I have a 2007MY FFRR Vogue 4.4 V8 Petrol which I absolutely love - Probably the best car I've ever owned.

I say this having just driven a thousand miles this week in the new 18MY FFRR Vogue SDV8, which while of course is a great car, it just doesn't have that same leisurely relaxed feel that the L322 has.

In light of the above I want to keep our L322 running well for as long as possible and looking in good order. The car does get a fair bit of stick as it's used mainly for transporting our two pyrenean mountain dogs, but I've now noticed that the spots of rust which have been around for a while, are now becoming noticeably bigger, mainly around the wheel arches - Also a very thin strip of metal (approximately 30mm long) recently dropped off from the inside bottom of the top tail gate section, this area is now also beginning to rust. In addition, there are very small areas of paint (mainly around window seals) where the lacquer appears to have peeled. For the most part the bodywork is good but I don't want the car to deteriorate.

So my questions are:

Do I just get these rust patches sanded, filled and resprayed, or will they come back?

Would I be better off with a full vehicle re-spray - If so, roughly how much would you expect this to cost - And are there disadvantages?

Finally, if the car is showing signs of rust on body panels, I'm thinking the underside may also need work - I was wondering about sending the car to a specialist for a full body and structural overhaul. I've seen companies that do full restoration on Classic FFRR but not L322's. Can anyone recommend similar for an L322?

The car has Full Main Dealer History and has covered 86k miles - So plenty of miles left in her yet.

Many thanks

there really isn't any point in having a full body respray, it wont make the patches of rust any less likely to return.

Your best bet is local body shop who can take the areas back to metal, treat with a rust stopper such as jenolite, then respray to a decent standard. It shouldn't be too expensive.

A good are to check is under the plastic cill trim as this can trap water and cause the areas around the jacking points to corrode though is suspect on an 07 car this is less likely to have happened as yet.

As for the upper tailgate, if there are bits dropping off then the best way to tackle this maybe to just get a decent replacement off ebay etc and bolt it on. the bodyshop can treat and rust on that too and paint it with the car bits. its worth treating the inside of the boot lid with some dinitrol or similar when you get it painted.

see ifs the bodyshop can do a full machine polish too then the car should look really smart when you get it back.

in terms of the underside, there will no doubt be surface rust, and rubbing these back, treating them and then coating with some stone chip will help. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
KIA E-Niro 4+
2021 Discovery 5 D300 MHEV commercial

Thanks for taking the time to reply northernmonkeyjones, your comments are much appreciated.

I think you're probably right, a full respray is probably a bit over kill at this stage - I've had a proper look at the car today and it just seems to be the wheel arches that are affected, further research suggests a common problem but quite easy to fix.

The tailgate is only about a 3 inch line of rust on the bottom seam, so will get this treated and painted at the same time as the wheel arches.

Will also get the bodyshop to check and repair as you suggest.

Thanks once again for taking time out of your day to help

 There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
KIA E-Niro 4+
2021 Discovery 5 D300 MHEV commercial

A respray will be upwards of 4 grand chap. NMJ's advice is sound and I would add that if any pinholes are present then they are best welded up before filler and painting. Car body filler is porous and it's why rust comes back. There was a filler made from aluminium powder that helped but welding is still the best way. As for the tailgate, are you sure it was metal that fell off and not the seam sealant.
I have mine to do also but I'm doing the prep work and then I'm getting one of the mobile fellas to come and paint it.
Good luck with it  2007 Vogue TDV8 in Zermatt Silver with Charcoal

It is maybe worth looking at the subframes underneath too, there have been some corrosion stories about those. Brake lines suffer also.

My 2004 322 had various bubbles caused by stone chips on the back quarters of the car, especially on the passenger side which will get more impacts being nearer to the verge (in the UK). I had these panels resprayed, and the paint matched well enough, but the problem recurred. As you have found, the rear wheel arch and tailgate areas are most prone to corrosion. With my 2012 car I had a new tailgate under warranty but it needed some paint repair after a couple of years and the wheel arches were needing to be treated and repainted every spring after years 2/3 with no help from LR. Only Range Rovers since 1988

Try painting the lip of the arch with stone chip first. Then body colour over the top. It will help it not to rust through again so quickly.  2007 Vogue TDV8 in Zermatt Silver with Charcoal