When is rust not rust?

[NeilW]

Earlier today I noticed two bubbles in the wurth coating on the lower sill at the rear (just in front of the rear wheel arch). My heart sank and I started reading some of the threads on this subject. A large body shop bill seemed inevitable.

I decided to remove the outer paint in order discover whether I was looking at a hole or just surface rust, and how far around the bubbles it spread. Upon removing the paint/wurth I was faced with fresh galvanised grey coloured metal without any signs of rust!

Has anyone else encountered this and is there a reason why this might happen? Of course I'm left with an unpainted section now about an inch long and half an inch high that I need to sort out ASAP. That'll teach me.

 

[berg944]

When is rust not rust?

When it becomes a hole!

My lux has had a small amount of shiny metal showing at the bottom of a sill for a few years. I think it might of had the under seal coating cracked by a jack. The under seal is rather brittle but the main thing is that we have original galvanised sills, the paint is more cosmetic and the protection comes from the zinc coating so don't scratch the surface to key the paint.

It is difficult to get paint to adhere to the zinc, self etching primer required.

Mike[:'(]

 

[Guest]

You wanna see the front end of my Mini. Now that's rust! (or bloomin great holes to be more precise!).

It's probably just a bit of moisture got in there and seperated the paint from the steel. You're lucky it didn't develop into full on tin worm.

 

[NeilW]

Thanks Mike(s).

 

[chrisdenton]

Yep, I've got the same on my S2. Only one or two bubbles but they've been there for six months and haven't got any bigger or more prolific. I squeezed one and only white fluid came out ....

Thinking about it, my car is sixteen years old, it's probably just acne. [][]