What type of undercoating do you guys recommend doing? I've read some horror stories about the rubberized stuff and trapping moisture. But would spray on bedliner type not do the same thing? I've got a couple vehicles to do eventually, and they won't be show cars underneath, so I just want something durable that won't cause problems.
no matter what the material is, if there is moisture when its applied, it will get sealed in and rust worse than if left alone. me living in the rust belt, and i see you too, i can remember in the 70's when this process first became trendy, and folks that had someplace like Ziebart spray a used car it only made it rust worse. new cars today seem to get a better job done, i suppose ideal dry conditions at the factory. best thing to do is just keep a car dry and out of the salt. if it rains on the way home, drive it again soon on a dry day instead of leaving it in storage when wet.
I undercoat my cars with Fluid Film to prevent rust. It is a liquid/paste (kind of like ****er) rather than a solid. I use if for rust prevention. I spray it myself using a Princess Auto undercoating gun. Love it ... creeps and does not drip. I buy it in a gallon container.
I don't worry too much about mine due to the oil drippings coming off the old flatty when driving. Keeps the back 2/3s of the body and under carriage well oiled.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/salt-corrosion.1211410/#post-13817159 Hello, Living near the ocean for most of our lives creates a salt infused air that hits everyone’s cars and trucks. If one goes to the coastal drives and parking spaces for beach activities on a daily or weekly basis, one is going to run into high tide flooding and obviously salt water splashing under the whole car or hot rod. From the time we went to the beach on a regular basis and drove over plenty of salt infused roads, when my brother got a 51 Olds, it had only whatever came from the factory. That did almost nothing, but luckily, we lived near industrial complexes and there was one of those early hose sprayers for low cost usage on trucks and semi trailers. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-is-this-undercoat-type.1179383/#post-13396652 By the time he got a new 58 Impala, our friend from Los Angeles told us to come up to L.A. to get an undercoating spray on the new car. That was the best thing going for daily usage in our salty air explorations. We lived about two miles from actual salt water from the back harbor areas. With the West Winds blowing every day, there was always thick salt infused mist in the afternoons and late nights. Jnaki Since that first application, while living in Long Beach, we had the next car, a 65 El Camino sprayed just the second day off of the showroom floor. That was a life saver, not only for salt water, but kept the corrosive water and mud off of the factory bare metal underneath. Snow covered roads/salt infused roads? No problem with this heavy duty undercoating. We did have to go through plenty of high tide lots and streets all along the coast during our surf adventures. Miles of snowy mountain roads and locations, as well as dusty/sometimes muddy river washes, out in the desert environments. We kept the El Camino for 125k miles and the underneath looked brand new after a nice power spray cleaning. If anyone is using a ramp to lower the boat trailer into salt water or even lakes, this professional sprayed on undercoating helps keep your car/truck relatively rust free. But, cleaning with a power spray is still necessary. Our neighbor had a 1964 El Camino and never did the undercoating. By the time we had ours sprayed, his El Camino was so rusty that it looked like it came from the junkyard and not a Chevy dealer’s lot the previous year in 1964. He never went to high tide salt infused locations and was only on surface streets daily. YRMV From a person who has gone through plenty of cars in salt air situations, it works. It was not the spray can from the auto parts store, but a professional spray on thicker coating of the black undercoat material. The application does the best job and last for a long time. Extra insurance helps in the long run. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tar-based-undercoat.1202645/#post-13707670 HEAT https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tar-based-undercoat.1202645/#post-13707129 APPLICATION https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...bottom-of-floors.1149659/page-2#post-13084443 El Camino boating ocean water
This past year I've done 3 salt fog tests and the results always come out the same. The only type of primer that blocks both MOISTURE AND OXYGEN is the aluminum pigmented moisture cured permanent rust sealer. Apply two coats of this permanent rust sealer and then whatever you like over it. Here's the most recent salt fog test I performed. Each panel had three coats. For some reason the fluid film on both panels rusted on one half of the panel.
I would also like to add that regular washing of the underbody helps a lot. Those panels in the test were left on the bench 3 weeks later the rust was continuing to grow. The brine solution used in a test is the same as what your vehicle goes through in the winter months. We recently did a salt fog test using a actual road salt the results were identical as the 5% salt fog test. Florida is nice this time of year
The old OT Power Wagon , gets a spray down daily from the slobber tube from the ***mins . Every oil change the used oil goes in a sprayer and it’s coated bumper to bumper , inside the doors , cab corners , all I can reach with the used oil thinned a bit with mineral spirits . Not so good for the earth but it’s slows the rust Cancer .
Pats55 ... I am unclear as to why you are testing Fluid Film against primers. Shouldn't Fluid Film be tested against other similar products like Rust Check, used engine oil spray, new engine oil spray, whatever Crown Rust Control uses etc? "Each panel had three coats. For some reason the fluid film on both panels rusted on one half of the panel". Why would you give it three coats of Fluid Flim? I bought an older (daily driven in Ontario Canada) car that was in remarkable condition for its age and it had a Crown Rust Control sticker on it. I decided it would be wise to continue the Crown application. Yuck ... that stuff dripped for more than a week. Seemed somewhat wasteful if most of the product is ending up on my garage floor (and making a mess to boot). I read about Fluid Film on this site, bought a gun, bought the product, and love it ... as stated earlier, it creeps and it does not drip. Great for rust prevention on a completed vehicle, in my opinion and based on personal experience. Although MasterCoat may be an incredible primer, it isn't what I would call an 'undercoating' and, being a primer/paint product, I can't see how it would creep into the inside of frame rails etc. We are talking two completely different products, their intended uses and the expected outcomes.
The paint products I used three coats. Fluid film and the inner panel protector I brushed one heavy coat on with the brush on the fluid film container. The silver primer is a lot more corrosion-resistant than calcium sulfonate grease. In some cases I use a wand sprayer and use both products depending on the application. Calcium sulfonate has millions of platelets that block oxygen and is used in a lot of lubricants. Inner panel protector is also calcium sulfonate which has resin to harden it a bit, so it's not so greasy. I have heard that Crown worked well up north. When I do testing I test anything I can get.
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