Salt and Rust

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vinny11950

vinny11950

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
May 17, 2010
1,795
Eastern Long Island, NY
Was just under the 1996 Jeep Cherokee.

My Dana 30 front axle has bad rust on the shock mounts and spring perches (just saw it 6 weeks ago). I sprayed them with WD40 to slow down the rust a bit, if possible.

Saw this online, LPS 3:

http://www.amazon.com/Laboratories-...?ie=UTF8&qid=1391199004&sr=8-1&keywords=lps+3

I was thinking until I can drop the axle in the spring, I want to keep the rust spots wet with a rust inhibitor that sticks for a few months, repels moisture, and inhibits rust.

Any body else have solutions to spray under a car for the winter months in the Northeast?

I know the Jeep is old, but the engine and tranny only have 122,000 miles on them, and they sound and run good. I am hoping to get another 6-10 years out of it.
 
There is a lanolin based undercoating product that Hamilton Marine sells that gets good marks. NH must have changed their deicing chemicals as I have replaced more brake and fuel lines in the last few years than I have in the previous 25 years.
 
About the only thing that stops salt around here is Stainless steel. There's a reason they call Syracuse the "Salt city"

Greg
 
thanks, guys, i will look up the different products mentioned.

all the roads are covered with salt dust and there are mounds of left overs here and there. it's going to take long rain showers to clean this stuff up.
 
Salt + steel = rust. Simple as that. I suppose you are lucky to have made it this long, I had a 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme that appeared to be in very good condition, and low mileage, but the suspension was rusted out of the frame. My Dad told me I needed to get a different car before I hit a bump and the axle came out from under the car. Still ran like a watch. I had to get rid of it about 4 years ago, so you are doing good with a 96.
 
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My first car, a '50 Ford flat head 8, bought well used for $50, collapsed on one of my many trips across some railroad tracks. Salt rocks.
 
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After every storm, as soon as the temps creep above 32, out comes the hose and oscillating bow shaped lawn sprinkler. I run that under the rear, center & front of the car for about 10 minutes in each location, then follow up with a good healthy rinse down, hand wash and shoot the underbody & frame again with the hose. It takes LOTS of water to get all that crap out of the cracks & everywhere it finds a place to hide.

Usually, the milder winters we see here allow this, not so much this year.
 
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mustash29 said:
After every storm, as soon as the temps creep above 32, out comes the hose and oscillating bow shaped lawn sprinkler. I run that under the rear, center & front of the car for about 10 minutes in each location, then follow up with a good healthy rinse down, hand wash and shoot the underbody & frame again with the hose. It takes LOTS of water to get all that crap out of the cracks & everywhere it finds a place to hide.

Usually, the milder winters we see here allow this, not so much this year.
Click to expand...

Absolutely a must! Followed by a thorough blasting out with the pressure washer each spring.

Regarding FluidFilm, the stuff is the best I have found. The only negative is it attracts dirt and dust. But it can and will stop corrosion completely as long as you reapply every year at a minimum. You can purchase by the gallon and spray it with an undercoating gun, etc.
RT
 
from one Jeep guy to another..if you think the spring perches are rusty...stick your finger in one of the holes on the
side of the frame and feel around...mines a 98 wrangler with 210,000 on it nd what I did was, drill two holes in the bottom
of the frame on both sides to wash out the sand and salt after every time it snows..works awesome

also check out Eastwood.com I think the site is, they have a lot of dofferant types of rust preventive, inhibitors and encapsulaters
I sprayed the inside of my frame with their internal rust encapsilator and so far its working great, this spring I,m going to
tackle the outside of the frame
 
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Had a friend who used to "oil" his vehicle's under carrage annually with used motor oil. Hat a few dust spots where tha body panels met but very few rust marks. He kept his cars for years.
 
CTguy9230 said:
from one Jeep guy to another..if you think the spring perches are rusty...stick your finger in one of the holes on the
side of the frame and feel around...mines a 98 wrangler with 210,000 on it nd what I did was, drill two holes in the bottom
of the frame on both sides to wash out the sand and salt after every time it snows..works awesome

also check out Eastwood.com I think the site is, they have a lot of dofferant types of rust preventive, inhibitors and encapsulaters
I sprayed the inside of my frame with their internal rust encapsilator and so far its working great, this spring I,m going to
tackle the outside of the frame
Click to expand...

that's a good idea. i will try it.

how big the holes and where?
 
I'm very interested in trying fluid film or some lanolin based product after reading all the reviews on online. I lived down south for 15 years and I never replaced mufflers, or brakes on my vehicles. Rust was never an issue and you could keep your car a lot longer with less problems. I have been horrified by the thought of rusting brake lines and mufflers since moving back to NY 2 years ago. I'm not convinced the stuff that they us to coat the bottoms of cars at dealerships works. In fact I've seen first hand where it sometimes fails. Its amazing how a simple old school solution such as oiling the bottoms of your vehicle could work so well. Thanks for the tip!
 
vinny11950 said:
that's a good idea. i will try it.

how big the holes and where?
Click to expand...

Being a unibody your Cherokee doesn't suffer from the frame rot issues that plague the Wranglers, the boxed frames with poor metal prep and seemingly random holes allow debris to enter and not get out. The 03 up frames seem to be slightly better.

Biggest rust areas on the Cherokees are the rockers, door bottoms and to a lesser extent the rear quarter panels. Keeping it washed is the best prevention
 
festerw said:
Being a unibody your Cherokee doesn't suffer from the frame rot issues that plague the Wranglers, the boxed frames with poor metal prep and seemingly random holes allow debris to enter and not get out. The 03 up frames seem to be slightly better.

Biggest rust areas on the Cherokees are the rockers, door bottoms and to a lesser extent the rear quarter panels. Keeping it washed is the best prevention
Click to expand...

thanks, Festedw, i didn't know that about the Cherokees. i will look for those spots.
 
"Vermont rustproofing" is the practice of coating the entire underside of a vehicle with used motor oil by brushing, spraying, whatever. Then taking a drive on a dirt road. The dust "sets" the oil, it has already crept into the nooks and crannies of the underside. Done once a year, preferably before winter, it will dramatically extend the life of any vehicle driven in corrosive environments. That said the oil will attack and deteriorate rubber over time and people like the EPA really don't like the idea. FluidFilm will do the same thing but is easier on rubber and is easier on the environment.
 
I like Vermont rustproofing. Sometimes the most obvious solutions are the hardest to realize.

anyway, it looks like i will have to wait a while to do anything as the forecast is calling for two more snow storms this coming week.... ugh

just yesterday i was driving on the Long Island Expressway and newly paved stretches of road asphalt are already coming apart from the snow and salt. i mean they just finished laying this down last summer. it is specially bad at the seams between lanes and it goes on for miles. just a crappy job. i hope they get the contractor to make it right or pay for it. waste of money because the road that was there before was old much better. and they made us do detours and closings to lay this crap down.
 
Just an update on the LPS 3. Last spring, I sprayed the rusty underside of my Jeep hoping to stop more rust damage and it seems to have worked on the spots where rust had not completely dissolved the metal. I also sprayed the fuel and brake lines running to the rear of the vehicle alongside the frame rail. I did not spray the lines coming down from the engine and turning into the frame. Sure enough the part of the lines that got sprayed with the LPS 3 have no rust on them. The parts that did not get sprayed have surface rust forming.
 
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