Hey everyone,
I’m hoping to get some advice before the rust on my 2007 Toyota Sequoia SR5 4WD 230k miles gets any worse.
I’ve got rust forming along the lower edges of the body where the doors close (not the frame, not the rocker panels underneath — the actual lower body seams). It’s starting to bubble and spread, and I really want to stop it before it becomes a major problem.
I’m trying to figure out:
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Is there any realistic DIY way to remove or stop this rust using sprays, liquids, converters, or any type of normal treatment?
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Or is this the kind of rust that must be handled professionally (grinding, cutting, welding, repainting, etc.)?
The issue I’m running into is that in the NYC area, nobody seems to deal with this type of body rust repair. Most shops only do collision work or full restorations, not small‑area rust removal.
If DIY isn’t going to cut it, I’d really appreciate recommendations for a legit shop that actually handles rust repair. I’m willing to travel outside NYC (NJ, CT, PA, upstate NY, anywhere reasonable) if the shop is reputable and knows how to deal with this kind of rust before it spreads.
Any advice, experience, or shop recommendations would be a huge help. Thanks in advance.
Rust never sleeps. Rust can and does spread below the paint surface, making the repair job more extensive than what seems like on the surface.
If you've ever noticed on imitation wrought iron fencing, the corners of the square spiral components of steel rust first- that's because the steel in those locations were distorted the greatest after the component cooled. It's the same idea here.
Similarly, when the auto manufacturer stamps the steel into its final configuration for body panels, the stamping process produces lots of planar defects, dislocations, etc. Which makes the steel stronger, but it's also much more vulnerable to rust. The manufacturer primes the new body panel immediately to prevent this. If a rock chips the paint and primer, you open up a route for your car to start rusting. Rust creeps along crystal structures in the iron, including under paint.
You need to grind rust down to bare metal and immediately apply new primer to it if you want to do the repair properly. If don't want to do it properly, you can apply paint-on rust converter. Rust converter converts red iron oxide to black iron phosphate, theoretically stopping rust in its tracks. The phosphoric acid may not fully reach the extent of the rust underneath the paint if you don't do any prep work, though.
Good luck!
Okay, once rush starts to really fix it you have to remove it by grinding sanding cutting off rotten pieces welding new metal in. That's the only real way to fix them. Because it rusts from the inside out. You can try rust converters and stuff and now slow it down a little bit. But it won't permanently fix it
