northeast drivers, rust prevention tips?

hey fellas, mainly the northeast guys on here. how many of you guys really drive the hell out of your cars. like day in day out. with our snowy, icy, road salt, salty ocean air and everything we have that eats metal alive. how do you guys keep your stuff from rotting. im building an apache now, and its gonna be my daily driver. i wanna drive the shit out of it, only thing thats killing me is the winter road salt because ive seen how badly it can tear a car up in very little time. are there any undercoatings that work really well in a real life situation? ive searched around and theres some info but i want info from people in my area with similar weather conditions who really use there stuff on a daily basis, and wanna hear what has worked for you. i assume just staying off the road after snow would be the best deal, but lemme hear what ya got

 

good primer, good paint!
closed cavities that paint can't get in, or can trap moisture are the spots that promote rot. i fix a lot of rot [pays my bills and puts food on the table] most of it is closed areas the factory could not treat or spots, like floorboards that carpeting holds moisture. if you can keep the parts "dry" the paint will keep the rot away.

 

buy a winter beater and preserve the oldies. they've made it this long why kill them in 1 or 2 years of winter driving?

 

ive started filling holes and capping stuff off to prevent water from sitting. like the camaro clip, ive started filling all unused holes. or any issues on the truck that typically rot, ive tried to not only repair but improve on the design somehow to prevent rot. after all this thinking, and planning and work, i have an opportunity to pick up a jeep for pretty cheap. im thinking that may just be a good idea for a beater to drive around when the truck needs fixin or bad snow. the apache is also sittin real low and its not on bags so snow pretty much ruins any driving plans

 

Oil and or Grease.

The stuff 0n the roads up here have chewed up my Nevada-desert 1970 car in 5 years, and I try not to drive when there is slush. It still destroyed the car.


My son had a 86 Toyoto pickup that came with a different color bed that had a bit of rot everywhere. I welded patches in, and we brushed every spot under it with sticky grease. It needs to be done yearly IMO, and any hidden channels or voids, should be sprayed with a mix of oil and ATF.

 

i worked on a late model yuckon that came from vermont. the owner used chain saw bar oil [sticky, parafin based] sprayed with a pump sprayer, and then drove on a dry dirt road. he did this every fall. truck was perfect, i. after working on it, looked like tar baby.

 

I haven't tried it, yet, but what about spray on bed liner? It is extremely tough and doesn't chip, so perhaps it would work well on the underside of a truck or car.

 

The old Vermonters will confirm that it was common for a gas station to change your oil, then spray the old oil all under the car. This was in the 50s.

I still remember how quickly the local tri-5 chevys, mid/late 50s Fords, 60-66 chevy pickups rusted out and were worthless in 6 years or so.

 

We used tar dissolved in kerosene. A lump about baseball size in a gallon. Put her up on a lift, spread plastic sheeting and spray it with a garden sprayer. It'll stink for a while but it leaves that coating of tar. Do it at least once a year, twice is better. The 60 falcon still looked good in 85. We quickly figured out to not spray the exaust system!

 

Consider using urethane based paintable seem sealers. The problem is with edges. Once salt starts to lift paint on an edge you're done. Paint panels front and back and then undercoat the back side. Be very mindful of edges and lips that can trap water, the water evaporated the salt is left behind to eat away are your paint.

 

ive heard on and off things about bed liner, if it does chip your screwed because all moisture is held and literally rots from the inside out under the liner.

im probably just gonna get a beater, my dad said he will take a grand for his wrangler. weve had 4 or 5 jeeps in my family in the past 10 years and the inline 4 and 6 cylinders are great motors. ill probably just go that route

 

After replacing the cab floor suports on my OT pickup twice, I decided to experement. I have drilled from the inside and filled them completely with fiberglass resin. I also coated the floor that was outside of the frame area, and was exposed to everything thrown off the front tires. I did that about 10 years ago, except on the cab floor suports, and it lasted very well considering what I drove it through. So this time The suports got it inside and out, and the same under floor area was recovered. It's a dirty and sticky mess, when you are lying on a gravel driveway, and trying to paint it on, but if I had to do it again, i probably would. However I did not fill the rocker pannels, nor anthing else. I figured if I ever had to replace them, i'd destroy the cab before I got them apart. And I also coated the inside floor where your feet rest and thee carpets load up with salt water.

 

My 07 is just starting to rust .
That was dipped, galvanized, waxy frame and all that.

I'm thinking some sort of sacrificial anode might do it or keep it out of the snow and salt

 

Very common in Western New York where I grew up. I solved the problem by moving to Georgia. It is amazing how much longer a car lasts in the South as far as rust goes. Its that brown, nasty salt/slush that really does the damage I think. They used to rust worse on the drivers side because there is more salt in the center of the road then on the shoulder. I also used to spray the underpinnings really well a few times a winter with hot soap and water at the car wash to get all the nasty out of it. It is hard to find one open in the middle of winter though, but one did stay open most of the time around me. I have also heard and seen instances of undercoating actually trapping salt and contaminants when applied and rusting the heck out of frames and parts. I actually had a Toyota Tacoma that rusted the frame right out and Toyota ended up buying it back from me after only 5 years of driving in NY. They did say it was because they didnt get enough plating or something on the steel at manufacturing.

