hi I've been meaning to ask about this for a while. my 240 has rust spots under neath the driver and passenger side doors that can be seen from the side. what causes this rust and what can I do to stop it from spreading?

​​​​​​​thank you!!

 

if you can see a little rust, there's likely a whole lot more in places that are much harder to see, like where the fenders join the body, the subframes and suspension mounts, etc.

all you can do abut rust is remove it completely, replace any performated metal, sand smooth, use a bit of body filler to smooth it out, primer, and and repaint. probably a good idea to use a rust reducing primer like POR. if you don't get /all/ the rust, it likely will come back in a year or two.

 

thanks for the reply. yes indeed there are other places with rust, winters are very salty here in ohio.

I guess I wasn't sure if maybe there were clogged drainage vents causing water build up and rust?

 

indeed, there are drains at the bottom of each door, as well as body drains for the sunroof area, the cowl vents, and the interior exhaust vents in the back. if water was building up in your doors, you'd probably hear/feel it sloshing around when you open/close the doors, and it likely would be spilling over, saturating the door liner, and getting onto the carpets.

240's are quite rust resistant as cars go, they were fully zinc dipped (galvanized) after body assembly and before painting. compare this with a 1980s/90s Honda or Toyota, those cars were rust buckets by comparison.

 

trying to upload photos of said rust....do you have any clue what would cause this other than normal rain and salt?

 

 

 

yeah, that's pretty much terminal. Drive it til it drops or you can't stand it anymore, don't spend anything on cosmetics or upgrades, just minimal maintenance til you can't stand it anymore.

 

Living up here in Maine its hard to find cars that are not completely rusted out. Even though these 240's have withstood the test of time and many are still going , many of them are starting to get rust issues. Many things can cause rust but its mainly the salts they add to the roads that do it. Scratches help the salts get to the metal so if you have scratches in your paint rust will start if not properly taken care of.

I just restored a 240 that didn't look as bad as yours until I started grinding away, that lead to cutting and then body panels and welding ...



When I bought the car


What I saw after tearing into it




So I hate to tell you this but Pierce is right thats terminal

 

thanks for the replys guys! il just drive it till it rusts out wel see how long it lasts!