Question about rusty bits
 

Not sure what sub-forum to put this in ... please relocate if necessary!

Got a car on the cheap, looking to put a bit of money in to repairs (within reason) that I'm not brave enough to attempt on my own, and there's some rusty ... er ... things that sort of concern me. It'd probably concern me more if I knew what these parts were and what they did but ignorance does have it's advantages, I suppose. :D

Link to some pics.


Long/short: Should I be concerned? If so, what should I be concerned about most? I'll go from there and figure out where to actually go from there ...


Thanks muchly!

Seems like the usual rust to me.
Half the pictures are too hard to figure out what am I looking at.

Get the car inspected by a mechanic for safety, if it checks out, just drive the thing to the ground.

Thread moved to maintenance section. :)

Some of that rust is not a concern. The exhaust pipe looked pretty rusted...

In order to drive it on the road you must have it inspected. The mechanic should be able to tell if it's road-worthy.

Good luck.

It's been inspected ... it's certified and e-passed, insured, and on the road (for a few months now). My concern isn't if it's road worthy, but if there's some maintenance in there that can be done to keep it road worthy and going strong (and safe). Ideally I'd like to pass the car down to my son in 2 years when he becomes road worthy himself.

Well, the exhaust pipe looked like it would be the next thing to cause an issue with the vehicle. It may hang on and last another year + or could fall off in a few weeks. It's difficult to estimate how soon something will break just by looking at it...

How long ago was it last inspected?

End of Oct. 2009 is when we had the safety and e-test done ... transferred everything over shortly thereafter. Had the brake lines repaired in March, and other than doing the oil, oil filter, air filter, and transmission fluid a few weeks ago it hasn't been touched since then. I'll be doing the front brake pads & rotors this afternoon ...

You might want to consider rustproofing. It will at least prevent the rust from getting worse. Except for the exhuast, that won't (and can't) be rustproofed.