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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!tesla!jeff
From: jeff@tesla.UUCP (Jeff Frey)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: undercoating
Message-ID: <138@tesla.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Jul-83 18:27:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: tesla.138
Posted: Wed Jul 27 18:27:31 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Jul-83 20:37:01 EDT
References: <279@hou5h.UUCP> hound.249
Lines: 35

Cars don`t die by rusting in from outside; it`s the other way around.
Salt doesn`t necessarily kill them either, it just makes them ugly.
The rust that kills is the rust that eats out the structural members
and is usually related to moisture entrapment or condensation inside
hollow members.  That`s why Ziebart or equivalent processes are good:
not for what they do to the bottom of the car, but for what they
do inside the hollow members.

The Swedes, who keep their cars on the road a long time (and they`re not
all Volvos) discovered this years ago, and the result was Ziebart and
its imitators.  The important points in rust prevention are to have
a Ziebart or similar treatment done to the INSIDES of important parts
(hollow frame members, doors, trunk lids, etc.);  to keep drain
holes clear (especially after the Z. treatment); and to keep your car
OUT of a heated or attached garage in wintertime.  Heated garages
not only cause condensation (moist interior air hitting cold car) but
also speed up the chemical process of rusting.  A further point is to
have the Z. redone every four years or so; if it`s good stuff, it`s made
to NOT harden, so may run or otherwise uncover interior metal.  About
four years was the time when the originators of the interior-wax
processes discovered a re-doing was necessary.

For cosmetics, you should wash a car as often as possible in the winter.
If you want to see the danger spots for your own model look at a rusted
example of the same model, and hit the same points.

I interior-waxed my Plymouth Horizon five years ago with kits sold by
Sears (it took 3 kits and 3 nights and the money I saved really wasn`t
worth the effort and goop in my hair) and after four upstate New York
and one California winter I can`t detect any inside-to-outside rust.
Of course, this is also a function of the car`s design and the materials
of which it`s made; I haven`t seen any other rusted Horizons or Omnis
either.  Oh yes, it`s been kept outside (in a carport) all the time.

JF