Let the rust begin...should I bother with "surgery?"

[mp66226]

01 qx4 160k mi, really nice truck in good shape, owned for about 2 years. Washed it often and thoroughly during the winter months to try to avoid rust. Strut towers are ok per dealership. Got a 2" patch of rust right above the left rear wheel where you have to open the door to see. Goes under the plastic moulding there so i am scared to see what else might be under there. Was thinking about trading it in but more recently was leaning toward keeping it another 3-4 years. I hate nasty looking cars so was considering having it surgically repaired but given the reputation think it may soon have another spot and another and another and so on... Any thoughts or recommendations? I do mostly diy stuff but not body work like welding and painting.

[harm]

I have a 98 pathfinder with 136k on it and i was recently looking to "upgrade" to a Frontier PU because my pathfinder is also starting to rust pretty bad. After some research i have decided to keep the pathfinder because it reputation is much better than the frontiers (2005-08) i could afford. So i have decided to put a little time and money in my pathfinder to get 2-4 more years out of it. I do my own work on my vehicles but this will be the most challenging body work that i have attempted. Anyway, that is what I am doing.
If you don't want to get all crazy with yours you could just take care of the rust you see with some spot blasting and touch up paint. At least it would look a little better and slow the rust down a little.

[Buzzman]

01 qx4 160k mi. Got a 2" patch of rust right above the left rear wheel where you have to open the door to see. Goes under the plastic moulding there so i am scared to see what else might be under there.

If the rust spot is visible above the wheel well trim/moulding, then you can be 100% sure that the rest of the wheel well that is hidden under the moulding is just as bad, or worse.
These things are prone to rust around the rear wheel wells, especially in a wet environment, or in a snow belt city that uses road salt in the winter.
I live in Canada (Ottawa), where they use road salt to ridiculous levels.
I oil spray/rust proof my truck every year, and there is still rust on the rear wheel wells.
I don't know how you can stop it.
I've been to my local wrecking yard, where there are a number of R50's, and every one of them has rear wheels wells that have totally rusted away.