Paint Splitting?

[auroralover]

I took advantage of the nice weather here Sunday and washed both the Auroras. I was having a great time (as you can imagine), when I noticed on my 97 a distressing sight. On the left side of the car, behind the wheel, it seems as though the paint is splitting, for lack of a better word. The split runs horizontally for about 8 inches. I will try to get a pic up as soon as I can. Dont know what could have caused this; it is on the plastic part behind the wheel. Any ideas?

[JimW]

front wheel or back wheel?

I have rusting occuring on the driver side rear tire well (near the back where the trim separate the metal from plastic). Its possible under-paint corrosion is starting to come thru on your car.

My rust problem can be blamed on a screw that holds the trim to the metal rear fender, the corrosion has past thru the screw onto the galvanized steel and 10 years later, the galvanized protection has ended.

Hopefully our problems are not the same.

[auroralover]

Jim,
it's the rear. There is no rust at all, it is only on the plastic part. I clean my wheel wells at least once a month, always checking for rust, and there is none anywhere. As I said, I'm going to try and get a pic up before the week is out.

[stickking1]

jimw said:

front wheel or back wheel?

I have rusting occuring on the driver side rear tire well (near the back where the trim separate the metal from plastic). Its possible under-paint corrosion is starting to come thru on your car.

My rust problem can be blamed on a screw that holds the trim to the metal rear fender, the corrosion has past thru the screw onto the galvanized steel and 10 years later, the galvanized protection has ended.

Hopefully our problems are not the same.

I have the same problem on the passenger's side of my car.

[JimW]

I'd like to see that pic for sure.

Stickking, are you going to get it fixed?

[stickking1]

jimw said:

Stickking, are you going to get it fixed?

I've thought about it quite a bit. I'm usually very particular about my car's appearance..but I have let this one thing go for far too long. It'll be a serious job to repair now. We're talking all the way to cutting and welding a patch, then bondo or lead to smooth it out, then a repaint. It'll be a pretty sizeable chunk of that panel by the time it is done.

My brother is the ASE-Certified Master Mechanic in the family, so he'll be the one doing the work. I'll be there to help with the paint/wetsand/buff section, but he'll be doing the dirty work. It's somethig I hate about the car's finish right now, but I just haven't found the time to rip into it like that. If I ever get to it, it'll be a big write up for the boards here.

Sorry to hijack the thread with my own paint problems, Lover...I'm looking forward to seeing a pic of your condition.

[mission008]

on those cars do you guys have any weather stripping or plastic trim pieces around there? If so take them off and clean it all out real good....dirt and moisture could get behind that and cause some rust or paint damage