Hey guys...I did a search, but just wanted a little more info.

I have some rust spots, in quite a few places...probably 10-15. All are very small, with the largest probably being about the size of a dime. Question is, should I just run some touch up paint over them? (like a friend suggested) ... or actually sand them out, then paint over? I have no real experience with body work so I just really don't know.

Whats more annoying, is Advance, and Autozone don't even carry the paint for my car. I'll be calling the dealership on Monday about that.

Anyways, just looking for a few tips. Thanks.

id only go to the dealership for the paint code if you cant find it off your firewall tag. then i would go to a bodyshop and see what they can get you for touch up paint. most of the time its cheaper from them especially if they need to adjust the tint for fading or any discoloration of the origional color.

as for the rust spots go, think of them like icebergs. what you see isnt the whole extent of the damage. some rust spots might apear as little ones but once you get below the clear and the color, they tend to spread out and start traveling down the panel underneath good paint till they surface as a blister.

now this is where it depends on what part of the car its on and what your future plans for the body are.
bunch of spots on the hood? touch up the spots directly and save your money for a Fiberglass or Carbon hood.
front fender? this one is tough as some of the damage can actually be on the back side of the panel and even if you sand it down and paint it, the panel might fail from the inside out. on the plus side this panel is easy to drop and treat the back side with a rust proof primer, then you can deal with the pretty side of the panel. or you canreplace with fiberglass or carbon panels.

in all honesty your best bet (especially if its an easy panel to remove) it to take it off and sand out the rust spots then have it painted. HOWEVER, if the rest of your paint is in "less then perfect" shape or you have that "fading paint STD" that most of us get, i would be saving up my cash and making friends with some painting friends to have the whole car done. it might sound extreme to repaint the whole car for some rust spots but usually if theres a few there are more lurking.
but again this depends on how long your gonna have the car too. long term id look for a respray.

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"Don't fear the weapon, fear the soul of the warrior using it."
"My CEL only goes off when i remove my battery."

Best sum up of working on a 2GNT
DR1665- "#5. Spike that motherfucker on the garage floor and grab a beer. You deserve it."


Ahhhh Priceless . . .
eclipse982nrRST "its actually lightish red"
RoninEclipse2G "yeah, they already have a color for that... it's called PINK"

I would love to get the car painted at some point, I am sort of experiencing that "fading paint STD". I'll have to check out which exact panels have the issue. I agree with you on the hood..just gives me a good excuse to upgrade.

If I did a respray, I'm assuming they take care of all the rust spots? What kinda cost am I looking at, ballpark?

TIA!

resprays range from $1500 to about $7000 depending on who does what work and the color.
if you do a bunch of the prep work and disassemble the car so pretty much all they have to do is final blocking and spray you will save a TON of cash!!
yours is nice since its silver which hides small body work imperfections well. i paid heavely for body work since my car is black. final results were worth it, but jesus i hated writing that check!

a stock respray (non color change) will also save you money since you dont have to shoot the door sills or the engine bay.
also the quality of color / clear makes a difference too
you will spend more money going with say a PPG or HoK paint then you will with a Aamco paint special. "one step" paints also save time and money since the clear and color are mixed into one application as opposed to shooting layers of color then adding a clear. thae downside to those is that they are VERY hard to wet sand, so i would avoid them if your going for a high quality paint job.

______________________________________
______________________________________
"Don't fear the weapon, fear the soul of the warrior using it."
"My CEL only goes off when i remove my battery."

Best sum up of working on a 2GNT
DR1665- "#5. Spike that motherfucker on the garage floor and grab a beer. You deserve it."


Ahhhh Priceless . . .
eclipse982nrRST "its actually lightish red"
RoninEclipse2G "yeah, they already have a color for that... it's called PINK"

Yea I considered Aamco, but then I read some horror stories =|

It seems to be location specific though..so I will try to see if I can find out about the one near me.

you can get a decent job out of maaco but you have to do ALL the prep and finish work to keep the paint from chipping a year later. also it helps to grease the palms of the painter to get them to lay down a little extra clear coat.

prep, strip the car of all the weatherstripping and lights, I would remove the bumper covers as well so that if you ever remove them afterwards you won't have to worry about breaking the paint seam. also sand down every single square milimeter that will have paint going on it because maaco is notorious for not sanding in small body lines.

finish, plan on doing a LOT of color sanding to smooth things out and buff the heck out of it. after a month put a really good sealer wax/glaze on and keep up on it regularly, no one that doesn't have an eye for paint will be able to tell that you only spent $250-500 on your paint job.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!