Quarter panel wheel well lip rust?

[SKO_ITR]

Is this a common rust prone area? Just looked at a potential purchase but had some rust at the rear wheel well on the “lip”. The area where you would roll if you were to roll the fenders.

The rust has not reached the exterior of the panels.

This car is originally from the East Coast. Seller mentions it might have some extra underside coating that is applied for East Coast cars - is this true?

[carpayments4life]

I can't say it's common, but that is an easy place to check, before you spend a small fortune on an ITR.

[Type R]

This is very common on the east coast and Midwest especially on New England cars. Different parts of the country will experience different issues with Honda's and Acura's On the west coast you won't see much of this but you will encounter other issues such as paint fade and clear coat issues as well as cracked dashboards / weathered interior panels. Florida cars especially on the coast suffer from heavy paint fade issues and a lot of corrosion due to most of the area being at sea level and the high salt content in the air In the Northeast where I am from it's very hard to find any Integra without severe rust. Most have been repaired poorly with filler at this point and the replacement Quater panels from Acura have been long discontinued. The car in the pic has very minor surface corrosion and I wouldn't let it deter you from purchasing

[SKO_ITR]

This is very common on the east coast and Midwest especially on New England cars. Different parts of the country will experience different issues with Honda's and Acura's On the west coast you won't see much of this but you will encounter other issues such as paint fade and clear coat issues as well as cracked dashboards / weathered interior panels. Florida cars especially on the coast suffer from heavy paint fade issues and a lot of corrosion due to most of the area being at sea level and the high salt content in the air In the Northeast where I am from it's very hard to find any Integra without severe rust. Most have been repaired poorly with filler at this point and the replacement Quater panels from Acura have been long discontinued. The car in the pic has very minor surface corrosion and I wouldn't let it deter you from purchasing

Thanks for input. Coming from CA any rust is a big shocker. I’m concerned where else it may hide hut overall seems pretty clean. Sounds like this should be fixable?

[touringteg]

Yes it is very common on cars in the Pacific North West and Canada. On older Civics/Integra/CRX etc. the first thing we do is look at the quarter panel for rust.

[coolhandluke]

...Coming from CA any rust is a big shocker. I’m concerned where else it may hide hut overall seems pretty clean. Sounds like this should be fixable?

The OEM rubber molding lead many cars to hold dirt and moisture, leading to rust inside the rear quarter. This was far more common in northern states with heavy moisture. CA has it's perks.

[SKO_ITR]

I see it’s common but it’s a deal breaker for the car or something that can be fixed reasonably?

[DC2Iggy]

I see it’s common but it’s a deal breaker for the car or something that can be fixed reasonably?

Depends on whether you're looking for a super clean car or if you're okay putting another couple thousand in for rust repair. Most of the time, when you have bubbling paint like that, the rust is coming from the inside out. There may be some additional rust in the inner arches which would be visible if you pulled the interior panels off. Since the rust has most likely created pits you could have the rust/paint stripped down to bare metal, apply a rust converter/inhibitor, apply some epoxy primer to seal the area, fill in the pits in with body filler, and then repaint the area. As long as it's not exposed to more salt/moisture it should hold. Other option is to cut it all out and have someone fabricate new arches for you and weld them in. First option is cheaper.

I've had to repair quarters on my old GSR three times in 8 years because it was driver through the winter where they put salt/sand on the roads for traction.

[coolhandluke]

I see it’s common but it’s a deal breaker for the car or something that can be fixed reasonably?

Classic, "It depends." My first and current ITR, 98-1040, has light surface rust in this area. Upon purchase in 2007, I sanded and coated in POR 15- no big deal. ~13yrs later and I'm due to re-sand and reapply, but a proper paint correction in 2007 would like have held up.

A previous car, 98-0197, had significant rust in the upper and lower wheel wells. This would have required moderate paint & metal repair, where as other cars may require actual cut & rewelding from donor quarters.

[Wibbs]

Rust in the rear quarters is very common on these in wet climates/salted roads. Here in Ireland - which is basically a giant teddy bear shaped sponge - It was very rare to see an R without rust in the rear quarters and sills, or repairs to those areas. Same in the UK.

JDM's didn't come with rear inner wheelarch liners which trap moisture, though they also came with less rustproofing too. There's a joint at the bottom of the forward part of the inner wheelarch where it joins the sill that is often slightly open and water can get in there and start rot on the inside. I dunno what the rules are about linking to other forums but there's a long standing and extensive write up on it on a UK based R forum. Some of the pics are scary...

http://www.itr-dc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=46786

A few members got caught out with this and more and more R's have been extensively repaired as they age(and start to gain value). And because you can't source new rear arch panels it has to be fabricated. If I were buying one today I'd be looking to pop the rear speaker covers off and get one of those inspection cameras to have a look down there. I've personally seen real horror stories in that section, yet the outside paint looked fine. If there's any bubbling at all in the area below the Type R decals what's behind that won't be pretty. Same for any bubbling on the wheelarch itself. The inner arch is almost certainly starting to get crusty.

I got lucky mainly because I'm paranoid about rust and have relatives into vintage cars, so a week after I got it I filled every section I could with anti rust wax and inspect and top it up annually(what Honda took out in weight saving I put back in wax. ). 15 years on, daily driven and parked outside in all weathers it's still very solid. I got doubly lucky because we had a huge JDM import market here for a time and was able to find a JDM 1.6 being scrapped and I cut the rear quarters off of it for spares. Funny enough from those I saw the "lesser" JDM Integras seemed to suffer less from rust in this particular area for some reason. In the US because you officially had Integras over there I'm sure a trip to a junkyard in warmer states could find similar to store for the future?