How much rust can under-body spray stop?

[ovrszd]

You live in Missouri. Thanks for the input.

Is that an implication that Missouri might be too smart to use extremely corrosive materials to thaw their roads??????

Wrong.........

 

[arkydog]

back in the early 70's i met an old guy then that had a 1948 chevy that looked brand new. he lived in st. louis and i asked him how he kept his car so pretty and rust free. he told me that once a month he wash his car with bucket of water with a cup of coal oil. i swear that car looked brand new. i still to this day was amazed at his car. cars rust in st. louis and he said his sat out all the time. don't know if you could do that today with the epa laws. only thing i didn't like about was getting the oil film off windows. easy now with cleaners that have ammonia in them.

 

[ovrszd]

back in the early 70's i met an old guy then that had a 1948 chevy that looked brand new. he lived in st. louis and i asked him how he kept his car so pretty and rust free. he told me that once a month he wash his car with bucket of water with a cup of coal oil. i swear that car looked brand new. i still to this day was amazed at his car. cars rust in st. louis and he said his sat out all the time. don't know if you could do that today with the epa laws. only thing i didn't like about was getting the oil film off windows. easy now with cleaners that have ammonia in them.

According to Tim, if he was in Missouri his outcome doesn't matter. Cause we don't have salty roads here.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Oof, this thread is not giving me much confidence for my currently rust free 2003 Sierra 2500HD. I just bought it last fall and this winter was pretty mild, so required limited road salt usage, thankfully. But every time the truck did get salty, I would go to the nearest quarter wash with several dollars of quarters and just go to town on the underside of the truck. Getting the Salt and dirt off quickly seems the best prevention method, IMO.

I was ready to blow $500 at Ziebart on undercoating right when I bought the truck, but hesitated as money was tight. Now I'm not so sure what to do.

I'm in the same boat, I was about to go with Ziebart too for $700. I've waited as it's a lot of money to spend of something that "may" work.
The truck is almost new so I need to do something soon. I was under the impression Ziebart guarantee's their work and provides free touch ups annually.

Matt

 

[MossRoad]

According to Tim, if he was in Missouri his outcome doesn't matter. Cause we don't have salty roads here.

This has been discussed here before, and relatively speaking, no, you don't have very salty roads there at all.

 

[the old grind]

Easy to doubt Krown if you don't understand exactly how/where it is applied. It's not just a spray-down from the outside as many would assume. Claim of 'self-healing' suggests a thixotropic mat'l such as lanolin, the stuff Cosmoline was made of almost exclusively before WWII.

I hear lots of folks saying to dowse metal with used motor oil. Not me, ever. I tried it decades ago, and what I applied it to rusted in spots thru' the med-heavy film within in months, if not weeks. (humid Summer weather with few showers). Oil doesn't 'wear out'. It accumulates hydrogen (..that can't be filtered out) as a byproduct and becomes acidic. Go ahead if you must, but no thanks ...

From my own experience, FF's only environmentally benign DIY competition is 'PAM Original', and yes I still use both with confidence on outdoor equipment. (encapsulates rust and seals leaky rims w/o harm to rubber. Go organic, man! )

 

[DK35vince]

I hear lots of folks saying to dowse metal with used motor oil. Not me, ever. I tried it decades ago, and what I applied it to rusted right thru' the med-heavy film within in months, if not weeks, in humid Summer weather. Oil doesn't 'wear out'. It accumulates hydrogen (..that can't be filtered out) as a byproduct and becomes acidic. So its low Ph, its conductivity, and thus electrolysis erodes the most 'noble' metal components, mainly bearing babbit, and that can open crank/rod clearances as much as normal wear even while parked/stored. YMMV

That's a new one.
Never heard that before.
My pickup is 25 years old, wife's car is 11 and my son's car is 13.
I spray them with used oil every year and none have any rust. (plenty of salt and calcium on our roads in the winter)
You are going to have a difficult time convincing me it doesn't work.

 

[MossRoad]

Before we were married, my wife bought a new car and a relative talked her into having it rust proofed at a national chain.... that is now out of business. Anyhow, it was a 1983 Chevy Cavalier. We sold it in 1989 to get a new car. The only place that car showed rust was around each plug where they drilled for the rustproofing. The plugs rotted and fell out in most places. We had an 89 Cavalier that we drove for 11 years in Indiana with about 150,000 miles with no rust and we had a 2003 Impala that we drove for 189,000 miles and 11 years and that only had rust at the point where the strut mounts to the rear wheel well. Anyhow, pretty much no one gets new cars rustproofed around here anymore because they just don't rot out like they used to. We put the cars through car washes several times per winter to get the road salt off and that seems to work just fine. They don't even salt the roads here when its cold, because salt doesn't work at low temps, so it usually only a few weeks at early and late winter when there's salt on the road.

 

[KennyG]

I've never heard of car washes recycling their waste water??? Not saying it isn't so. I've just never heard of it. I would not frequent such an establishment.

I think most car washes recycle the water. In some areas, like California, it's required by law. They filter the water and I think they use fresh water for final rinsing, but I think it's likely your local car wash does recycle.

 

[coobie]

You live in Missouri. Thanks for the input.

++1 you need to live in the rust belt..