Well, since I live in lovely new england, rust is a bit of a problem up here. I haven't gotten my Bird yet, but all the ones I find have a little bit of rust here and there. What are some good techniques to fix this? I'm probably just gonna pick up a winter beater car, and by my Bird in the spring, but I'd still like to know.

 

best peice of rust advice is don't buy a rusty thirdgen, its more of a headache then its worth,

only real way to fix rust is to cut the rusty part out and weld in a newpeice of metal

 

Er,were you ever one of the A-team?I agree that Heavily rusted areas are better replaced but most rust is very fixable by a spot blasting gun or by use of a rust remover containing phosphoric acid.But yeah,don't buy a rusty thirdgen.There seem to be a few areas common to alot of them prone to rust.Like underneath the heater blower housing,rots through into the interior.You don't know it's there until the water comes in!Others are front strut towers,inside rear wheel arches,and under the GFX on the rear of the front fender.I did get the welder going for this one.

 

I'm not going to get a rusty one, I was just wondering if there was an easy fix for small rust spots, like I saw one car that was perfect for the most part externally except for a hole/area of rust just about the arch of the wheel well. I checked the strut towers, under the arch, all around, and it was perfect, except for just that little area above the arch. Thats the kind of rust I'm talking about. Thats why I'm just gonna buy a winter beater, and pick up a 3rd ge in the spring, I'll save more money and be able to buy a much better 3rd gen, the ones I have been dealing with have been rusty.

 

sand down the rusted spots (if it is surface rust), use a rusty metal primer, then coat with por 15 and it will never rust again, if the rust has gone all the way through, cut the metal out and weld in a new piece, coat in por 15.

 

Well I got a rusty thirdgen
But I was only 17 and for 800$ with a 350 and an extra fiberglass hood and new perfect conditioned rocker panel ground effects I thought it was a steal.

But good news is I have replacement doors and fenders, so that leaves the rear fenders and a few other spots so I guess it's not as bad as it could be

 

If you haven't got access to a welder,use some aluminium car body mesh to cover the hole(rivet it on maybe) and cover with ready mixed fibreglass paste.I've done this before and never had it come through again.Just make sure the base metal is back to the clean stuff.

 

sand blasting is nice if its not deep.

Rust is cancerous it will spread and return if even a tiny speck is left.