That evil salt cancer trying to kill our babies

[T4R2014]

Not sure what's worse for a vehicle, a New England winter or driving through straight salt water? Is there even a difference?

 

[dogtail]

Thanks for the tips.

WD40 really isn't a very good rust inhibitor.

Krown and fluidfilm are great for chassis work, but hell on plastics and rubber. I had all 4 OEM fender flares warp horribly from krown.

Boeshield T-9 is a very good product for corrosion protection. Unlike most, it's very water resistant and does not wash off easily without a solvent. It does, however, clean up very will with more T-9. I've been using it on collectable, old fishing reels for about 15 years. For that purpose, it's a perfect application. For vehicle corrosion resistance, its excellent for coilovers, coils, shocks, shock mounting locations, etc. It won't distort your rubber or plastic, it dries to a waxy film (it will get a bit dirty) and the adherence to things like threads on aftermarket coilovers is very good. Extremely resistant to washing off-- which is excellent. First line of defence is judicious washing throughout the winter.

Last weekend I took several photos of my typical winter prep (after the ceremonial last wheeling trip of season "2" in Canada). I even put the icon coilover wraps on to my freshly T-9'd fronts. Everything else underneath is jet-black from my thrice-annual inspections and spot touch-ups.

My suspension wasn't designed for my environment. I chose it anyway, and take the onus of corrosion protection as my own. The shock wraps are a bit of an experiment for me.

As for chassis (and not suspension-centric rustproofing)... that's easy. Fluid film, rust check rust paint and a wire brush. The rest is ambition. All of my vehicles have always been prepared in the fall, and touched up in the spring. My 10-year-old nissan had less rust underneath than anything new you could find on a GMC lot in my neck of the woods.

It's worth your time and preparation.

 

[nb rob]

Thanks for the tips.

I appreciate reading your experiences as well. I'm glad that WD40 has been working for you.
Seems like we're on the same page with an ounce of prevention.

A friend of mine ran his mouth about how useless oiling the chassis was, did nothing (his brother even offered to apply undercoating for him for free) and maintained that if he had any problems, his warrantee would cover rust.
Long story short, both rear fenders and boxliners are rusted to hell in 2 or 3 winters. I think he was very misinformed about the limits of rust repair and warrantee work.

 

[LandCruiser]

Or moving away

Says the guy who lives surrounded by salt spray.

Coastal Cali eats cars almost as bad as the winter.

I lived in Gulf Breeze and surface rust could form on bare metal OVERNIGHT.

 

[MeefZah]

Says the guy who lives surrounded by salt spray.

Coastal Cali eats cars almost as bad as the winter.

I lived in Gulf Breeze and surface rust could form on bare metal OVERNIGHT.

Not here. In fact, there's tons of beautiful old LC, pre-Tacoma trucks, 1st gen Runners, etc roaming around. All rust free.

 

[Trail Wonka]

How about getting your states or counties to stop using salt???

 

[jonesmw10]

Not to resurrect this thread but figured I'd share my experience with undercoating.

At least in Buffalo, not sure about elsewhere.. The shops there sprayed everything with undercoating. It has worked well. My last winter there I used fluid film and it did great. Here's a few pictures of my frame. It spent all it's life in WNY until last September. Pretty much all the brown you see is sand.

 

[shahsmerdis]

Please post high res pictures and upload to imggur or google drive photos etc.

That frame looks awesome for buffalo. Im surprised its still even alive.

 

[Beaumont67]

Undercoating is only for visible spots, in the rust belt we need to get inside the frame, rockers and panels where undercoating won't go into tiny crevasses, on small parts. Better a regular maintenance thing that a one shot deal. The Fluid Film is a nature safe wax alternative. I hate salt, I prefer pepper.

^^ Exactly, tar like undercoating (aka Ziebart) will eventually do more harm, than good.
- Ziebart coating will dry out & crack
- one this happens, the road salt spray will seep into the cracked tar skin / salt solution trapped, against metal
- rust will now accelerate, because the undercoat skin is holding & hiding salt & moisture

I think Krown & Rust Check products are water soluble, so not optimum / it seems to wash off quickly...I've stopped buying these products.
WD40 evaporates to quickly.
Fluid Film, is wax-oil based / I give it the Win.

My 1989 Nissan Pathfinder is long gone, to another buyer / but it was bought at 3 years old & oil sprayed, for 14 years straight.
- which proves, some undercoatings do prevent or slow down rust / as I live in a Northern rust belt

^^ WD-40 original / evaporates quickly & offers little rust protection.
Truck Bed Liner applied over rust, will trap it...that can't be good.

Decades ago, I experimented with rust proofing & rented a hoist to spray different formula's / some purchased & others I concocted up (these worked very well to retard rust / but the proper Hydraulic feed spray equipment was expensive)
- Krown & Rust Check, are very much the same / some senior employees quit one company & started up their own
- Krown product lasted in the wheel wheels, for only about a good month / not a whole winter...equals Fail
- having sprayed the stuff, and tested on my own DD'ers / I suspect the stuff is water soluble, and washes off...Not Good !!
Krown & Rust Check is 100x better than not rust treating ever.

