Car has a full protection film on the parts of the car that take the brunt of the wind/damage like the front bumper and front of the hood as well as the back quarter panels and doors since new. Despite this the paper thin clear coat that Mitsubishi loves to use is peeling/bubbling away right beside the film layers adding insult to injury. I'll have to post some outside pictures, I've considered getting the car's clear coat redone professionally with good paint.
Anyways enough rambling here's the before and afters:
I first did the screwdriver test as described in the front sub-frame recall workshop guide and it didn't go through so I continued on instead of driving/towing it five hours the closest dealership for replacement.
The whole process was actually quite simple in terms of complexity. It started with a good wipe down with brake cleaner to get the initial dirt off and then mineral spirits and wire brushing until my shoulders went numb and the flakey rust/original coating off. Then wipe the rust dust off with mineral spirits. After double checking to make sure all the rust flakes we're gone I got the paint I used ready.
The stuff I used called 'POR 15' or 'Paint over rust 15 minutes'(I think that's what it's called lengthened) is some very strong and very eye watering coating. This paint once it dries either on skin or the garage floor will not come off with either gas or acetone. This gives me some hope for protection that'll last at least five years haha. I debated on doing the top at the front but there was zero corrosion on top surprisingly but I painted the sub-frame mounting "arms" welds as precaution.
I did two coats for the front as it's the most vulnerable area for rot on the car going by recalls and one on the rear as it's a pain in the *** to get all the little crevices and I found myself seeing a little mount area or crack I missed in the rear. Not shown in the photos since I was in a bit of a rush to get the wet paint off myself was the over brush onto the other rear suspension arms. I'm not worried about the rust on those since when the bushings are ready to be replaced most likely soon I'll just simply replace the whole arm versus dropping the sub-frame to replace that if it fails from rust. I'm also by no means a professional painter so forgive the sloppiness
. Some of what looks like bead's dropping off are actually weld's on the front sub-frame from factory so i can't be to blame . As much as I love how these cars drive and handle especially with the 5 speed and 4B12 Mitsubishi definitely took some shortcuts especially in the coating for the suspension components and sub-frames and in this part of the world it's borderline unacceptable, Mazda is also guilty of this. The Nissan Xterra beside it looks brand new underneath compared to it and it's three years older and has more KMs.
I'm also grateful for this community as it has information about these cars and tips for them then anywhere else on the internet and I'm happy to be part of it. The D2 Coilovers have also gotta go soon in favour of some OE Kybs for a more pleasant drive, both rears are leaking as well but the ride height is set to stock-ish height as far as I can tell so that's a plus.
