I have a 2000 Dodge Caravan (3.0L V6). There is rust along both sides of the car near the bottom of the door and bottom frame of the car. See photos below.

We're not looking for perfect by any means (whatever is quick and from a glance the car seems fine) so we figured a metal grinder to grind down the rust and then slapping a coat of glossy bluish-green Rustoleum paint. My slight concern is the grinder may go through the more troubled areas creating a whole.

I just wanted some quick advice on how to approach making getting rid of the rust. If it is quick and easy for my situation then I'm all ears otherwise a quick sanding /grinding and then spray paint, I'm cool with that. The rust is limited to both the left and right very lower parts where the door meets the bottom frame of the car.

 

The rust is also on the inside and if you grind it you will go through the metal like aluminum foil. Some one else will have to give you tips on how best to proceed.

 

Well since it's starting to rot out, that makes it more fun of a task haha.
If you're not looking for anything perfect and probably going to do it yourself, then use the grinder and take out all the rust which will leave some [large] holes, bend some sheet metal to shape and rivet/weld it into place. The use some body filler on top of the sheet metal you put in and sand it down to help blend in with the rest of the body, then use some primer and paint
That's probably the cheapest way to do it, I would think. And if you do plan to do something like this, make sure you get rid of all the rust in the beginning or else it will start rusting again within the next week or two.
That's my opinion anyway. Whatever you do, put up some pics from after it's done.

 

Great tip. I will give it a go.

Just in case my body paint color code:

PQW (primary paint) = aquamarine met
QQW (secondary paint)

Who normally caries this color locally? Princess Auto? I tried my local Canadian Tires but no luck. I dont want to pay $$$ by going to the dealer if they even sell in such quantity.

 

When you are working to get rid of the rust. Wipe down the bare metal with vinegar, it is a rust inhibitor. Learned this from years ago from a friend who has a body repair shop when I was preparing a car to repaint.

 

Really think before you tear into that can of worms. Need to consiter mileage and overall health of the van. The rockers, at least on one side are rusted thru. How bad are the strut towers? If you start to remove rust, I am willing to bet you are looking at replacing the rockers at least back to the pinch weld or further. It can be done, but, no QUICK fix for that that will last for any length of time. Cut out and replace rockers. Cut out and replace door bottoms. Remove the trim and do your repair from there down to minimize the work at that point, should be able to cover most of the splice with the trim. (spot)Weld, grind, weld, grind, weld, grind, use as little filler as possible. If not perfectly clean behind the filler, rust will form and pop off the filler within a year or two. Don't forget to leave drain holes in any repair that you do, or it will fill up with road sludge, and spray some good undercoating inside when you are done. Pay close attention to where the front mount for the rear leaf spring is. My mother's 98 rotted clean off there. took me close to 12 hours of fabing up something just to remount the spring to the "frame", and was not pretty when I was done, but functioned ok. Stuck darn near 100 hours into hers (including the strut towers) to make it look good, and she totaled it a year later, she got run over by a Ryder truck with a drunk behind the wheel.

Could just go the bondo and rattle can route, will last a year or two. Could also have it Line-X ed from the trim, around the bottom of the rockers , to the pinchweld. Will fill the rust holes, and be fairly durable. May be going the line-x route with my 00 in a year or so. Got a quote for $250.00 if I do all the prep work.

 

Another option? Here's one example of one source. Two clicks and you'll see lower door panels and rocker panels for your 2000 van: http://www.rustrepair.com/index-mf.html

 

Geez it looks like an Aerostar - lol.

A couple rolls of silver heat duct tape and just cover it up. Easiest cosmetic fix. Anything else is not gong to be much better than what you have and you will be creating one big mess..

 

Had an older Caravan that the doors rust out along the bottom. A buddy of mine reworked the slider door by grinding away the rust area +1 inch. Then with Foam-In-A-Can filled in the area in a few treatments. He shaved off the foam neatly and touch it up with an epoxy primer. Once done, it was lite weight, durable and hard. the final paint was actually black truck bed liner. We went all around the bottom of the van to the first body crease. The van for age, wear and tear look so much better. There are not too many two tone Caravans.