Author Topic: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?  (Read 3679 times)

Edge of Reason

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Does anyone still undercoat their car to protect it?  If you do, are you doing it yearly or just when you bought the vehicle.  Do you feel it is an expense that makes a difference?  Would washing the undercarriage regularly be just as effective?  Do cars use better steel these days?

We live on the east coast and we undercoated our last car but are not sure if it made any difference.  We undercoated when it was bought new (pre MMM and sprung for the pricey dealership version) and did nothing after that other than a few car washes a year.  11 years later it now has a grapefruit sized hole under the floor and the rocker panels need to be replaced. I know that 11 years is a long time...but I'm not sure if that pricey undercoating made any difference.


nereo

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2016, 07:39:39 PM »
Posting t follow.  I've heard lots of opinions on both sides.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2016, 08:05:09 PM »
Never heard of this. Following.

nereo

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2016, 09:07:15 PM »
What I'm referring to is a coating applied to the undercarriage of the vehicle, often every fall.  Usually it's some kind of oil, places around here use mixtures of mineral oil and citrus, of sprayable waxes of some kind, but I've heard of chainsaw or 3:1 being used, especially diy. 

JLee

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2016, 09:56:50 PM »
From what I'm told, annual coating of this stuff does a decent job.

nereo

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2016, 07:56:48 AM »
From what I'm told, annual coating of this stuff does a decent job.
Do you use it?  How do you go about applying it?  paint-brush?  sprayer?  do you drill holes to get it into certain panels?  that's where I get lost...

Fishindude

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2016, 08:10:36 AM »
New automobiles are much better in this regard.  In the 70's and 80's, if you didn't Ziebart coat the back sides of the sheet metal, they only made it a couple years before rust became a problem.
I've got a fleet of vehicles on the road everyday, most of which are ford trucks.   The body's and mechanics hold up very well, we typically run them about 10 years to 250,000 miles or so.   The weak link we see is the frame.  They have lightened up the frames on newer pickups and they rust out.

Keeping a vehicle in a garage overnight and routine washing go a long way towards making them last a long time.

JLee

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Re: Undercoating in the snow belt. Are the Rust Buckets a thing of the past?
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2016, 08:32:16 AM »
From what I'm told, annual coating of this stuff does a decent job.
Do you use it?  How do you go about applying it?  paint-brush?  sprayer?  do you drill holes to get it into certain panels?  that's where I get lost...

I haven't, but my understanding is you just spray the whole underside (or pay someone to do it).  My solution to rust was to move to Arizona. It worked beautifully.

I moved back to the east coast for a job last fall and bought a 10yo car that has some rust on it...I am planning on coating everything underneath with Boeshield to stop the rust that's there and prevent it from spreading further.

 

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