Dekorum

I have to move up to upstate New York for about a year, for my job. My car has been in Florida forever and never seen snow. Do you think my hatch will begin to develop rust after being in the show for a while? I imagine I will have to shovel snow off my car each morning for a few months.

canadaek

it's not the snow it's the salt they use to melt ice on the road. wash your car every chance you get or get a beater

crazyhouse2011

Snow will not rust your car on its own, at least not for a very long time. It's the salt you need to worry about. The salt will probably eat through metal fairly quick, like in a few years. I fixed my rust from last year on my 95 in the summer, and it's already coming back. It's just part of life.

mikespenny

Wash the underside of your car as often as possible, paying particular attention to the undersides of the lips of the fenders. Once warmer weather hits rewash, let the car dry, as spray the underside with and oil, used/new oil, atf, white lithium will all work. I used used atf on the underside of my plow truck for a few years before i switched to a combo of crc sp-400 and fluid film.
My truck is a 1996 with 213K on the odo, and there is no rust on the framerails, body, or bed besides a light haze on some spots, no cancer holes or the like.
Makes working on the suspension bit a bit easier as they always stay lube, but it can be a bit messy.
My talons rear control arms are bare forged steel with a coating of the crc, and they are still rust free, i just reapply it once a year. That stuff is the best, it dries to a thick wax, and stay on there for damn near forever. Expensive though, at over 100 bucks a case. The fluidfilm is much easier on the wallet.

94EG8

Salt leads to rust fast. Clean your car really well underneath while you're still in Florida and spray it liberally with undercoating (oil based, not the hard asphalt type stuff). The areas you you really want to get are the rocker panels, inside the rear quarters around the wheel wells, the hatch and the floor. Take the rear interior out and spray everything from the inside if you can. Something like Fluid Film works great.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Salt makes things rust....

I always epoxy coat and then undercoat my car's chassis. I pay special attention to the rear fender lips.

Although, for a year, you won't have issues except with untreated stuff. Untreated stuff is probably rusted now from the rain in FL anyway though.

Bolts, lines, etc are all coated in zinc. They wont really rust much in a year's use. Fenders and body parts wont rust for years and years unless there are big paint chips.

Just take precautions to treat bare surfaces with paint and/or undercoat. I also always wash undercarriages and engine bays after snow. I'm a huge rust hater. Lot of people don't know how to keep rust away.

Dekorum

Thank you for the help guys.
I have a pretty bad paint chip on the passenger door which I need to fix. Also, can someone show me a picture of what the underside will look like when treated? I might already have undercoating but I am not sure if it is oil based. This is an area I know very little about. If I spray Fluid Film under the rear seats, will I ever be able to get it back to its original state if I move back down south?

94EG8

It will look something like this:



I wouldn't spray it under the rear seats, it's going to get into the seat cushion, you can remove it with brake clean when you get back in the south.

Dekorum

How often should I apply Fluid Film? Should I apply it to everything metal? For example my subframe brace, swaybars, control arms.

mikespenny

Once in the beginning of the season, and recheck/reapply mid season.
Apply it to anything you don't want to rust, personally I just bomb everything under the vehicle in it.
My one buddy swears by white lithium grease, he has a 01 ford minivan with 250k on it with no rust on any of the suspension or body, but any oil that forms a film and stays there will work.
For fluidfilm, I just bought a case on eBay.

Dekorum

You mentioned cleaning the body.. how should I spray the hatch? Spray the outside? I know the rocker panels and the bumpers are plastic, so no need to spray them. I just noticed that the undercarriage of my car is already covered with the hard asphalt type of undercoating. I don't know why that is. Is it ok to just spray Fluidfilm underneath? I didn't realize how expensive Fluidfilm was. Do you think just one bottle will do?

belairbrian

Lived in Upstate (Utica/Rome area) for many years when in the USAF. My FIL owned a body shop and a good deal of his work was rust repair.

If you're only going to be there one winter, I'd park the car, buy a beater/winter rat and sell it when you leave.

94EG8

Spray the inside. The best way to do it is to remove the interior panel and then you can get in everywhere. The other thing you can do is drill holes spray the fluid film in and plug the holes (they make plugs for this)

mikespenny

Sure, it may be a little pricey, but whats cheaper, replacing metal, paint, bodywork, or just spending 30-40 bucks a year on some oil.
On the hard asphault stuff, spray over it. I have that crap, It was all over the bottom of my 70 duster, and when i remove the coating, there was rust undeneath it. Wherever the factory just applied paint, no rust, same situation with my jeep. except it had rotted out the floor boards. The problem with that stuff is that it dries out over time and absorbs moisture, leading to rust you can't see until it comes through the other side.