 

i think just keeping it out of the snow and salt is the best solution by far, or move west lol. one or the other. no matter how much you try to prevent it the shit gets everywhere and into little corners and nooks n crannies.

 

and i really dont wanna cover evrything in grease underneath, if i wanted that id get my cummins back thing was a greasy pig no matter how much you tried to clean it

 

its good to have 2 cars anyway. then you can insure the apache as a second car and pay 200 buks a year i like to drive my cars year round just to keep the juices flowing. i only take them out when the roads are dry. even if they are covered in salt. it doesnt stick and get everywhere. but i think the trick to it is just to keep after it. when you see rust starting fix it before it gets bad. if you drive it alot its gonna slowly go down hill anyway in other areas and should need a overall refresh every 5 years or so. I figure i rebuilt the whole thing once. i can certainly fix a few spots in 5 years when it gets crusty again

 

The best thing that works for us has been a creeping oil spray. There's a company here (Toronto) named Krown but Eastwood has a kit to oil spray your car as well. It comes with nozzles, wands, plugs and a spray gun and you buy the amount of oil you need... We've done our cars for years with NO problems. The cars will drip for several weeks.. Heavy the first couple of days and then a few drops here and there for a few weeks afterwards. I line my garage floor with cardboard during the dripping stage... I used to do it every year in the spring but now do it every 2 years. They say spring time is the best time because the corrosion process is more active in the spring and summer...
Hope this helps.

 

yeah the second car seems like the best idea, especially since i LOVE to drive in the snow. donuts anyone ?

 

I am also from Western NY. I'm a car guy and I take moderately good car of my cars but I never could keep a car long enough to accumulate 100,000 miles when I lived there. The freeze thaw cycle, and the beating the lower portion of any daily vehicle take from the crap on the road during the winter is just plain brutal on steel. Not to mention dissimilar metal mixed with salt and water (electrolysis) that will eat a car in record time.
But Green grenade was looking for tips to prevent rust. MD might not be as brutal as NY but avoiding the shit blasting and freeze thaw thing in any reasonable way is gonna be very difficult. Short of your favorite withes brew sprayed all over everything and removing the road crap OFTEN and re-spraying with the magic stuff it will be a fight for the finish.

 

I take anything that I want to last to the car wash not long after driving through snow or salted roads. The undercarriage wash helps a lot, also if you park your car in a garage with wet snow / salt on it the rust will come on faster because of the snow melting with the salt in it. Gotta get that stuff washed off as soon as possible.
Hot rods I never drive in the winter, put them away November first until March or whenever the roads were swept up of all the leftover sand and salt.

 

It's the salt that does it. I've seen the same cars that ran in the salt and that ran where they only used sand and the salt cars... well, 1959-1960 Pontiacs you can tell the single exhaust cars because the other side you can usually if you want climb in the trunk and stand where the frame rail and floor on the other side used to be.

Even mine that I foolishly ran a couple winters, and had undercoated, rotted.

Much better to buy a cheap beater. That said, I have a 1991 van that was undercoated and it's a lot more solid underneath than a 1995 I had before it that wasn't - that one I parked because it rotted the frame out around the rear shock mounts.

 

Common practice here in ontario to have any vehicle that is driven in the winter oil sprayed each fall. Process ionvolves ddrilling rocker pannels, doors etc so that the tech can get the spray wand into all the moisture trap areas. A must if you plan to kleep a vehicle for several years. Costs around $100, well worth it

 

Worse than salt is that liquid ice preventer that they spray on the roads. That stuff is like battery acid on steel.

 

This^^^^^^. Even if you can absolutely positively prevent rust, the odds of someone sliding into you, or you sliding into something increase greatly in shite weather. Cold and dry, drive it. Slushy and salty, garage it.

 

i JUST finished talking to my pop, hes got a 95 wrangler on 33's he wants 1k for. im just gonna buy that. its a nice little ride, so that will solve my problem. and dont get me wrong, if its not bad weather that apache will be hauling ass around no matter how cold it is outside

 

spray hot oil everywhere underneath. drill holes into door posts,rockers and doors, and spray with oil. when done put plastic caps in the holes. next year pull the caps,
spray, and reinstall the caps.

 

Had winter machines til I moved to Florida

 

I just sold my 95 Jeep Wrangler with the 4 banger. It had 198,000 miles and did not smoke, burn or leak anywhere. Never left me calling a tow truck and I drove that thing everywhere.

 

Water will work its way anywhere there is a crack, crevasse or seam. It will then stay wet and rust.

When I finish on of my cars, I leave holes in voids to allow the air to get in and dry out the water.

To keep the water out of seams and low areas, I spray in lots of primer and paint in the doors, rockers. fenders and quarter panels.to make sure that it covers everything. The way you know it did, is to have holes in the low areas to let the excess primer and paint drip out.

After I paint the car, I mix up some waxy rust preventive and spray and pour in to the doors, rockers' fenders and quaters makeing sure it drips out of all the holes and seams. After it dries, I know that any area that can trap water has been filled up with rust preventive that turns semi solid.
The water that will get into those spots will now run right out of the holes and dry up causing no rust.

There are areas in my cars that I know have the preventive at least 1" deep.

makes for real good sound proofing too!