Thread: Pics of my '00 Regal and rust concerns

Sup guys, I'm always lurking the forums and don't post up too much but thought I'd share my Regal. I got this car with 66k miles for dirt cheap a couple of years ago from an old lady who lost her ability to drive. Honestly, I hated it at first and it was strictly a beater but I've grown to like this car quite a bit lol. Everything works as it should and I haven't had to do anything other than routine maintenance in the 30k miles I've put on it. Was debating on top swapping it earlier this winter while we were doing upper and lower intake gaskets, but decided against it for a few reasons.

Here's some pictures of the car. I graduate college in May and plan to replace it with a clean lower mile L67 or LS4 car. Excuse the lack of centercaps, I lost one going down the highway a little while back and decided to take them all out. I do plan on getting some new ones when I get around to it lol.





One thing that I noticed is these rust bubbles that have popped up recently, how bad does this look? Pretty sure its from road salt


Thanks guys

That would be a small repair if you catch it soon, but it looks to be rusting through from the inside. Layers of steel meet in an odd shape in that area under the gas neck and as with typical rocker panel corrosion hotspots on all W bodies, there was just never enough primer or paint on the inner structure so they rust in wintery areas. Chances are you can jab a phillips head through that spot now, and that theres more on the next layer behind that. I patch rusty stuff for a living and think oh... probably six hours work would get that ready for primer and paint, figuring that theres another small rustout behind it. But since you're not planning to keep it, you'll probably want to consider a shadetree fix with spray paint rather than take it to a body shop.

Use a light and get a good look around inside the wheelwell. Take wheel off for a good inspection. Poke at stuff with a pick tool if you're brave and see bubbled coatings there. On Pontiacs at least, there was a re-design of the plastic splash shield for better salt protection in the gas fill area, see about that perhaps. It would be wise for you to also inspect your rear strut tower tops, in the trunk. And the rocker panels (where you jack it up and behind the rocker molding) because they are usually rusty if you find rust anywhere on it. Here, they don't rust much at all. If you find that the bubbly area is solid but just rust pitted, the rot may have started from a paint chip or scratch there on the exterior. That would not be a tough fix if the metal can be saved.

I believe that 01 was the first year for the rear fender liners on the W body. This rust is only cosmetic, you should inspect the strut towers from inside the trunk as well for structural rust. Car looks great otherwise!!

Originally Posted by idrivejunk

That would be a small repair if you catch it soon, but it looks to be rusting through from the inside. Layers of steel meet in an odd shape in that area under the gas neck and as with typical rocker panel corrosion hotspots on all W bodies, there was just never enough primer or paint on the inner structure so they rust in wintery areas. Chances are you can jab a phillips head through that spot now, and that theres more on the next layer behind that. I patch rusty stuff for a living and think oh... probably six hours work would get that ready for primer and paint, figuring that theres another small rustout behind it. But since you're not planning to keep it, you'll probably want to consider a shadetree fix with spray paint rather than take it to a body shop.

Use a light and get a good look around inside the wheelwell. Take wheel off for a good inspection. Poke at stuff with a pick tool if you're brave and see bubbled coatings there. On Pontiacs at least, there was a re-design of the plastic splash shield for better salt protection in the gas fill area, see about that perhaps. It would be wise for you to also inspect your rear strut tower tops, in the trunk. And the rocker panels (where you jack it up and behind the rocker molding) because they are usually rusty if you find rust anywhere on it. Here, they don't rust much at all. If you find that the bubbly area is solid but just rust pitted, the rot may have started from a paint chip or scratch there on the exterior. That would not be a tough fix if the metal can be saved.

Appreciate the input, yeah I may try to pick with it on my spring break next week. I actually looked at my strut tower tops and there's no rust. Still need to check the rockers though but I know there are no spots or anything on the paint in those areas. Hopefully the wheelwells aren't bad and it'll be an easy fix like you said though. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by Burbman

I believe that 01 was the first year for the rear fender liners on the W body. This rust is only cosmetic, you should inspect the strut towers from inside the trunk as well for structural rust. Car looks great otherwise!!

Thanks man!

That's good to know and yep my strut towers look fine, no rust that I can see so I suppose that's good. I'm pretty surprised since its originally from PA where there's a lot of snow/salt, guess with it having low miles it didn't get eaten up too bad.