I have been a member of the forum for a while and have never really posted anything on here so I send my greetings to all my fellow Z owners. I daily drive my 06 Touring Z, as a result it is exposed to more than normal wear and tear, especially since I am in college and never really have time to baby it like I wish I could. Now to my issue, a couple months back I had a rock chip on my rear fender and didn't pay a ton of attention to it since I didn't have much time with a job and school and no Nissan dealer near me to order touch up paint from (bad mistake I know :/ ). I usually just would wax over it to prevent moisture from entering the paint but it looks like I was unsuccessful. I let the car sit for 3 weeks and when I got back (was on a long vacation) 3 rust/paint bubbles had formed. Is their an easy fix to this besides sanding and repainting the panel? If not what would you say the approximate cost of the repair would be? I love my Z she has 125k miles on her so I hate to put a bunch of money into her when shes only worth $7k but I would hate for the rust to spread more. What would you guys do? Is it worth putting money into her anymore? Thanks in advance!

 

only way to stop rust, to my knowledge, is to get rid of it, which would consist of what you don't want to do. cost varies on geographic locations and shop who does it, there is no way we can estimate it

 

My advice to u is to sand it down and put touch up paint

 

Could I do that at home without having to do a full repaint of my fender? like could I sand it at home and do a touch up paint job or would I have to go get a body shop to sand it and repaint (like a $400 job)

 

Of course you can sand it at home and repaint it yourself. But depending on your skills and tools, don't expect it to look like a pro job. Once you sand the area, I'd suggest you get some rust converter on it to stop the rust conversion before you prime and paint.

 

Damn, that sucks. But at least it's not as bad as my fenders. Previous owner rolled them and cracked the paint and it's rusting up. I'm going to have to get it fixed soon before all the metal is eaten away.

 

You're getting a little crazy over something that isn't that big a deal. For the rust, you can use these two products:

https://www.amazon.com/Prep-Pen-Prep...XWQS2FZG8KXHPW

https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-78...=pd_sbs_auto_1

I've found the best touchup paints from this site:

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/

Order the smallest bottle, which will still last you forever, get the clear, too, and also some of these applicators:

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/sto...o_dabbers.aspx

If you're careful and take your time, you can make those spots almost disappear.

 

Well...
Is she only worth 7k to you?

It depends on how you look at the car. For instance, I have an old -00 Seat Leon Cupra which is worth a grand tops on a good day. But it's a fully functional car, it's comfortable, it's cheap to run and own and it's not that slow either being a small, relatively light hot hatch with 225hp (bolt ons and tune) at the crank.

Compared to a newer car the only difference is nicer interior/exterior.

So while the market may only value it at a grand, to me it's worth like half of a new car (15k?) ~ish, I don't know what I value it really. By that logic I might as well spend some to keep it running instead of spending alot more on something which is basicly the same.


So the question is how long you plan on being the owner of said Z.

 

Yes, you absolutely can do this yourself. YT has a plethora of videos on how to do DIY paint touch ups for small areas. Not sure about silver paint, but NISSAN took over a month and a half for my order of one tube of touch up paint for my '05 SB 350Z.

During that time, I bought a replacement touch up pen from AutoZone and a second bottle from a site called "Scratch Wizard". My damage was way worse than yours and I not only did it myself but I'm also about to wetsand and repaint a key mark on the other side this weekend. As long as you have the correct tools you can do it. But if you don't feel confident just save the $$$ and take it to a pro.


https://my350z.com/forum/exterior-an...l#post10757592

 

Sand the rust off.
Prime area(just area sanded). wet sand(1000).
Spray paint the area(just area that you sanded) wet sand(2000).
Clear area and go a little over where you sanded into the rest of the quarter. wet sand (2000)

Buff with meguiars ultimate compound and you shouldn't even notice it was fixed except it might be shinier than the rest of the car

 

I used plastidip to protect the inside of my fenders where the paint cracked... I did this over the winter and it's still holding up.

 

Sand it down till you have no rust
Por15 then primer and paint
If you wont protect it and just prime and paint it will come back and spread like cancer