So today my father and I replaced the door pins on my car. Needless to say it took 7 hours because we had to do the roller on the drivers side too and the pin got stuck. So we had to take the whole door off. Then we have it on top of a little stand and it fell off. Well all it did was bend the back corner of the door a little so we hammered it back into place.

Anyways when we got the door hinges off and there was surface rust all over where the hinges were mounted. We took some black spray paint and covered over both spots on the drivers side, but since we never had to take the whole door off on the passenger side we didn't do anything to that side.

I want to keep this car for as long as I can, and only plan to part with it if it is either damaged beyond repair or it catches on fire (I get very connected to objects). So would it be worth my time to take the other door off and see if there is rust under the hinges there as well? Or will be it fine if I leave it until I paint it in 5-6 years?

 

Depends how bad the rust is, painting over it is not going to stop it. The rust needs to be treated and the metal sealed....

 

Umm it's not bad at all, at least it wasn't on the drivers door. Scuffing it with sandpaper for about 5 seconds got it to bare metal.

 

If you're talking about the hinge post where the hinges bolt up, I don't think GM put anything on there. When you take the hinges off they're all a little rusty. After sanding, if there are no black pits in the metal then just paint it, with proper steps of course.

 

Yes that is where I am talking about. There was just some minor surface rust on the hinge itself and the post.