New to body/paint repairs and need some help with cost estimates

I am starting to see some rust on the inner and outer rear passenger quarter panel sections of my car. I finally cut through to see how bad it was in one spot and realize it is rusted through. I have never had a car that I wanted to save from rust so I usually just tried to knock off rust and paint the swiss cheesed good metal on my older cars previous to the Evo. I would then use the car until it was all used up. I never have had a car body repaired or painted.

The Evo I think I want to keep it in good looking condition not just functional. So I have a couple questions.

As the rust is on both sides, I fear the water is actually between the panels and rusting inside out. How much is it to replace or repair a rear quarter panel?

If I wanted to get the whole car stripped down and painted any idea on cost ranges would be helpful.

I am in SE Michigan. Any good shops to get quotes from?

Your original plan of driving to death was a good one.

Trying to de-cancer a car is very expensive and often not successful; salt-watr has already got into places you wont be able to see or repair.

IF the rust is localized, then you could cut it back to sound metal and weld in a patch and do a localized paint repair. Probably paint the whole panel. Minimum for a shop to do this will be around $1000

If you think you want to own an EVO for the rest of your life, sell what you have, fly to a Dry Salt free state and buy a good rust free one that you dont drive in the winter.

I think the value of an Evo justifies the repair, but it won't be cheap if you are paying somebody to do it. Repairing or replacing a quarterpanel will depend heavily on what they end up doing. Stripping and painting the entire car the right way will be at least several thousand. Most shops kind of avoid full repaints unless they can bill insurance, but call around and see. Unfortunately our cars take a beating driving around here. (Also in SE MI)

I'm no body man, but full quarter panel replacement on both sides followed by a full repaint of decent quality seems like the kind of thing that costs $5k pretty easily. The paint job alone could chew up that much.

So the cost seems as bad as I thought to fix. So is fiberglass and Bondo still the way you get a hole sealed in the car?

Any super fiber reinforced waterproof vinyl patches out there?

In reply to Advan046:

That would be the way to go if you want worse rust in a year or two. A fiberglass and filler patch will just trap moisture in my experience. Gotta cut out the rot and weld in patches at a minimum...panel replacement is better.

Yeah, a pro-level repaint is a $6-10k proposition if you bring in a perfectly straight car that just needs to be scuffed and shot. Add rust repair and it'll feel like your wallet is restoring a boat.

I'd suggest doing a quality (good enough) repair and build an old "rat rod" or truck with ample "patina" (I hate both those terms).

Or better yet, buy an old motorcycle and let that be your project and just try to keep your car decent as long as you can.

In reply to enginenerd:

HA that was my friend's response as well! He suggested maybe welding in new metal but leaving a weep hole to try and let the water out that does get in. Need to figure that out.

It's not "the right way" to do things, but you could always cut out the bad stuff, spray some POR-15 in there to keep it from spreading, and cover it up like these:

Well I couldn't figure out how to link a darn photo of the rust damage after some days of research......

I think I will try the rust converter from Rustoleum, just mask nearby stuff and then spray through the hole into the gap between panels and hope it works.