Salt Air & Pantera

A few years ago I bought a fairly new msd dustributor off a friends pantera, he lives a mile or so from the ocean here in Australia and after installing it into my car the thing didnt work, we pulled it apart and it was all corroded inside, I would hate to think what that's doing to his cars? But I could be wrong, just saying ...

Having grown up on the east coast, which I believe is worse, since the water temps are usually warmer then the west cost water temps. I would say it will effect any rust prone items. A friend of mine, his father lived right on the water and EVERYTHING in his garage was rusting. So he took his spilt window coupe and moved it inland to save it.
Jeff

I used to live in Santa Barbara and found things that corrode did so at a slightly accelerated pace, but not too bad. Make sure the seals on the garage doors and windows are fresh and tight, and install a de-humidifier in the garage. You should be good for years to come.

When I bought my current house, the laundry room vented the clothes dryer into the garage - now THAT caused a remarkable amount of corrosion in a very short period of time. Tools, parts, interior trim, bumpers, etc. all started rusting/corroding very quickly! The dryer vent now runs under the house and exits outdoors.

To be honest, driving the Pantera on one rainy day/year and then parking it in your Fresno garage will likely do more damage than being parked in a regular Monterey garage for 20 years.

Driving your Pantera on a rainy day?................Blasphemy!

A good insurance policy would be to have a suitable automotive applicator spray an anti corrosive substance such as fisholene, (fish oil based treatment) into the drain holes of the chassis.
Upon removing chassis rails etc from my Pantera it’s very apparent that no factory anti rust treatment was conducted on the inside surfaces of the chassis, its all bare metal.
Hence the need for some internal treatment squirted in; otherwise it may rust from the inside out.
If any rust has even slightly started, damp salt air will accelerate the corrosion process rapidly.
Make sure none of the outer chassis has any scrapes through the underseal, re-do the underseal if necessary.

Regards,
Tony.

A friend lived across the street from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz over 30 years. It was never an issue with his Panteras, Mangusta and other cars. The garage is enclosed and a dehumidifier running all the time. Plus, he kept all his cars very clean.

My house is 100 ft from the Gulf of Mexico and I have an onshore breeze about 10 months out of the year. Anything that is left on the back of my house corrodes very quickly. My garage is on the front of the house and the P-car is kept there. This is South Texas so the humidity is very high most of the year. If a car is left outside in this environment it deteriorates quickly. However, just parking on the front side of the house (the leeward side for all you sailing types) makes a huge difference in the rate of corrosion. The Pantera kept in the garage doesn't seem to suffer any ill effects. Keep it clean and take the usual precautions for living in a marine environment and it will be fine. Definitely better than driving on salted winter roads up north!

Best part of those salted winter roads is, that you have them only in winter time. The ocean is right there through all the year, I quess.

If you simply keep up the maintenence and drive it now 'n then, you should be OK. I did examine one that was brought back from Hawaii after many years of neglect and it was virtually destroyed. Every horizontal surface had rust clear through- including both exhaust headers. A Chapter member did buy it for a song and spent a decade TIG-welding hundreds of little steel patches all over it, finally bringing the poor thing back to driving condition. He still has it- thats dedication!
Your other option is a 'car bag' made for exactly this problem, that pushes dehumidified low-air-pressure into a car-sized plastic bag to keep humid outside air away. Car collectors swear by them and they're not expensive.

A fellow Audi TT owner uses a car bag solution...not sure on mfg/sizes/specs.......

i use such a bag for my motorbike... really good stuff to keep it clean all winter long !
It's blown up by a ventilator just like the cooling ones in our computers, as long as a bit wet you keep the zip on top open , dry you close it .... a large zip on the bottom opens the plastic bag from the ground cover , you drive on it , park, and close the bag...

quote:

Originally posted by Edge:
Driving your Pantera on a rainy day?................Blasphemy!

.

Regards,
Tony.

had a night heavy rain drive some days ago...wanted to move the car to our new house and got caught in bad weather..yes, Belgium
scary,sitting that low, poor ventilation, poor lights, and wipers up to half way the window ....on the other hand , my Michelin TB semi racing tires give no traction problems !

Blasphemy?

I've driven my car thousands of miles in the rain. I even driven in snowstorms. The pic below was crossing the border from Quebec into NY on my way to CA.

If you clean it and care for it like I do there are no ill effects suffered. These cars were made to drive.

I have had cars on the Florida coast and like kt said, where it's parked makes a big difference.

Outside, parked under a cover for a month, any surface exposed to the open salt air will rust. Inside a garage, not.

You need to prep you garage, well sealed and with proper air temp, AC and humidity control inside. Same with any condo on the beach. If you're gone for long periods, you need to keep the temp and humidity correct or anything metal in the house will rust too!

If your garage is properly sealed with AC and humidity control on all the time it should be fine. Especially if you plan to rotate some cars around.

I live in Ventura, my car is stored in a storage unit (no climate control) at the Ventura Marina that is only feet from the ocean. The salt air pits the exterior chrome a bit, the stainless parts (such as window trim) are not bothered. There has been no bubbling of painted surfaces to indicate there is unseen rusting occuring. I believe any damage that is going to occur will occur on the exterior surfaces where the sticky dew from the ocean air and/or fog settles. If the car is kept out of the fog and/or the exterior is cleaned regularly it should be OK.

If it helps to alleviate your concern, there is a large community of collector car owners living in the Monterey & Carmel area.

-G

Great comments and experiences; thanks for all your help. I may be a little paranoid but I just can't stand the thought of rust having a shot at my collector cars; think I might go inland a few miles and look into Carmel Valley. Thanks again.