shahram72

Reviving my old threat because it's pertinent now. Trying to keep the rust at bay. It is starting at the rear fender/bumper transition. What can I do? I already found some at the front of the rear wheel wells under the rubber trim, which I never replaced, BTW (anybody want my new ones?) So I left them off and ground out the rust and painted with touch up. Sure you can see it, but it has retarded the rust and cost me nothing. Spending money on this car is throwing good money after bad at this point. I'm just trying to make it last as long as I can. Due to the rust I have decided to forgoe the timing belt replacement. The car is worthless anyway. Maybe I should part it out?!?! And YES, everybody here should remove their rear fender lip seals. If you want just to clean and check, then you can buy my new ones cheap.

The best thing that can happen to me is to go outside and find the car engulfed in flames! One can hope!

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

Pics of said worthless car and rust? Maybe you can sell it to one of us if it isn't too bad.

TacoBello

Options:

1. burn it to the ground, claim insurance.

2. crash it, claim insurance.

3. have a friend "steal" it, claim insurance.

4. sell the car to someone who doesn't care.

5. drive the piss out of it until it dies, remove license plate and abandon on side of road.

shahram72

I'm thinking #5. I like the other options, but I'm too honest. A month or so ago someone T-boned my wife in our Pilot. We wish it happened to the RL, the Pilot was rock solid and trouble free, but we got a good amount for it. Not sure I want to be in a collision though.

oo7spy

Why would you abandon $1,000 in steel on the side of the road?

shahram72

Well I wouldn't literally abandon it, but how much is a 10 year old non running car worth? Lets say the AC and stereo is broke, you got a hole the size of a potato in the rear fender, and now you throw a timing belt. #5 seems reasonable at that point. And to the poster about the Accord stereo upgrades to sound better than the RL for $500. How? Don't you need a parametric EQ, time alignment processor, and the setup to get it all dialed in? That is what makes the RL sound like it does. And you still won't have surround sound. I spent $2000 on my last stereo system in my truck. Of course it gets there fast when you buy a $500 JL audio fiberglass sub that fits your car perfectly. You can always put in better stuff and achieve great clarity, but I never understood the car audio term "imaging" until I owned the RL. And this is just one of the reasons I love this car. Everything can be fixed, but at what cost? It very easily gets to car payment and beyond. Right now I am making my last 6 car payments and payments on repairs on my credit card, and that sucks. I'm still OK with that for now. But what about when something really expensive breaks? That's what has me so concerned. I spent on brakes, OK that's maintenence, spent on headlights, OK same thing, spent on the tie rod ends, and that was OK too, only a few hundred. Total $1000. And that's chump change.

oo7spy

A dead car is worth at least $700 in scrap metal. That was my only point.

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

Sooooooooo are you willing to take 800$ and I pay for shipping?? How bad is the rust?

shahram72

It's not bad at all yet, but it's not getting any better.

teh CL

iTrader: (1)

How about $801?

shahram72

We'll talk when it's a non running hunk on the side of the road, right now it's a nice running very comfortable car. All it needs is the headlights polished and the grille trim replaced. And an EE friend of mine offered to look at the Bluetooth computer if I can pull it. It's just behind the glovebox, right? My wife's new CRV has hands free link as well now, but it does not work or sound as good as the RL. Thinking about in January, asking my mechanic how much to just replace the timing belt, nothing else, just swap the belt. That can't be more than 2 hours labor book time. I'll bet he can do it in an hour, honestly.

Macau Park

That rust was not that bad. You should see my 7 year old civic after the last 2 winters we had in the NE and a condo that runs sprinklers every night hitting cars. Underbody, wheel hubs, calipers, wheel wells, and edge of door rusting. There is not a lot you can do if you have to drive in the salt/slush. Rinsing helps but the salt mush gets everywhere and is very corrosive.

shahram72

Today my attitude is much different, I'm not even the same person as in the last post. I think I mentioned in my other thread about getting a newer RL that I think I have someone who can help me just put a timing belt on it. So at least I'm not playing Russian roulette with the engine. I think that's a good option. No the rust is not that bad. I just want it to be a good distance car. I was working fast and feverishly on researching new cars to decide what to get. Thinking about a new Accord or maybe a newer RL or something. Then last night I made contact with an old college buddy on facebook whom I had not talked to in years. We were both BIG car guys back then and had big aspirations of what we would drive in the future. Then he sent me a pic of his garage, and my desire and longing for a new car and my car about the rust totally melted away. There was a Porsche SUV and a Nissan GTR in the garage. And I'm trying to figure out how to gussy up an Accord LX. What a f***** joke! I don't even want a new car anymore, and don't car about the rust on mine anymore. I still want to take care of it, but as before not going to spend thousands on it. But a few hundred here and there is fine with me. It's a nice car and I'm glad to own it. It's very comforting after work. I don't envy the guy, we both had the same things given to us at the start, he just knew how to better use them. Not really depressed, can't describe how I feel, I just lost any desire to buy anything. Lost all enthusiasm for any car at or slightly beyond my reach. Partly a good thing! I just feel like....Go through all this and then have some economy car that wishes it were something else and it's still shit like my wife's new Honda CRV which is a shit econobox. I feel like, what's the point? Sorry to waste you guys time with my ramblings, looks like I'll be around the RL section for a while longer.

thomask

Truth to be told, our cars are not fully zinc plated which is a major bummer. I've just taken care of a surface rust recently. Sanded it down where I could and put on epoxy primer and sealed with an under body coating. It's never going to be perfect since it's pretty much physically impossible to sand down all the rust without a sandblaster but I hope it will slow the process down and be good enough for years to come.