I've got a pretty clean 66 Caddy He****. It was in service in Allentown, Pa, then spent some time in Florida. Now it's in Colorado and will most likely never see inclement weather again. The usual places have some rust (quarterpanels), the engine compartment has a light layer of surface rust, but what I'm more concerned with is the fist sized hole, just ahead of the axle, on the p***enger's side. There's more in the driver's side, but it's not as far advanced. The frame is solid, and the bulk of the floorpan appears good, it's just the area around the hole I'm concerned about...or should I be more concerned in general? Like I said, from here on out, this is a fair-weather weekender carshow vehicle, so I'm wondering how worried I should be.
Ugh. Yeah, the car is in otherwise very good shape. The interior is perfect, all the trim is there, the vinyl roof is in excellent shape. I've seen more than enough hot rodded He****s and, um, basket cases, that this one should be left relatively stock. Exterior pics here: http://www.millertwinracing.com/BelfrysBest/ Enginebay: undercarriage:
Nice Load it up with cavity wax or fish oil. Fast. It doesn't look too bad now, but untreated it will only get worse...
How deadly? well if you are thinking about eating it do not, i can tell you first hand the gas is not fun.
I was at a friends garage the other day and up on the lift was a 65 Mustang DEATHTRAP..somebody down the line of flippers had done a nice job on the paint,interior,engine overhaul, without really knowing or caring what kind of shape the underbody was in..the rear spring hangers were bolted to rust, the front shocks and A-frames were bolted to rust, the steering box was bolted to rust..the boys at the shop turned it away as they didn't want to be ***ociated with the car when something collapsed or failed and it crashed..it was bad!...the underneath of your Caddy looks OK to me..remember Rust never sleeps...
I dunno, sometimes rust can create new places to hide stuff, as one of the previous owners did with my C10 Emergency nylon straps! But, in all seriousness, cut it out, and fix it asap. Look into a product called POR15 for areas that are out of site (frame, suspension, inner body panels). Coats rusted areas, and damn near stops rust. I'm watching the p***enger side A-Pillar on my truck split wider and wider over the past year I've owned it from rust. It's a *****.
Would imagine you'll have to make your patch panels from scratch for that car. The rest should be normal rust repair -
If you don't do something to stop it, it will continue to spread through the car until it becomes unrepairable. If possible cut it out, it's cancer for steel, and it needs to be treated the same way doctors do to human cancers. What you can't cut out treat with 'chemotherapy' like fishoil, penetrating oil etc, to cut off the oxygen to the rusting process. A coat of paint will also slow it down, but it will continue to grow under the paint. I just had rust break through my car afer 5 years hidden by a $5k paint job! Cheers, Glen.
So, uh, what happened to the Ad for Gibbs? ***uming I get a rust inhibitor for the short term, I've heard you don't knock off the rust, but leave it in place and treat it...why is this? I figured you'd want to get rid of as much of it as possible to make sure you get the inhibitor as far into it as possible
the "c" word. you need to take care of it now. the smaller the job, the smaller the cost! don't wait, it's only gonna get worse.
Well, if it spent time servicing Allentown, I bet it got a lot of use. There's at least 50 friggin shootings a year now it seems.
From your pics, the Caddy doesn't look too bad. Just start fixing the thing & enjoy it (if one can enjoy a he****). By the way, I'm from Allentown..it's possible that my grandfather or grandmother may have ridden in that Caddy of yours. Really.
How deadly is rust? If its a rust pipe on your head I would say very! Look at your car like you would your own body. I love my arm but if it was going south of cheese I would have it chopped off the save the rest of me. If you love your car cut it out and the sooner the better you get to keep more of your arm!
Id say get underneath there with a stiff wire brush and brush all that rust. Knock off any big flakes and make sure it's not soft. A casual glance can be deceiving. If after all that it is still solid, I'd treat it with POR15. At least the frame... the rust hole you found, well I'd cut that out and fix it...
Your in dry Colorado no need to really wory unless you driving it in the Mag Chloride/Salt. Knock off the loose rust with a wire brush and get some Phosphoric Acid from Home Depot and put some Rust Oleum on it untill you can get around to fixing it.
That's what I was going to say but, you may need one of those 5 gallon sprayers too. Wear eye protection and don't do it on any concrete that you care about cuz it will turn it white.
POR-15 Could be your best friend in this situation and if you really wanted to you can brush it on. They advertise you can spray it right over whatever rust you have with no cleaning but in my experience I always at least take a wire brush to the surface and clean as best as possible.
Motorcycle chain oil is designed to wick into crevices then thicken like a non-drying varnish. I've used it or just spray oil to keep something I was never going to fix up from getting worse. It's a mess working on greasy dirty stuff but everytime I try to keep something too clean it goes up in rust.
I'm pretty sure all cars delivered to ohio had the factory rust option. They like to sink themselves into the ground to the rockers too. Yep, POR 15 is the way to go.
while it's fun to keep saying "rust never sleeps" I bought my 61 Dodge about 17 years ago. it has been inside about the last 10 years. the rusted rockers behind the door don't really look much worse than they did when I got it. it is the continual exposure to the elements that cause the rapid spread of rust. if my car remained an outside car it would have gaping holes where the rockers once were. inside it has hardly changed at all.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS remove as much rust as humanly possible before coating with anything. I personally would never leave a single trace of rust on a panel before coating it. POR 15 would probably be good for a temp. fix but the best thing is to get the bad areas replaced. If you do decide to use any kind of acid it's VERY important to neutralize it after application. Acid isn't good for the metal in the long run (or short really, but it's good for cleaning the surface) and can also eat into whatever you end up coating the metal with. Baking soda and water mixed together is the generally recommended thing from people I talk to.
I left an old pickup bed outside for a year once. I had sanded a little paint off of the quarter panel and underneath was clean metal. After a year, there was a rust hole about 3 inches in diameter.
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