RUST! how to fix/majorly slow down?

[Dr0]

Ok so basically I just bought the car and I sadly overlooked the now very obvious rust beginning mostly in the rear fenderwells, right along that 90* tack weld its about 5-6in on drivers side, and 3-4in passenger side. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!! there is a 3 in section of paint bubbling and beginning to oxidize on the drivers side a-pillaralong the window seal.

My question is
A-on a scale of 1-10 how bad does this sound?
B-is there any kind of sheetmetal replacements for the fenderwells you can buy to fix the rust? Or is it pretty much custom fabrication and a load of $$$?
C- I prob won't attempt doing this work myself, if you could give me an extremely rough estimate for the rust in the fenderwells that would be greeeeeaaattttt (2thumbs)

 

[YlwMSP]

I've got rust on both rear fenders, along with the bottoms of all my doors. I went to a body shop to get an estimate on how much it would cost for the fenders, and they estimated me at about $1200 per side. They told me that they would have to remove the whole panel to get at it and do what they need to do. I need it done bad cuz the clip that holds the rear bumper on has completely rusted off, so now it rattles as I drive down the road.

 

[Dr0]

So basically grind it off with a wire wheel apply naval gelly and prime it and paint/clear coat and call it guuud lol

 

[VIPMSP]

when i bought my yellow mp3 it had a small rust spot on the driver's side rear wheel well about 1.5" - 2" of it... neglected it for like 6 months & it got worse like 2.5" - 3".

had numerous quotes to replace the rear quarter panel, but they were all ridiculous. ended up getting a friend's dad who owns a body shop to take care of it for me... he cut it out and manually shaped the sheet metal into place/repainted. looked great, and i had it for about another 7-8 months without any rust re-appearing. sold it over three years ago, so i'd be curious to see if it reappeared or not.

rust = cancer. you can get rid of it temporarily, but most likely it's just gonna come back later.

 

[jeremy irons]

this is the first place rust happens on an protege. best plan? get rear-ended and get insurance to pay for it, lol. I was able to get a local shop to do it for cash-under-the-table for 450$ on one side.

 

[Jo060]

There is a pretty recent thread on here of someone repairing rust in a similar location on a F-150. It's a lot of work, a lot of cutting, and a lot of welding.
Not worth it in my opinion.

 

[Dr0]

As a step of preventative maintenance would it be wise to try a rust converter/encapsleator(misspelled) to slow the progression, I just want a decent 2-3 years w/o it eating through the wells

 

[Jo060]

The thing is that there is so many small places that even if your apply something to the rust, there are going to be places that did not get treated so you'll be fighting a loosing battle. You can apply POR 15 which will neutralize the rust, but you'll have a different color on your paint (you could always repaint it, which would be counter productive) but if you don't care how the car looks for now or have access to a cheap way to repaint POR 15 could buy you some time.
Unfortunately the best time to apply a rust preventative is basically the day you get it.

 

[Cmezz331]

Media blast, Apply etching primer ASAP, untill you can he it resprayed to avoid more rust forming