It's too bad that "back in the day" car manufacturers paid so little attention to preventing rust. They painted the visible parts, true, but did little or nothing to stop rust where it really starts - on the backside of body panels, inside doors and inside frame rails. Think about it: the outside of a door got cleaned, phosphated, primed and painted. The owner kept it more or less clean, and it dried quickly when wet.
But inside those unseen areas, dirt accumulated, got wet and stayed wet.
Dealers offered "undercoating", but, again, it was just applied to the easy visible surfaces. The deep dark recesses were left to fester in their near perfect rust causing environment.
Today many of those old cars are rusted beyond repair, and yet another $50 spent at the factory build would have saved many of them.
Today, those old cars are being restored, old rust cut out, and new metal welded in, but it's no better than what the factories did. In most cases, the unseen areas are left without any attempt at rust prevention.
So, if you have a car which is not yet suffering from serious rust, or which has had major rust repair done, what to do?
For a few hours of your time, and a few dollars, you can rust proof those areas yourself. It will take some thought, maybe some disassembly, like removing trim panels, maybe in a few cases, even drilling some small access holes, but you can do the job. If a surface isn't painted, rust proof it.
What to use for rust preventive?
Here's a DIY formula which I came upon many years ago, and which is said to do a good long term job of preventing rust:
3 quarts of mineral spirits plus one quart of used motor oil, into which is dissolved a half pound of bees wax. Spray, squirt, brush onto the backside of every non painted panel, and inside frame rails, hog troughs and the like. A pump up garden sprayer would be handy, but use whatever works for the area at hand, squirt oil cans, brushes, turkey basters, whatever. Pay special attention to lap joints to get liquid to soak into them.
A messy job, and it will drip for a few days, but, compared to cutting and welding in new metal.....
But inside those unseen areas, dirt accumulated, got wet and stayed wet.
Dealers offered "undercoating", but, again, it was just applied to the easy visible surfaces. The deep dark recesses were left to fester in their near perfect rust causing environment.
Today many of those old cars are rusted beyond repair, and yet another $50 spent at the factory build would have saved many of them.
Today, those old cars are being restored, old rust cut out, and new metal welded in, but it's no better than what the factories did. In most cases, the unseen areas are left without any attempt at rust prevention.
So, if you have a car which is not yet suffering from serious rust, or which has had major rust repair done, what to do?
For a few hours of your time, and a few dollars, you can rust proof those areas yourself. It will take some thought, maybe some disassembly, like removing trim panels, maybe in a few cases, even drilling some small access holes, but you can do the job. If a surface isn't painted, rust proof it.
What to use for rust preventive?
Here's a DIY formula which I came upon many years ago, and which is said to do a good long term job of preventing rust:
3 quarts of mineral spirits plus one quart of used motor oil, into which is dissolved a half pound of bees wax. Spray, squirt, brush onto the backside of every non painted panel, and inside frame rails, hog troughs and the like. A pump up garden sprayer would be handy, but use whatever works for the area at hand, squirt oil cans, brushes, turkey basters, whatever. Pay special attention to lap joints to get liquid to soak into them.
A messy job, and it will drip for a few days, but, compared to cutting and welding in new metal.....
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