How best to deal with rust?

Yes, this all sounds fine. You'll never control the rust longterm, though. Whether these rust inhibitors are worth it, though, I don't know. All the adverts speak very highly of them, but someone else here might have a positive view.

Rob Graham

Hedley Phillips ( snipped-for-privacy@spam.hermes.cam.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That's not paint falling off. That's filler being pushed out by the surface rust behind it.

There's only one solution - and that's strip all that filler out and find out what horrible mess of damage is behind it. Then, and only then, can you start to figure the best way to fix it.

As the door has been filled and painted at some time it may be better to try to get a good door in the same colour from a scrappy?

There are premium rate phone numbers you can ring, who will get scrap yards with the right bit to call you. Never tried one though.

Considering it is a H-reg vehicle, it would probably be most effective to patch it up as you suggest. But the rust will inevitably return.

Looking at your pictures, I don't think the location of the rust will cause it to be a MOT fail issue.

Bruce

I have - "Yes of course we have an Audi Coupe door available - just have to take it off the car, give us a few days...." A week or two of excuses later it became obvious that they didn't have one & were trying to get one to sell me at a vast profit, meanwhile stopping me looking further on my own. Much better to do your own looking IMO. BTW, remember that most paints on their own absorb water & will lead to more rust. Give it a good waxing ASAP to make it waterproof. Dave

I'd just sand it all back and skim with filler.

It's an old car, and that's pretty standard stuff for a car of that age.

There's not many cars that reach 10 years old without seeing some filler or paint!

Personally, I'd patch it up as cheaply as possible, as if it lasts you a couple of years then it's been worthwhile, IYSWIM.

You'll probably need something more aggressive than a wire brush. Red paint is difficult to match & after all the effort you'd have put in you'll be wishing you'd just found a good door from a breakers. Some breakers take the mick, some are good value so you might need to shop around.

adder ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You'd be surprised how quickly a drill mounted rotary wire brush will go through filler... The surrounding area will be an inch deep in white dust, though...

But it won't do much removing pitted rust spots - it'll just polish the rust.

Thanks for all your replies, going to do a rough repair at present, until I find a second hand door.

thanks.