My Bus was repainted by Maaco in September, 2003, a year and half before I bought it. As the years have gone by, "pimples and rash" have appeared in numerous locations on the lower half of the sliding door and passenger side rear panel. (See photos below.) The driver's side has been mostly spared. Based on a photo the previous owner sent me of the Bus before the repaint was done, I'm sure these areas are surface rust spots that were not fully eradicated prior to the repaint, and now the rust is returning. But the paint is still quite hard - the "open sore" in the photo below required a heavy poke with a sharp metal point to break open.
I know the right thing to do is to remove the paint and repair the rust, but I don't see how it could ever look as good as it does now without a repaint of least the entire right side of the Bus from the windows down. And even at that, I'm concerned that the color and texture match to 16-year-old Maaco paint are going to be problematic - never mind the expense.
At this point, I'm inclined to just leave things as-is and "let it develop", but what are the long-term implications of doing that?
