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Bottom of Inside Door Paint Bubbles

20K views 44 replies 30 participants last post by  Bruce83 
#1 ·
I have a 2005 Envoy. On the inside of the drivers side front door, and the passenger side back door, at the bottom of the door, the paint is bubbled, It is obviously rust.

One of the local shops would not do anything as he said "it would only happen again". I just think the job was too small for him.

Does anyone know what steps I would take to fix the problem and repaint it?
 
#2 ·
if it is bubbling on the inside of both doors, I would recommend sanding it down and spraying it with rusty proof primmer that is some what close to the color of your TB. You can hardly see the bottom of the inside of the door so I would leave it in primmer. If it was bubbling outside where people can see that would be a different story. hope this helps
 
#20 · (Edited)
I did exactly this with my Trailblazer almost two years ago. Sanded it down to nice clean metal, primed with Rustoleum primer and then painted with black Rustoleum paint. Still looks good. (can't see it unless you almost stand on your head.) I'm happy I did it and as other posts said, can always replace doors some day. My father had a 1987 Oldsmobile that he did this exact repair on a different part of the car about 15 years ago and it hasn't bothered since.
I forgot to mention that I now rinse water through the drain holes in the bottom of the doors when I wash it and then a day or two later spray WD40 in the hole until it runs out of the other drain hole (it doesn't take much). I also have sprayed them inside with Amsoil metal protector spray.
 
#4 ·
I had the same situation on the bottom of my doors. Now I know this isnt the proper repair method, but mine were getting kinda rusty and I didnt want it to spread to the outside of the doors. I hit the fusty spots with a wire wheel mounted in a drill, that cleaned off all the lose stuff. Then I smoothed any areas that needed it by hand with some sand paper. I then hit the areas with some Rustoleum primer and sanded lightly again. Then I used some Duplicolor paint from Advanced auto, I put on three coats and only to the bottoms of the doors. Once that dried I used the Duplicolor clear on it. Once again I know this is not the proper body shop repair process, but it actually turned out pretty good. I didnt want to stick a bunch of money into an older vehicle, just slow down the rot a bit.
 
#6 ·
rust warrenty

I had the same thing happen on my 02 TB and i got gm to pay for everything.if your vehicle has under 100,000 miles it is covered under the corrosion warranty. The service guy at the dealer will try like hell not to warranty it but one call to the main gm headquarters and you will be amazed how much they kiss your ass afterwards. it took them about 2 weeks to complete my truck but they insatlled 4 brand new factory gm doors and hinges and moldings. they tried to make me pay for a rental car but again one call to gm headquarteres and they covered it too. when i reterned home i onpened the hood to look for overspray and found out that the lip of the hood was doing the same thing. so back to the dealer again..got a new hood out of them too. they have the 5 year 100,000 mile warranty for corrosion so if you have rust dont waste anytime get into the dealer asap and make your TB looking brand new...
 
#11 ·
:weird::worried:
I had the same thing happen on my 02 TB and i got gm to pay for everything.if your vehicle has under 100,000 miles it is covered under the corrosion warranty. The service guy at the dealer will try like hell not to warranty it but one call to the main gm headquarters and you will be amazed how much they kiss your ass afterwards. it took them about 2 weeks to complete my truck but they insatlled 4 brand new factory gm doors and hinges and moldings. they tried to make me pay for a rental car but again one call to gm headquarteres and they covered it too. when i reterned home i onpened the hood to look for overspray and found out that the lip of the hood was doing the same thing. so back to the dealer again..got a new hood out of them too. they have the 5 year 100,000 mile warranty for corrosion so if you have rust dont waste anytime get into the dealer asap and make your TB looking brand new...
Yeah right, I had the same thing happen an they did not fix it.My TB only had 4o.ooo th on it. They said the dealer would fix it but i have to pay. I said stick it up your ass.
 
#9 ·
Im not having any problem at all with the doors or hood on my 2002 Envoy, but I am seeing an alarming amount of frame rust!! :eek::sadcry:

Any suggestions on how to stop/lessen the acceleration of rust on the frame?
 
#13 ·
I was AMAZED at the amount of rust under my doors. I live in Michigan and they salt the roads here, so rust is expected over time. However, I have a 99 Honda that gets the same weekly car wash year round and is waxed maybe twice a year just like my 04 TB and it has NO rust under the doors.
 
