From what I’ve heard and seen, You can never eliminate corrosion from the salt lakes. Every little bit you bring up from your tires enters every crevious and cranny in the body and frame. Clouds of salt dust will eat your body and enter your intake to munch on your machined surfaces.
If you were out there, you had the best field of experience available. The time to figure this out was before, the next best was with all the people out there. The 5 Ps. I am sorry that I don't have a good answer for your dilemma now.
There was another product Salt Away I heard about over 10 years ago. No idea of active ingredients. The best I always did is just long duration low pressure water rinse. Or accept some corrosion is inevitable and that's the price of fun being at Bonneville.
A fast drive in a heavy rain? That's kinda how it got there. Some of the salt is going to be permanent, it's going to settle into places you can't see or get too.
And from left field..... I read "The Book of Lists" years ago. On the subject of "How much salt is in the Earth?" the answer is "More than we'll ever need"
Or just accept it and have fun! My avatar coupe has been going to the salt for 36 years, it hasn't rusted away. Some of the best times of my life! Enjoy it while you can!
I've never experienced Bonneville before, but I have some salted road experience... I over heard a couple of guys talking about Bonneville at a car show once. The one guy was telling the other that when he got home from the salt, he would put the car on jack stands, pull the tires and wheels and then put one of those oscillating yard sprinklers under the car for a few hours and move it around. According to him, that worked pretty well. Might all be BS, but with the road salt I can tell you generous under the car water washing helps a bunch.
I use the sprinkler method as a rite of spring regarding road salt/brine used on roads in winter just to be triple sure...
Thanks "Trulyvintage" for adding the link. I should have done that. Looks likes no one has experience with this product. I may try it on my winter car in Minnesota.
Even the inside of the oilpan was rusty when rebuilt the 312 Y Block out of my 34 . Needless to say the rest of the car needed to be blasted and redone aswell. I know that car used to be at Bonneville a couple of times, but I doubt it made any runs. Even the inside of the steering box was rusty.
One of many products on the marine environment stores that does a great job of cleaning off surfaces of salt water incursions. Hello, We have owned several sailboats from a 25 foot model to a 32 foot cruiser, to a 27 foot racer to a best all around fast 30 foot boat over our years of sailing along the So Cal coastline. But, every time we came back to our dock facilities, we hose off our boat with a solution called Salt-Away. At the time it was one of two types sold in shops, anywhere. Hook it up to the dock hose and spray away after a day’s sailing. One, it dries quickly and leaves the wax surface clean and spot free. It is like a pre wash solution. We did not have to wipe it dry. In the So Cal sun, it dried to a shiny surface without any water spots. The waxed surface with Carnuba Wax still lasted at least 6 months of daily, 24 hours of salt air mist, fog and hot sun at our various docking areas. But, when we were ready to sail the next week, again, the whole boat was nice and shiny. Jnaki All of our sailboats, despite the overnight environment stayed clean and so when we arrived for the next sailing adventure, it was ready to go. Clean and shiny. So, all we had to do was to raise the sails and off we went to the day’s sailing in the ocean or big bay. YRMV Note: But, when we had to drive through salt water filled parking lots that created mini waves and flooded low lying major highways filled with salt water, it was a full underbody coating that needed spraying. Luckily, the destinations usually had power washing places so, the bottoms got the full effect of power sprays. The flathead 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery definitely, needed cleaning as the undersides were exposed metal. If the flooded PCH highway was on our way home, we had our neighborhood power spray place just up the street from our Westside of Long Beach house. That was handy as we sprayed the whole car + undersides. Then it was ready for the normal daily driving activities. There is a place in a coastal community just before Huntington Beach that has an inner bay or lagoon. When the King Tides come into the So Cal areas, the PCH highway gets flooded across two lanes. So, we had to drive slowly, with the water almost up to our doors. Then, not only was the major highway flooded, but upon arrival at the beachside parking lot, the waves and tide combined to flood the low lying parking lots with salt water ponds right in the middle of the parking spaces. Yes, some folks parked up on the highway above, but the parking lot was closer to the waves and was empty during those times. The 65 El Camino was somewhat protected underneath with the full professional thick spray of undercoating. It still got the salt water up to the doors, but just a spray of the garden hose was fine to clean off the salt water infusion.
The Jalopy Journal
