tempusfugitive

hey all
just wondering, if anyone has or is having problems with severe rust just forward of the rear springs, visisble only from the inside under the little piece of vinyl covering (foam, carpet..) infront of the plastic molding that covers the wheel well. sorry no camera, hopefully that makes some sort of sense, also if anyones had any luck fixing it.
thanks all
steve

BigJim

thats very common, remove your bins behind your seat and you will see.

blueraven

I found out three weeks ago the hard way that your problem is common. I got a good deal, getting the wheel well replaced for $500. If you pan down the post for the last couple of weeks you will find where I asked the same question. There is a replay showing a fix if you rust is minor, mine was not.

good luck
Blueraven

82transam

iTrader: (18)

I made new wells out of 16ga sheet metal and welded them in on my car. The problem is that mazda put two layers of metal, and did not seal them, so water gets inbetween, and just sits there rotting it away. It was a fair amount of work, but I think they way I did them should make it last for a while.

tempusfugitive

thats what i was thinking of doing, looks pretty hard to do though, guess i really should pull those bins out and see how bad it is, its funny though the cars been underoiled every year, and its never been winter driven, and despite that she's still rusting out like crazy, but either way i still have to get the car safetyed before i can even worry about,just hope that don't look too close

blueraven

be careful, I was just going to patch the rust, however when I took it to a body shop, they informed me that the reason the rust was flaking off was everytime I hit a bump the shock caused the wheel well to flex. When they cut out the rust, the body flexed and they had to place a jack device inside the car just to widen the body enough to get the door open. If this is just a local cruiser, I don't know if I would pay the big $$ to get it fixed by a pro, but if you're going to drive it allot, or put someone in the car that doesn't have a good life insurance policy, I'd have a pro fix it.

Blueraven

82transam

iTrader: (18)

all it takes in one drop of water, once it gets inbetween those two sheets of metal its all over, stored winters or not. good job mazda, good job.....

blueraven

once you do fix the problem, spray undercoating inside and out, then spray it again!!!!!!
Blueraven

tempusfugitive

will do, i have a buddy that works in an autobody shop that should be able to get me a decent deal, so when i can afford to do it i'm going take it there and get them to do it, its more expensive but i know it'l been done right. in the mean time, i don't think theres hole there a yet, and the rust seems to stop as soon as it hits the double plate of steel over the spring, but i guess i won't really know until the metal is cut out, what i might do is spray a whole can of rust check, or under oil between the 2 panels to slow the spread of the rust a bit