Lexus IS 250 (2007) rust on wheel arch and misty head lights

[Joolsd]

Hi All again. 

I was looking over the car and I can see that the rear left wheel rim is starting to rust and has become brittle. Is this one body panel that leads to the roof? I'm not sure? Or if this part of the bodywork a separate plastic section and somehow the designers managed to blend it seamlessly into the main bodywork which leads all the way to the roof. How easy is this to fix. I was thinking this would be quite pricy?

I have always had issues with rust in this area. I think one year I had it resprayed but I think it made things worst. I tried waxing the area but it hasn't helped. 

I would have thought this would fail on the MOT? If rust builds up enough it might weaken where the seat beat is connected. :(

The other issue is the misted up head lights. How easy is this to fix? Can it be done without replacing the whole light?

Best Wishes 

Julian. 

[Linas.P]

This is pretty standard place to have rust issues on any car (the rear wheel arches), basically if stone chips are not addressed in time it will start rusting. The side panel goes into "C-pillar" and it is one big panel. Fixing it is not that big of the issue but in UK I would expect to pay ~£500 for that. The work is same as on any other rust panel, cut the piece out, weld replacement and paint... just blending is quite difficult on such big panel and on your paint (blue metallic).

This is not MOT fail, but will get more and more pricey the more you wait. Although, very unlikely to cause any structural issues you mentioned - it would take literally few decades before structural issues would happen from rear arches rust. And IS250 overall quite rust proof car, it only rusts on damaged areas and they must be left for a very long time. 

The headlights, do not look too bad, so no MOT issue yet (but it will become eventually). The lights can be simply polished - I do it quite often actually. Total cost ~£50-150, depending if you do yourself and depending how many tools you have and how many you need to buy. 

[Joolsd]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

This is pretty standard place to have rust issues on any car (the rear wheel arches), basically if stone chips are not addressed in time it will start rusting. The side panel goes into "C-pillar" and it is one big panel. Fixing it is not that big of the issue but in UK I would expect to pay ~£500 for that. The work is same as on any other rust panel, cut the piece out, weld replacement and paint... just blending is quite difficult on such big panel and on your paint (blue metallic).

This is not MOT fail, but will get more and more pricey the more you wait. Although, very unlikely to cause any structural issues you mentioned - it would take literally few decades before structural issues would happen from rear arches rust. And IS250 overall quite rust proof car, it only rusts on damaged areas and they must be left for a very long time. 

The headlights, do not look too bad, so no MOT issue yet (but it will become eventually). The lights can be simply polished - I do it quite often actually. Total cost ~£50-150, depending if you do yourself and depending how many tools you have and how many you need to buy. 

Thank you for your reply. The MOT is at the end of September. As you say it may not fail, on that but I will have to see which other problems occur. 

[Mr Vlad]

You could save money by wire brushing the rusty areas. Then use different grades of wer and dry paper. Apply some Kurust then when you have the funds get the area painted. The kurust turns a blue colour not too dissimilar to your cars colour.

As for headlights. There are plenty of restoration kits available. I'm sure you've got an electric drill. Look on YouTube how to restore headlights. It's actually easy to do.

[Joolsd]

On 7/30/2023 at 8:40 AM, Mr Vlad said:

You could save money by wire brushing the rusty areas. Then use different grades of wer and dry paper. Apply some Kurust then when you have the funds get the area painted. The kurust turns a blue colour not too dissimilar to your cars colour.

As for headlights. There are plenty of restoration kits available. I'm sure you've got an electric drill. Look on YouTube how to restore headlights. It's actually easy to do.

Yes I thought about maybe doing it myself.