My latest winter beater is a 2006 Subaru Forester. I believe I am the 3rd owner. Prior owner was a college student. I knew when I bought it that he'd been in a fender bender and some front end body work and some parts had been replaced. It looked OK.
I bought it Oct. of 2015. In 2017 I noted some bubbling of the paint on the RF fender that is a sure sign of it rusting from the inside out. By this spring, it was A LOT worse. The driver side seems totally fine.
There is evidence this fender may have been a used part that was skim coated with putty to hide rusting and then painted. There is a shallow dent in the hood as well so looks like corners were cut on the repair.
I got a new aftermarket fender earlier this summer for about $85. I think the shipping was almost as much as the price of the fender!
This holiday weekend is still warm enough for some painting. If I wait much longer it will be too cold or raining. So, a good opportunity to get the new fender painted and ready to install later on.
The old fender is literally falling apart and the rear portion is hanging on by a thread after I removed the plastic filler moulding there.
The aftermarket fender
I've painted a whole car in the past (my '53k in 2001) and have equipment to do this, but decided to just use a rattle can as this fender is not that large. The cost of auto paint is very high and I probably could not get this in a single stage color and would need to do base/clear urethane and I am not equipped for that. I DID get matched single stage paint mixed at the local auto body paint supply and they put it in a spray can for me for $25 or so. Still pretty expensive but a lot better quality paint than duplicolor, etc and nobody has this color in stock when I checked.
Its still a bit soft after 24hrs so I will wait and then paint the backside to hopefully prevent this fender rusting out like that old one (at least for a while).
Not sure when the swap happens but will be before the snow flies.
I bought it Oct. of 2015. In 2017 I noted some bubbling of the paint on the RF fender that is a sure sign of it rusting from the inside out. By this spring, it was A LOT worse. The driver side seems totally fine.
There is evidence this fender may have been a used part that was skim coated with putty to hide rusting and then painted. There is a shallow dent in the hood as well so looks like corners were cut on the repair.
I got a new aftermarket fender earlier this summer for about $85. I think the shipping was almost as much as the price of the fender!
This holiday weekend is still warm enough for some painting. If I wait much longer it will be too cold or raining. So, a good opportunity to get the new fender painted and ready to install later on.
The old fender is literally falling apart and the rear portion is hanging on by a thread after I removed the plastic filler moulding there.
The aftermarket fender
I've painted a whole car in the past (my '53k in 2001) and have equipment to do this, but decided to just use a rattle can as this fender is not that large. The cost of auto paint is very high and I probably could not get this in a single stage color and would need to do base/clear urethane and I am not equipped for that. I DID get matched single stage paint mixed at the local auto body paint supply and they put it in a spray can for me for $25 or so. Still pretty expensive but a lot better quality paint than duplicolor, etc and nobody has this color in stock when I checked.
Its still a bit soft after 24hrs so I will wait and then paint the backside to hopefully prevent this fender rusting out like that old one (at least for a while).
Not sure when the swap happens but will be before the snow flies.
Comment