XL / Suburban Rear Quarter Panel Rust

[dsciulli19]

Greetings Tahoe Yukon folks,

I have an 09 XL with 88,000 miles on it, and I have the dreaded rear wheel well rust starting on it. I have some bubbling in front of my rear tire on both sides, and a spec or two on the arches.

I pulled the wheel well liner today to see if I could see what's going on behind the bubbles and realized that there are 2 layers of sheet metal there. The inner layer looks beautiful and felt smooth on the inside. The outside, well it's flaking and rusty.

What are you guys doing to address the rust here? I'm assuming most of these cars have this rust?

My truck is otherwise a "keeper" so far. I found it last year with 70K miles and have been trying to preventatively address issues as I learn about them. I have AFM disabled with a tune, trans tuned to hopefully avoid losing the converter clutch prematurely, and a PCV catch can. I'd like to drive this truck for a while so anything I can do to avoid this turning into a massive problem like the wheel wells of my old sierra would be very helpful.

 

[Denali Homie]

I've got rust on mine as well. Actually _just_ took it to a local collision shop yesterday to get it looked at. They're a real metalworking shop, so they cut it out and replace it with thicker gauge steel, follow that with a corrosion inhibitor and offer a lifetime warranty on their rust removal. Still waiting on the quote but I will keep you posted on how it goes.

~288k on mine, I'm the second owner and purchased in '16 at 172k, clean as a whistle. I paid out in repairs over the years due more to lack of maintenance on my part, but it's a lesson learned. It's starting to show its age now: Partially rusted through on both rocker panels, both quarter panels (the wheel well areas like your, also under the gas tank, and at the bottom of both quarters near the rockers), the bottom of all the doors and trunk lid, and partially rusted through at the front of hood), but if the price is right I will pay to keep it alive. I had the transmission rebuilt in '20, likely due to a lack of maintenance on my part. I've kept the oil changed, and aside from a manageable leak that I plan to diagnose and fix soon the 6.2 runs great.

Once the rust issue is taken care of the plan is to start treating it with surface shield regularly. There's only surface rust on the frame so that's easy to address.

I prefer the cost to keep this one on the road vs the cost and risk purchasing a newer version, though if I needed to I would feel comfortable buying another one at a similar mileage that was well taken care of and applying my lessons learned.

 

[swathdiver]

GM does make replacement pieces that can be cut and welded in. There's a guy on youtube who does this with donor cars, VEHCOR, shows how to do it on GM trucks including replacing body damaged panels on a Yukon a few years back, great info.

 

[intheburbs]

Looking from the prevention side, I'll go to my grave preaching about parking it in a garage. Obviously protects it from weather, but also shields it from the daily condensation cycle (you get dew on your lawn every morning, right?).

I've owned my 2500 since 2013, she's spent her whole life in Indiana and Michigan, is driven year round, has 265k miles and the frame is still mostly black. And zero body rust. I've done nothing to it regarding rust mitigation.

 

[Coveman]

Not only is it two layers of thinner sheetmetal but they add hygroscopic sound-deadening foam between the layers. Since the foam absorbs water its like a inside-out rust sandwich that doesnt show damage until you’ve already got significant rust. I too have visited body shops and they’ll show you apparently ‘little’ rust spots that run inside the panels and make a real mess.

LMC sells the wheel arch replacement https://www.lmctruck.com/body-components/body-panels/ce-2007-13-front-steel-body-parts_tahoesuburban

And you can find several brands of fender flares that just hide the whole area.

I noticed the spot welds (several on the wheel well lip) tend to be starters for rust, I caught several early and sanded/rust convertered/primed/painted them

Rust is a bummer

 

[dsciulli19]

Thanks for all the input so far. @intheburbs I would love to have a garage to park this truck in as I suspect that's where it lived before I got it, but unfortunately for now that's not in the cards. Sounds like proper body work is the only way to go. Will have to get a quote.

 

[noodlesandsam2]

Eastwood has a new product out to spray / coat the inside of frames - I need to look into it, you should too.

 

[vcode]

Looking from the prevention side, I'll go to my grave preaching about parking it in a garage. Obviously protects it from weather, but also shields it from the daily condensation cycle (you get dew on your lawn every morning, right?).

I've owned my 2500 since 2013, she's spent her whole life in Indiana and Michigan, is driven year round, has 265k miles and the frame is still mostly black. And zero body rust. I've done nothing to it regarding rust mitigation.

My 2010 Tahoe with 100K miles was garage kept, washed and waxed regularly, and still started to rust in some of the door crimps and in the rear wheel fender arches. Underside looked terrible. They must use a whole lot less salt where you live than here in Wisconsin.

 

[SuperOldSchool]

2015 of mine is rusting on both rear fenders/wells too. BS they do this , even with 2-3x per week washes/ undercarriage cleaning at SuperKiss wash.

Went to 3 shops and all 3 said they would not cut it out and reweld - only new panels. $3k each side. Have to drop ceiling to get to roof rack to remove panels.


I have 162k on my truck and will just let it rust out. Not worth it on this one….

 

[Bentawrench0r2]

Ounce of prevention is worth ten pounds of cure when rust is involved.