Now - I am a firm believer in wax-oil blended sprays, to wet and bond to metal (much longer), with built in rust inhibitors.
- Fluid Film is a far more reliable undercoating / done annually, for lasting protection
- if under-carriage is clean of dirt, your ready to spray / if underneath is muddy, power wash first & allow 24 hours dry time
I live in a rock salt-rust belt / my Gen3 will take another 2 decades, to rust out / so far, my 2000 SR5 is still near perfect.

Spraying on firewall and inner fenders and inside hood front, trunk bottom, all doors, rockers & quarter panels is essential.
- to prevent rust starting, from inside/out / eliminating expensive rust through & extensive auto body work
- with proper undercoating / rust on door bottoms is avoided & folded sheet metal seams, stay tight & paint doesn't break

 

[wallytoo]

That sucks! Yeah we only use sand here in the state of Washington. Salt is bad for our lakes and streams. So is oil and WD-40, WTF? Isn't there a thing called undercoating?

as touched on by others, hard undercoating isn't very effective long-term in fighting salt-induced rust damage. the genie is out of the bottle as far as treating the roads - people are accustomed to driving on dry pavement, and demand it. the only way to accomplish that is by applying salt-based deicers to the road surface, which have the negative effect of rusting our vehicles.

btw, protecting the chassis and bodies of vehicles IS environmentally friendly, not the other way around. by using those products yearly, i prevent my vehicles from disintegrating, which limits my demands on iron, steel, and aluminum being needed to create another vehicle from raw materials.

for more than 20 years, i had a local place apply oil undercoating to the body panels and frames of my vehicles. it was similar to bar & chain oil. pretty good adherence, absolutely protected the vehicles from rusting. the downside was that it attracted dust/dirt, so if clean looking cars are important to you, that was a battle (it isn't an issue to me). however, the cost of having the shops do it ultimately got more expensive (runs about $125 to $200 per vehicle right now). so, for the last few years, i've done it myself. for the first two years of doing it myself, i used an oil sprayer, and applied used gear oil to the frames, inner sides of the body panels, and underneath the cars/trucks.

this year, i decided to try fluid-film. i bought 16 cans of the aerosol, and it was enough to thoroughly cover all of the insides and frames of four vehicles: my '87 4runner, '91 celica, '89 camry, and '48 dodge dump truck. and the cost was less than $125 for the product. the downside was it took time to apply it to all the cars, but that's ok with me. i took the time to remove inner rocker covers to access the rockers, fender panels, etc. also popped off a few inner trim panels to get to the backsides of the bodies.

i'll see how well it does compared to the "gear oil/bar oil" treatments. i retired a '95 subaru wagon 3 years ago, which showed only limited rust, not the typical subaru rust-through that occurs to new england subies.

an added benefit to oil/fluid protection is that chassis/steering/underside parts don't get rust-welded together as readily, and often can be loosened/removed without breaking them.

pic of my subie, at the normal terrible rust-through location, at the rear struts. never did any body work to it, the pic is of the original rear quarter panel (this was in 2016, AFTER i retired it from the road, so it was a 18 year old subaru that spent its entire life in new england - i beat the snot out of it, 297K miles):

wally

 

[GearHead899]

When i bought my 4runner about a year ago, it had about a 4-6" rust spot in the frame in the usual inside frame rail next to the muffler. It wasnt that bad but i still had plans to fix it. A month or so ago i was under the truck and noticed in the past year it got way worse. I had my body shop guy fix it before winter hit here in NJ. He ended up cutting out about 2 feet of frame! but its as good as new now. needless to say, i will keep up with the under body washes and rust prevention.

 

[jonesmw10]

Please post high res pictures and upload to imggur or google drive photos etc.

That frame looks awesome for buffalo. Im surprised its still even alive.

Sorry about that. Here's a couple more. Not the best but you can see it's in good shape. A couple spots with surface rust.

 

[Hitman]

I'd suggest moving to Colorado but we are full. :dance:

We use mag-chloride and sand on our roads and my 4Runner has only a little rust on a few cheaper bolts under the truck and nothing on the topside.

You are lucky that you don't have a lot of rust. Magnesium Chloride is known to be far more corrosive than Sodium Chloride (rock salt) that is much more common in my home state of New York. My 4Runner looks fantastic as far as the body, but the frame and chassis is a rusty mess.

 

[green_manalishi]

The big difference in Colorado is how quickly things dry out. Growing up in Michigan (sodium chloride and sand) vehicles don't ever really dry off all winter long. They just sit in that wet salty brine for months on end. In Colorado, your car is bone dry 1-2 days after a big storm. The number of older vehicles on the road in CO compared to MI is astounding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shahsmerdis]

I think once the factory coating gone, its not much longer till the whole frame goes.

 

[m85476585]

Boeshield is a good idea. It is very long lasting on bikes. It's available in aerosol cans. It's expensive, but if it lasts longer than Fluid Film it would be worth it.

Has anyone used Cosmoline? That black/ green stuff they coat all kinds of metal parts with? It's sticky, smelly, and impossible to clean off, which sounds perfect for the frame of a truck.