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Thread: Rust from the camera hole- solved sorta

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    Rear camera rust repair (in depth, lots of pics) pt 1

    So I started noticing this problem on my Micra a couple of weeks ago. Over the past little while we got some almost tornado level rain here in the GTA and it got really bad really quickly. I decided to take it off and sure enough that metal bracket was absolutely knackered! I am in the process of doing a repair on this. On this type of thing (especially where water can get in and sit next to metal or paintwork as many of you know the paint and clearcoat on these cars is very thin) I like to go overboard and ensure the issue is %110 resolved. For those interested I will be posting a pretty in depth (and perhaps overly pedantic) overview of my repair.


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    Last edited by Marchmadness; 05-29-2022 at 10:13 PM.

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    MetroMPG (05-29-2022)

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    Looking forward to it. That's something that will help a lot of owners who start.to notice this issue.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Micra S manual: 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.5 mpg (Imp) ... 20.0 km/L ... 47.0 mpg (US) ...


  4. #13
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    How are you getting 5L/100km? Thats insane!
    I will certainly be looking into your posts as I was rather happy with my car getting 6.4 but if I can make any improvements I will surely give a few a try!

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    Rear camera rust repair (in depth, lots of pics) pt 2

    Luckily I seem to have gotten around to fixing this before it got too bad, as you can see with a little bit of %70 rubbing alcohol on a paper towel I was able to remove most of the rust. It seems as though the rust was just residual that had stuck around inside the housing. The degree to which the housing bracket had corroded was severe enough that there was large flakes of it just sitting against the paint. In this type of situation it is very easy for those flakes of rust to scratch the clearcoat or paint and start causing more serious problems which would require more in depth repair. As you can see there is very minor rust around the hole and I will fix that before reinstalling the camera housing. My suggestion to anyone with a Micra that has the rear view camera is as soon as you see the slightest signs of rust from this area to tend to it as quickly as possible. I will be using high quality nail polish to repaint these small spots where I will remove the rust.

    As you can see in the second picture the small phillips head screw was rusted thoroughly so it was a bit of a pain to get out, I was JUUUUST able to get enough purchase on it to remove it, swearing under my breath seemed to aid this process.

    The third picture shows the plastic bracket which holds the camera body itself, it was in fairly good condition asides being covered in rust and being fused to the metal bracket. Unfortunately the tab on the bottom of the plastic broke when I was wrestling the metal bracket free. As this is more of a locate and not structural me repairing it with gorilla glue should not cause any problems in the future.

    The fouth picture shows the real culprit of this entire problem; a very cheap piece of steel that has very thin paint As you can see in the picture I have put on a painters tape hoop so I can dip coat it in rust paint and then hang it to dry… Please note this is an absolute band-aid solution as I will be getting or making a new part in the coming days.

    The final picture is a close up detail of the little tab that may break if your metal bracket is fused to the plastic like mine was. Again not a huge deal but not breaking stuff is generally better than breaking stuff.
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    Last edited by Marchmadness; 05-29-2022 at 10:57 PM.

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    Rear camera rust repair (in depth, lots of pics) pt 3

    Now time for the rust repair on the sheet metal. I simply took some 220 grit sand paper and sanded down to bare metal to remove all the rust.

    In the first picture you can see where I took some 220 grit sandpaper and removed the rust, a little bit of painters tape can help give you a guideline of where the camera housing will cover as well as help avoid scratching the surrounding area. There is a good 3/16” all around the port so you don’t need to be too nervous about sanding anything that will be visible once this whole repair is complete. Remember the key here is more to eliminate all the rust you can, this won’t be visible so don’t be too nervous about making it aesthetically pleasing.

    Speaking of aesthetics the next picture shows the outside plastic housing that I have taken a scouring pad to as a prep for painting. while I had this off the car I made the decision to paint it black to match some various other gloss black bits on the car. (Spoiler, mirror caps, brake drums and brake rotor hats, lug nuts and wheel locks and my absolutely gorgeous new Mille Miglia wheels are all gloss black) (I will post a bunch of pics when I get a good day to detail her fully)

    Lastly is the picture of the outside housing with a few coats of gloss black spray paint. I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible spray painter but with a few helpful tips from a buddy and some YouTube clips I managed to get a pretty good result.

    *** some helpful tipsÂ…
    1 make sure the part(s) to be painted are as clean as possible,
    2 if it is sunny leave the spray can in a sunny spot for a few minutes, you want the can to be warm but not overly hot, for obvious reasons. ***If you do not feel safe doing this, please donÂ’t***. I left my can on my front step for about five minutes and that was more than enough, I can not stress this enough, if you do not feel safe doing this, donÂ’t. I donÂ’t want to be responsible for injuries/property damage and or any unplanned pieces of modern art.
    This helps the paint flow, level and dry better, especially with gloss paint as it is very difficult to get a good smooth finish
    3 take care, prep is %90 of good paint work, take your time and itÂ’s much less likely to end in tears.
    4 use something to hold up the piece being painted; I used drinking straws which turned out to be a bad idea as the housing pretty much rolled away while I painted, chopsticks are my usual go-to but sadly I was all out.


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