GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

OK, I freely admit I'm not an expert on cars or rust. We have a couple of pretty bad rust spots at the bottom part of the rear window hatch on our 04 Vibe--they're about an inch or so diameter, roughly oval. My wife brought the car to a place near her workplace that's supposed to be pretty reputable, and he said it'd be $300 to fix it, because he'd have to paint the entire rear door (!!!). Is that really necessary?? Like I said, I don't know much about rust fixing on cars, but shouldn't they be able to just clean up the rust, repaint around the spots where the rust was, and clearcoat over it? Or, is painting the entire door how it's usually done?

I'm going to get a couple more quotes from some other places, but wow...I didn't expect them to have to do the whole rear hatch.

i have rust in the same spot but the window kinda covers it.

post more info - I'd be interested to see how much it would cost or how we can fix it ourselves.

Yeah, the window covers it for us too--which is why neither my wife nor I noticed it until we happened to open the hatch and were like "zOMG what is THAT??"

I don't see why you can't just fix the few spots, unless they can't properly blend it into the rest of the hatch. On one of my other cars, I had to do a section of the hood, it was really only noticeable if you looked at it from a certain angle, (I forgot to do a clear coat, was my first time).

They want to paint the whole panel and blend to the neighboring panels. $300 is a really good price if they do a good job. They want to do it that way because it will look better, but try asking if they can blend the spots if you're willing to go with "not the best"

If the spot is small enough that you can only notice it with the hatch glass open, you might be able to complete the repair yourself. Agree with the spot patch, blending may not be necessary, see what the shop can do for a spot treatment. Pics of the rust, would help determine what options would work best.

I had rust under the hatch next to the weatherstripping, which was only noticeable when the tailgate was open, just primed and painted black. Blended in with the weatherstripping.

A body shop owner thinks different than a diy car owner. The cars a body shop worked on must look perfect because they are the base of the shop's reputation. Partially painting a body panel highlights color mismatches. Painting the whole panel makes them much less obvious.

vibrologist wrote:A body shop owner thinks different than a diy car owner. The cars a body shop worked on must look perfect because they are the base of the shop's reputation. Partially painting a body panel highlights color mismatches. Painting the whole panel makes them much less obvious.

See, that's what I don't quite understand. The spots in question are hidden underneath the hatch window, so even if he has to paint around them a bit, it shouldn't be too, too obvious. And, don't they have matching paint?? It just seems to me to be something that a good shop would be able to just blend in so that any mismatch isn't immediately obvious, unless you were to stare closely at it.

I could understand if the rust were full-on a side door or something, in a highly visible spot, but it just seemed weird to want to paint the whole rear door for a couple of spots under the hatch window.

I'm pretty busy today, but I'll see if I can post a couple of pics of it.

Here's a pic of the rust spots. Small, eh? Seems strange to paint the whole door for this.

Yes, that could be repaired and just that part painted and cut in, but more than likely it would result in a job that is not worth it to the shop to do. $300 is pretty cheap for any job at a body shop. But I agree, I would be more inclined to repair the spots, paint that area just up to the edge of the recess, and then clear coat the recessed area and not worry about it matching the rest of the hatch 100%. You risk a bigger problem of the new hatch paint not matching the rest of the car if the whole hatch is painted.

I agree with trb.

I would remove the rubber thing, wire brush and sand it down to bare metal, apply POR 15 and spray paint it over. Dupli-Color may have your color or they will be able to mix it for you in a spray can.

Color matching is a high promise and rarely achieved. Also, you expect the shop to color match 5 oz of paint? And they have to give you a guarantee? Not likely. They were nice and didn't say "No!" They said "$ 300.00" and let you decide.

canadave wrote:See, that's what I don't quite understand. The spots in question are hidden underneath the hatch window, so even if he has to paint around them a bit, it shouldn't be too, too obvious. And, don't they have matching paint?? It just seems to me to be something that a good shop would be able to just blend in so that any mismatch isn't immediately obvious, unless you were to stare closely at it.

First of all, customers can be very, VERY picky.

Second, they have to mix paint to make the color.

A paint shop has to worry about their reputation and warranties, so they want it to be perfect. And when they paint an entire panel, they blend the others to match the panel if they are at all worth their snuff.

vibrologist wrote:
I would remove the rubber thing, wire brush and sand it down to bare metal, apply POR 15 and spray paint it over.

I'd almost do the same thing BUT, instead of POR 15, I'd use a reputable "self etching" primer over the bare metal. Dupont & PPG make some good ones BUT they are pricey and you can only get them in gallon quantities. Then, if you can obtain the exact color paint, airbrush the area OR with an artist brush, brush paint the affected areas. Seeing how this is so small of an area and very close to a match line it should work out well. Too bad you couldn't just visit a body shop somewhere and pay them a few $$$ for a couple ounces/grams of the chemical coatings. Either way this MUST be addressed immediately or further rust will be happening at an accelerated pace. Good luck