Any advice on how to delay the rust on my gen 2 Prius?

That's not good Joe.

You should get under the front and under the rear of the car and check its suspension see how bad its rusted under there. Take alot of pictures. Lets see 'em.

Especially the rear strut coil springs they tend to break when rusted bad.

Check under the spare tire and in the hole the 12 volt battery sits see how full of water and how rusted that is too. G2 Prius leak pretty bad and it seems really leaky G2's are over run with mice too. Check the ac filter behind the glove box see if any mice are making a Days Inn there.

It may change your mind about putting any money into the car.

 

Define "rust", where and how bad.

To keep underbody rust under control, it's simple. But, it is not free (hence, 99.999999% of the people won't do it).
Use Surface Shield.
Note: It can get very messy! So, you may want to check local shops.
I used a very large tarp, and I dressed using full disposable coveralls, and I didn't have any exposed skin/etc.
AMD, The Car Care Nut, showed an old vehicle that was treated every year. And, he treated his new Toyota with Surface Shield.

 

That's nothing.
Get that bar in between replaced, then use Surface Shield.

 

it's a bad time to buy a car. otoh, it's a good time to sell one

 

i'd try to get another year out of it, hope the market improves. how many miles on her?

 

Fwiw,

https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/search/?q=rust&restrict_sr=1



For other posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/new/

 

yeah, that's a keeper. maybe have a suspension shop look at it to make sure it's safe. i wouldn't worry about the superficial stuff.
do some body work if you want it to look better.

 

Fwiw, other than that bar. I do not see any bad rust.
It's very easy to tell bad frame rust, In fact, it's super super easy.
Get a regular screw driver, and try to punch a hole. That's basically the "standard" for State rust inspections.
Fwiw, I've been fixing New England rust on cars for many decades. That's why I was able to pick up a car for $50 when I was 16. Imho, knowledge of mechanical structures and mechanical engineering helps a lot. Still, clearly, I wasn't in Engineering school yet when I was 16.

 

prices are crazy these days. if you can confirm the accident status, it seems like a very good price, but you can only compare to what else is on the market.

 

Nice pictures Thanks Joe. Yep That's a Wisconsin car she gave it all for you!

But I have seen worse under the rear of a G2 on this site. Its rusted bad but not unsafe maybe....lol

What I want to see is under the front. That's where you can get hurt if something fails on you. I know Its tough to get under there and get a good look/pictures the car is so low. But do this get the car up on a rack or jack it up and look at it real good take alot of pictures get a good feel for the life expectancy of the car.

Before spending a dime on it.

And I agree on prius16 too. That surface shield is pretty good but you have to start that on infancy. It wont fix already rusted bad.

 

Some type of rust prevention is mandatory in locales with snow and salted roads. Did you do any? If yes, why do you think it didn't work?

 

That's not bad at all, I've seen way worse and I live out where cars don't rust much... For $150 you can get a pair of aftermarket shocks already mounted on the springs and it only takes an hour or two to swap 'em out. Then you just need to get a good price on a power wash and new coat of undercoat and you'll be good to go for a while longer. I wouldn't be too worried about the rust on the sway bar just yet even though it looks kinda bad because that's solid spring steel and once you get the surface clean and some undercoat paint on it the pitting might not be that bad at all.

 

When I lived in New England and the rest was real bad Western Massachusetts I drove my older Toyota 74 and 5 models until the strut towers rusted out and the tops of the struts could literally move my camber two or three degrees when the strut towers flexed dangerous I don't know about that I've had a whole front strut come off a car while I was driving 18 maybe pretty uneventful actually pretty funny I even had my young child in the car and a baby seat very uneventful piece of metal scraping as the car slowed down got out to look and saw the wheel and tire smoking from rubber burning dragging against the fender liner and the strut tube itself wearing the back side of the side wall of the tire about slap out. Very uneventful is what I will say other than somebody had to come get me and this was before cell phones and it was winter time but really quite uneventful. And I would do it again I would drive the car till something failed and then get out and walk off and get another one

 

For the rear suspension, brushing then coating with boiled linseed oil worked for me. Applied with brushes/rags. Fluid Film is a more specific commercial product with good ratings, pricier though.