#15 ·
The local shop happens to be right....it may be OK for a while, but rust always comes back.....almost impossible to get rid of once it's in the metal.

Hate to say it, but only SURE way to get rid of it is with new doors.
 
#19 ·
True story.

I've done warranty work on rust repair like this, and the only thing we do is what's been described in the above posts. Clean up the rust, and spot the door jambs in. Sometimes we'll seam seal, but that only prolongs the inevitable. The problem is, where the door skin folds over the shell, there's rust in there and NO way to get it out. So, replacement is the only 100% way of getting rid of it.

And it seems to be hit and miss as to what the dealer will cover. Some people throw a temper tantrum and get everything under the sun warrantied, and others get the shaft from the dealer. When I was looking for TB's, one '07 had it REAL bad, and it only had 34,000 miles on it! The salesman said they only cover corrosion if it's rusting through to the outside of the panel.

Same thing with the SS's. They get stone chips along the bottoms of the doors, some people get it warrantied where they repaint the doors and install 3M protective tape, but my brother can't get them to do anything for his SS. :confused:
 
#22 ·
Got the same problem going on with my 2007 TB with 45,000 miles on it. Dealer says its covered by GM's corrosion warranty and they'll repair it at no cost to me. I've had this happen before on other GM products and its always been covered by GM. A couple years ago, GM dealers started using a new tool. They remove the door, then use this tool to split the seam at the bottom of the door so they can take care of the corrosion in the seam, re-seal it, paint it, then put the door back on the vehicle.
 
#23 ·
My 08 with about 68k is doing the same thing on both rear doors, Its not real bad yet but i might go to a dealer to see what they say. Its a small bead of bubbles and rust where the door skin meets the seam on the inside panel down low.

Front doors look fine.
 
#24 ·
Add me to the list. After seeing a different thread I went out to look today and sure enough all 4 doors are rusting at the bottum. I called the dealer and made an appointment to look at it and he sure sounded like it was a common problem.:mad:
 
#26 ·
After further inspection today add the bottum of my rear hatch and under the front hood near where the hood latches. Think GM is going to fix all this? I understand I live in the salt belt but come on all this rust with less than 5 years and 65000 miles on a truck that is kept spotless and had the paint protection done and undercoated. If they used this quality of materials back in the 50's 60's and 70's there wouldn't be any classic cars left.
 
#28 ·
Sounds like they are going to fix it as they are going to have a car for me tomorrow so fingers crossed.
 
#29 ·
My Envoy has the rust bubbles on the bottom of all 4 doors. I just ordered the POR-15 starter kit off eBay and will use that to keep the rust at bay. Going to put a tape line at the very bottom of the doors, remove rust with wire wheel, do the 3 step POR-15 process, etch prime, hit the areas with Duplicolor color matching paint and follow up with clear. I should have about $40 wrapped up in the repair and hopefully you won't even know it's been done. Under my hood also has the rust issue so I'll probably do that as well.
 
#30 ·
Just got back from the dealer and I will say kudos to Al Piemonte Chevrolet in Dundee, took it in and the service writer looked at all the rust, said its covered, will call the body shop on monday for an appointment to bring it in and get it all fixed. He even drives a Trailblazer and had the repair done.:)
 
#31 ·
I've ranted on this a lot lately as I shopped for my second tv these past two months. The worst one I saw was a two year old 9-7x with 30k miles, the rust was already wrapping around from the bottom to the front of the doors. Huge amounts of rust on that one. Also several Envoy Denali's and other 9-7x's from 2006 up to 2008 every single one rusted always on at least 2 of the 4 doors (usually the passenger side doors) and some the hatch too. My 07 had the rust bubbles as small as they were at around 45,000 miles. All I did was mention it on a warranty service trip and they fixed it no questions asked. Definitely a manufacturer defect on the doors somewhere. My 2000 GM Minivan with 12 winters under it's belt here in MN has no rust where the tv's rust on the doors or hatch. By now if it was a TV, with that many miles and years, the doors would be rusting off the hinges.
 
#32 ·
Dealer called back, I have an appointment monday to drop it off and they said it should be ready by wed or thursday.:D The warranty is for 6 years and 100,000 miles and it does not have to be rusted thru. Just an fyi for those of you that the dealers said that to, they misunderstood the warranty and a quick call to custmer service would fix that.
 
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