[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I wish I could agree with you, but it just hasn't been my experience. I let a small paint chip go for a year or so on the door of my '93 325i. Once the spot started rusting and the associated blistering had grown to about the size of a quarter, I sanded it down to what looked like bare metal, used a little spray-on "rust converter" of some kind, then primed and painted it. Within six months the rust was back worse than ever. Same story on a couple door dings on our '99 ML430.

There's a reason body work shops, at least in our area, will not warranty any work done on rust. POR15 is the only stuff I've found that will stop it. I live in the Lake Ontario lake effect snow belt (actually, just slightly below the worst of it, but we still get hit a LOT) and they use a TON of salt here. Maybe it's not quite as bad, salt-use-wise, up where you are, T, and that could explain our different experiences. If your area DOES use a lot of salt, too, then I'm not sure how else to explain my bad luck with rust compared to your experiences. If I recall correctly, I don't think either one of us are particularly diligent when it comes to washing our cars...

Yes, modern cars do MUCH better with rust prevention than cars did a few decades ago.

LOL I live dead center of all the great lakes. We are the salt kings. Can't explain the difference in results though since I have never had an issue with surface rust returning even on my 50s cars restoration projects. Mind you I have never dealt with either of the cars you mentioned before so maybe something different there.