Small rust - what shall I do?

[FloydKing12345]

Hello everyone, 

I have a AUDI 2.0 TDI 2004 which I bought new. After  nearly 15 years  ownership, small spots of rust are starting to appear on the bottom of the doors (3 door version) and on the top edge of the front wings. The mileage is only 96700 miles, there are no other issues and we'll be keeping the car for as long as we can. 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I leave it or get it treated? 

Thanks 

Dave

[Steve Q]

Id always get it treated. Trust me, if you can see the rust on the outside of the wings then it'll be worse at the back of the wing! Same for the doors! 

Cheers

Steve

[cliffcoggin]

As Steve said, if the panels you can see are rusty, the bits you can't see are going to be worse.

As you have no plans to sell the car its value does not really matter, so the decision to treat it or not is a matter of personal choice. Do you want to maintain the best appearance or do you want to spend as little as possible?

[Magnet]

Hello David,

This is certainly not going to result in any relief for you, but I am in the camp of Steve and Cliff. Although the areas you mention are localised, the rust in these localised area is already well advanced. My experience leads me to believe that you will not cure this - slow it down a bit? - possibly.

Personally, I would not be paying a body shop to ‘rectify’ this since I doubt that any of them worth their salt would give you any guarantee about rust not reappearing, and as such, it might look prettier for a short space of time, but it will return. I’m not sure how handy you are with carrying out this work yourself, but this may be the cheapest short term appearance option. 

If this is your intention then please let us know and perhaps we can pass on some tips. 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[FloydKing12345]

Many thanks for all your replies.

Dave