Pandaman Paul's rust free panda makes me wonder something ...
My 93 1000 Fire was pretty much rust free or appeared to be when I bought it. After blowing the head gasket and letting it sit for 60 days while I worked on it, a small rust spot started bubbling up on the join between the front right pannel and the right door frame.
Not too much, now about 7 cm long and pretty thin but the bubbles are bothering me.
In my youth, as a deck ape on some fine old rust buckets, we'd break out the needle guns and chip out the rust, grind it down to bare metal, and coat it with red lead, then paint over it. I figure I could do the same and hopefully stop it from going further, but I'd end up with a patch of mismatched paint.
I figure with all the talk of rust on this forum, someone must know if getting the trouble spot cleaned up and primed is good enough to prevent futher rust damange? If so, are the currently avilable areosol primers good for this? Can you use a brush and prime it (no overspray) and what with? I know it won't look the best but ...
(God, this sounds like panda dentistry).
Auguste

Bubbles are bad.

It's rust come all the way through the seam from the back (assuming it's where I think it is, which is the join between the wing and "A" post).

This area is generally protected from 87? (MK2) on with a plastic wheel arch liner to keep all the salt and muck off, but the lower edge at the wheel arch still goes a bit.
(Our MK1 rusted through here in 3 years from brand new).
The other thing which causes a problem with this seam is if it's been crashed - just enough to flex the seam and open it to the elements.
After the CL was crashed the paint in this seam developed a small crack along the full length, which looked a bit like an edge where masking tape had been used in a paint repair to avoid overspray.
The CLX is like this too - so it's been bounced off something in the past..

IME all you can do is slow the process of steel turning to rust down, it never really appears to stop.

If it's good quality first generation steel, which is properly assembled in dry condition, not overstressed in use, primed and well painted with good quality paint and damage repaired when it happens.... you have a recipe for a car which will go on and on.
(Early VW Polos are as near to immortal as a small car gets.)

The average Panda probably dosn't meet all of these constraints.

I would agree, once it starts to rust there is not a lot you can do.

If you try getting rid of the rust don't rely on KuRust, primer and paint - try and get some wax on too. The wax should fill holes in the porous paint and stop air getting through. If it's not a visible panel you can realy slap it on. And where possible do both sides of the panel.

When I tried to get rid of rust along the bottom of the doors I forgot to take the interior panel off and treat that side. After about 3 months the door was back to yellow/brown. Oops.

Regards,

Martin

Fix It Again Tony!