Rust Repair Advice

Question

I have acquired a 2005 Mazda 3 sedan.Its a nice little car, aside from the atrocious amount of rust on it.

The rust originated in the wheel wells, and that's where most of the rust actually is.

Here is some pics of the rust spots.

Drivers side:

Passenger Side:

Back Panel:

It has gotten to the bottom, under the doors as well, all the way up to the front wheels on both sides:

This is actually a known problem with this model, mazda offered an extended warranty for it to 6 years, but the original owners never bothered with it.

Here's an article I found that shows the common rust spots for this car and you can see, they mirror my car exactly.

So, My question is this: how much do you think I can expect to spend to get this fixed? It is really bothering me, and I want to get it fixed before snowfall.

I don't want to spend more than $700 tops. I haven't done any mechanical work in the past, so I don't think I should be taking something like this on as a DIY.

Answer 1

Seriously, $700 would not even start to fix this issue. This is probably $10-15,000 worth of work there ... easily. If the car was in perfect shape, it would only be worth $5,000 at the outside. My suggestion to you is, treat this as a throw away car and drive it until the wheels fall off. Save your money and purchase something which will actually be something which will last. It just doesn't make sense to throw good money after bad trying to fix something which isn't going to be worth it in the end.

If you want to shut down the rust for the mean time, clean up the affected areas with a wire brush, then coat with POR-15. Since the stuff is black anyway, it should blend in with the paint to an extent, and should keep it from getting worse, though it will degrade over time in the sunlight, so recoats maybe necessary. Should hold the rust at bay for a few years until you can buy something better.