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Went to put gas in the car yesterday and noticed tiny little bumps in the paint under the filler door,

13 years old, 97,000 miles, I guess it was just a matter of time

Wah! I dread the day mine starts...

SSEiMan01 wrote:Wah! I dread the day mine starts...

ahh, you have a Florida slow start on us

Yes sir. I'm sure the low miles it had are the only reason its holding out.

SSEiMan01 wrote:Yes sir. I'm sure the low miles it had are the only reason its holding out.

Pffft. Keep telling that to yourself. Wait till you see mine tomorrow.

Man when it rains it pours. At least on the bright side it's not mechanical

I forgot to look at yours, Carl.

Besides, you know me, it'll probably get fixed before the first bubble breaks the clearcoat.

240,000 miles on my '03 has no paint left in that area at all, just a big rust spot, I keep it covered though with touch up paint to make it not so obvious though :(

The '02 SE though also has 240,000 miles and there is no sign at all of rust, looks 100% perfect with no signs of anything even starting.

I think im going to try spraying WD40 in there some how, should help a little.

My 00 SE with 231K was so bad that you could stick your whole hand in the body panel.

The filler door was darn-near broken off because of so much rust and corrosion.

I was always curious if there was a way to possibly stop it. Rtv the small gap near the filler door is what i did when i first saw a bump well over a year ago and it hasn't been spreading too fast.

My other idea was possibly putting a rubber ring on the back side of the filler door, that when closed will act as a seal... who knows? might work?

It would probably hurt to do that. Water can sling up from the wheel well unless you plug the "drain". I put that in quotes because the drain hole is at the highest point of the fuel filler area. Who needs logic?

Gumball wrote:I think im going to try spraying WD40 in there some how, should help a little.

thats what I have been doing since I joined this sight, so far very little signs. I shoot it in the drain holes under the doors and in the hood by the latch

194k on mine, no signs yet. It was originally a Florida car, though...

So the rest of the car is free of rust? The bumps are not a bigi (unless the car is pregnant), it's only what meets the eye. Good to get fixed, but maybe at the same time take a closer look at the whole car for rust? If it's like my car, I would especially remove the rear bumper and check there. On the other hand the car is only 13 years old, so maybe another 5-10 years before a total makeover?

If it makes you feel better, GM did the odd foam thingy seal on my '86 as well. But I've never seen fuel door rot on anything other than an '00+ until I found my SSEi, but even that had, well, no frame due to rust. If you want, maybe at the meet we can see what we can do to prevent it? I can't help but think that there is something odd that's causing it...