Rear Fender Rust

[WolfgangVW]

Hey so my right rear panel by the wheel well is starting to get pretty rusty. It was small before but it is seemingly getting worse as time goes on as I haven't addressed it yet. Anyone have any suggestions on he best way to deal with this??

I don't need a pristine fix or anything, just make it look ok and stop it from getting worse.

 

[BuckeyeMan71]

Start by spraying with rustolium paint


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[zslnk]

Hey so my right rear panel by the wheel well is starting to get pretty rusty. It was small before but it is seemingly getting worse as time goes on as I haven't addressed it yet. Anyone have any suggestions on he best way to deal with this??

I don't need a pristine fix or anything, just make it look ok and stop it from getting worse.

Pull the inner fender liner and the body plugs under the liner and spray it with your rust preventative oil of choice. Repeat as you see fit. When you see rust on the body painted area (Mk4 rear wheel well rust) behind the rubber liner will be much worse.

Paint will just cover it and it will keep eating away under the paint unless you go to bare metal and prep as required.

 

[WolfgangVW]

Ok thanks for the replies!! I'll have to look closer, but if its beyond this repair would I have to buy a whole new fender?? Or what would the part be?

 

[STDOUBT]

Does the rear fender of the MK4 Jetta even come off? It looks to be integral to pretty much the whole back end of the body.

 

[WolfgangVW]

Does the rear fender of the MK4 Jetta even come off? It looks to be integral to pretty much the whole back end of the body.

Yes it does look integral! So I guess what's the fix if its beyond surface rust??

 

[Powder Hound]

Yes, the rear fender is part of the unibody and is not a separately installable part. Not with mere fasteners and wrenches, anyway. Somebody experienced in body repair would be better able to reply with details, but there are basically 2 ways to go.

If it is just surface rust at this point, then you can clean off the paint and rust down to bare, clean metal, apply a rust preventative of your choice (this is an entire forum of opinions and methods, sort of like the 'which oil is best' question) and paint over that. The whole idea is that existing corrosion holds water and air, and unless you clean it all off, rust will just continue under applied coatings as mentioned above.

The other method, particularly if there is any perforation, is to cut off the offending metal after procuring suitable replacement sheet metal from a junkyard, weld in the new metal, then proceed as in the first method.

Good luck, and cheers!

PH

 

[JB05]

Like PH said, the rust will have to be cut out and a new piece of sheet metal installed. I went through this with both fenders as well as the nose of the hood. Rust converters did not work at all for me.

 

[WolfgangVW]

^^ ok thanks for the replies. I checked it out its mostly surface rust but one spot I'm pretty sure its close to all the way through. I could try surface repairs for a quick fix but ultimately a proper fix would require cutting out. I wasn't sure if it was part of the unibody or not