Rusty 944

[Paul Fraser]

Mmm. I've had a look at some corrosion just above my rear number plate and, after picking away for a while, find that there is a small hole (2-3 mm diameter) close to one of the screw holes for the left hand plate light number. What is the best way to sort this? New panel? If so how much? Fill it with filler and paint myself? Some intermediate option?
I don't particularly want to put it into a body shop and then have it bubble through eighteen months later, as has happened to me before, so any comments welcome.
PS The car is a rather battered 1984 944 in metallic burgundy (was that an actual colour or was it called something else?) that I have had since 1987, so, while I want to keep it going as long as possible, I don't want to spend an absolute fortune on it (he says having spend about a grand and a half in the last year doing the shocks, coils, discs, calipers, etc., etc.)

 

[Fen]

That's a very common place for them to rust. Mine has silver Hammerite under there as it was starting to blister. Now that it has perforated I'd suggest personally that you just clean it and kill the rust, then fibreglass the hole and tidy it up with filler on the outside; it isn't as if the panel is structural.