That's a lot of rust. Help? Ideas?

Cooky8

Test Drive
The fender around my X is pretty much gone.... what to do? Should I try to fill with foam and putty? Any old truck that could help? Never had to repair such damage before...

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IM1RU

Skid Plates
Supporting Member
Location
SLC, UT
If you don't remove all of the rotted metal, and replace with new, anything you do will just be temporary.... The rust can continue to eat under, over, and around what ever patch is made.
 

Just a Hunter

Bought an X
Location
Georgia
Spray with a rust neutralizer such as the one made by Rustoleum.

Repeat with a coat of primer.

Basically, this will slow the process somewhat.

Get a quote from a bodyshop and have it repaired correctly.

If you think it looks bad now, give it another year or two.
 

Like2_4Wheel

Test Drive
Location
PEI Canada
I would start with cutting out all the rust and see if you can rebuild it. mine where rusted similar to the first pic. i just cut it to the lip.
 

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westslope

Wheeling
The OP Cooky8 has not been here since Wednesday. Today is Saturday. He or she may not really care.

It might be easier to advize the OP if we had the full stats on the vehicle. Mileage, accident history, condition of the frame, engine condition.

The cost-effective solution could be to junk the 1st generation Xterra and start over with another vehicle. A very high mileage 2nd generation Xterra in otherwise good condition might be a better bet.
 

bigjim247365

Anime boobs & male genitals? Sign me up!
Supporting Member
Location
Hainesville IL
I'm gonna tell you the same thing i told my father when he wanted to drop money on his cheap beater car for rust.

"you are gonna spend half of what that car is actually worth for rust. dont."
 

Just a Hunter

Bought an X
Location
Georgia
Ok, this X isn't worth much in the condition it's currently in.
As a suggestion, you may wish to contact a local Technical School which has an "auto body program" and see what they would charge to work on it.

Obviously, an auto body shop may charge as much to fix the rust damage as is the value of the suv.
 

westslope

Wheeling
Rust responds really well to pro-active maintenance. (No matter how time consuming and tedious.)

Once the rust has metastasized and spread through the body and frame, you might as well take the vehicle out behind the barn and shoot it in the head.

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In passing, do folks from northern climes here remember the Japanese autos and light trucks of the 1970s? They were fuel efficient, inexpensive "good" vehicles but man, did they rust out quickly!

Thankfully improvements were made to later vintage vehicles.
 

Cooky8

Test Drive
Hey! Its been a while, I'm sorry, life got in the way! Did some work on the X tho.

Answering
The OP Cooky8 has not been here since Wednesday. Today is Saturday. He or she may not really care.

It might be easier to advize the OP if we had the full stats on the vehicle. Mileage, accident history, condition of the frame, engine condition.

The cost-effective solution could be to junk the 1st generation Xterra and start over with another vehicle. A very high mileage 2nd generation Xterra in otherwise good condition might be a better bet.

It's about 150k miles on it, no idea of the accident history in it frame is rusty on surface but not through, engine works awesomely. I got it for about 1200 us which in our neck of the wood is really cheap for a working 4x4.

Budget is an issue, I ain't got much to patch it and make it whole before winter because I needed it to work. Tho be rid of holes that can fill with ice and do worse damage to it. Took time and about 100 to patch the gaping holes and repaint it all. No it's not professional work and yeah I'm gonna have to re do it later on in its life. But im pretty happy and proud of what we did.
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So far I've changed the passenger seatbelts, the electric window motor driver side, the suspension for another stock one but not dead like mine (15$ for the 4) the back bumper for a used but not too rusted one (mine was holding by one side only), filled the holes with urethane expanding foam, recut it, potty with fiberglass, sanded the whole X, did a paintjob with rust preventive paint..

Lot of work and I'm happy and proud of it. No it's not perfect as a body shop would have done. But it's my work.
 

Cooky8

Test Drive
I must admit I was a bit disappointed to see the grey body appear, but it does look kinda cool with the orange outlines you have left.
Me too. I liked the orange. But there were so much damage everywhere, to have a good unified paint. I would have to re do it all, at almost 4 times the cost.. budget is tight. I've had to stop work for 2 weeks because of a back injury. That's why I has to cut down on paint cost and get a used stock shock set instead of the bilsteim i wanted. Winter is coming and she just had to be ready.

I splurged on a few cans of orange for the trims tho. Since it's a closed door paint, every insides of doors are still orange. With the accents, it look good instead of half made lol
 

Cooky8

Test Drive
I'll look into it! I was already to go to a garage for winter anti rust treatment for the underside, to slow things down at least. So far, there is surface rust but not going through, I thought a anti rust treatment could slow it down at least

Thx for the tip!
 

westslope

Wheeling
It will slow the rust diffusion down. It may forestall electrical shorting. It could add some lubrication where currently insufficient.

And more important, it will give you time to deal more directly with specific rusted areas.
 
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