrations on YouTube. Choose the method that best suits your problem and level of skill.
It is a bit strange for a 10 year old car to have serious rust problems. Is it possible that your car has been damaged and repaired to a lower standard than the manufacturers original specification?
I aim to please when not twirling my big stick ..... you pussycat you!
Thanks Fiona. "young"
That's the nicest thing anybody has said to me today;-)
Think we may have lost that when it was 6th hand .......
What happened to the 30 year anti corrosion warranty? Gone I suppose when the bean counters took over from the engineers at Mercedes Benz.
don't be pesky young Vic !!!
Just about every 'antirouille' from bricos is much the same. I play safe and buy a middle price range one usually.
I'll have a look - many thanks.
Love rust into not rust - about my level of technicalness too!
We have a little rust painter, bit like a tippex, which we got from halfords (when we were in the UK) you paint it on without the need to sand or anything else and it somehow converts the rust into not rust (sorry, I'm really not technical). If this link works - I found this on the Norauto website...
http://www.norauto.fr/produit/bombe-antirouille-rustol-owatrol-300-ml_404703.html