I noticed rust starting on my driver's side rear door where it meets the seal between the two doors when closed. It's probably only about 1 1/2 square inch area right now. So first let me just vent that this is the first rust I've had on a car I've owned built after 2000. I'm the second owner of this fit and fresh into a car loan for it. I was happy to see an unrelated thread a while back where a guy posted about a possible sunroof leak and then posted the next day he sold it that night out of frustration and not wanting to deal with an issue on a car which he was going to still be paying on for a while. That's exactly how I get when something not covered by general maintenance or warranty comes up. So I'm coming out of that phase of anger and I'm starting to look at the latest DIY for something like this since I haven't had to do DIY rust repair since 1989.
It's surface stuff, where the paint is starting to look like a popcorn ceiling. It sounds like taking super fine sand paper to remove the paint, scraping the stuff and then covering with a rust inhibiting primer and touch up paint will suffice. Since I have a propensity to do the one thing that will complicate something simple, where in that plan am I going to F up the finish?

 

Missouri is indeed part of the "rust belt" states. So get use to it.

 

+1

I left that part of Canada over a decade ago and never looked back.
My only suggestion would be to move somewhere that doesn't get/gets very little snow/extreme temps.
Not only will your vehicles last longer, they'll also look better as they age, especially if you have a garage.

 

post picture...so i can check MY car