Reply to "Rust Prevention Inside Sub Structures"

JAG13CAT,

Careful when seeking advise from someone in the Western US. It is all desert out there with no humidity in the air -- so they can fill their rockers with salt and there would be no corrosion. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but there is very little humidity in the air out west -- that portion is true.

I live in the upper midwestern US, and humidity in the summer is an issue here. The summer kills untreated metal here because of the constant condensation when the temperature changes. If there is air inside the boxed structure, I guarantee there will be some moisture in that air and when the temperature changes, BAM; you will have water coming out of that air and onto bare metal. Ever see concrete sweating after a temperature change? If you have, the same is true for your cars.

There is a way to deal with this though as 4NHOTROD alludes to. I figure, if it is good enough for Porsche, Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes Benz, then it's good enough for my Pantera. They use rustproofing -- NOT UNDERCOATING TAR. Rustproofing is an oily substance that crawls like crazy and never gets hard once dried out. You shoot it with various length wands out of a schutz gun -- which is just a paint gun looking thing that shoots larger particles through it. I use the stuff from either PPG or Wurth. I don't have the trade names off the top of my head, but a good paint shop will know what you are talking about when you say RUSTPROOFING and waxy, oily substance. I know that Wurth is the OEM supplier to Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes, that's why I said what I said above. The Wurth product is great, but kind of hard to find. I've used PPG as well and it works almost as well -- it's just a little thicker but it covers really well.

This rustproofer makes a heck of a mess, but I guarantee that if you coat every boxed area, you will not have future rust issues. It also works well on the overlapped areas of cars too. This stuff will creep into seams that are overlapped so you won't have that ugly rust colored stuff on your paint at the seam.

As full disclosure, I do not work for either Wurth or PPG; I'm just a car guy who likes to protect his stuff with the best stuff and practices found on earth........

Best of luck!!!

Mark