For people in snowy/salty regions, what’s the most effective modern method to prevent car from rust in long-term?

[-]

SkiyeBlueFox@reddit

The main thing that keeps our plow trucks from getting rusted out is a yearly grease spray in the fall. Shit ton of heavy duty grease and its messy, but our trucks aren't rusty even though theyre coated in salt

[-]

Sawfish1212@reddit

Undercoating annually

[-]

andrewrbat@reddit

Undercoating every year.

[-]

elquirk@reddit

Is Ziebart still around?

[-]

rdkil@reddit

Don't get attached to your cars. Nothing lasts forever.

[-]

itsjakerobb@reddit

Popular "car guy" take. 🤔

[-]

seckarr@reddit

This is such a brainwashed blind consumer take. If you choose smart and maintain it, you can have 2 or 3 cars your whole life,

A beater when you get your permit.

A nicer one around 30 that you keep until near retirement

Another nicer one for the rest of your life

[-]

Kdoesntcare@reddit

Maybe not so much any more but it's relatively easy to get 300k miles out of even an old (mid 90s to early 2000s) Volkswagen. You shouldn't be treating your cars like they're disposable.

[-]

NightKnown405@reddit

They don't have to last forever, they only have to last long enough.

[-]

ReasonableRevenue218@reddit

Though, I have a '61, no rust.

[-]

WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Fluid Film by the case, and a subscription based car wash that has undercarriage sprayers and go through a couple times a week.

[-]

itsjakerobb@reddit

Work from home!

[-]

kamikaziboarder@reddit

You can delay it with fluid film. But it will still get hit.

[-]

Infinite-Past7640@reddit

Got my Camry rustproofed when I bought it in 2013.

I run it through a car wash once a month in the winter and make sure your vehicle doesn’t have any moulding. Anywhere salt can accumulate. Even bug deflectors are crap.

[-]

cvert09@reddit

Unlimited car washes, id rather have swirly paint than rust

[-]

crypticcamelion@reddit

You buy a German or a Swedish car
You get it anti rust treated every 3, 4, 5 years depending on use and value/age

[-]

Volasko@reddit

Rust spray plus being diligent keeping the salt off the car, especially when the temps get above freezing. Rust happens more when the temps rise and the water mixes with the salt.

[-]

chrispina98@reddit

Get a membership to a car wash and use it frequently. I'm pretty sure we have more car washes than Starbucks here in Denver.. 😂

[-]

IAFarmLife@reddit

Aluminum Ford truck.

[-]

MountainFace2774@reddit

Frames are not aluminum. Rusty frames are what takes a pickup out of commission. That being said, the aluminum body is nice because I don't ave to spray as much Fluid Film as I did on my last truck. Don't have to worry about the doors, rockers, hood, tailgate, fenders, etc... Just coat the frame really well. Saves a lot of time.

[-]

IAFarmLife@reddit

My experience is the truck gets below a certain value due to depreciation and the body rusts before the frame. The cost to repair the body is higher than replacing the truck. Just like my 2011 6.7, the body needs work and the cheapest quote I have is 7k before I remove the bed and buy a flatbed too. With 300k miles and a transmission that is just about done from all the heavy pulling I do it's not worth the 11-12k to fix the body. The frame is still perfect though.

[-]

MountainFace2774@reddit

That's the opposite of my experience with smaller trucks with thinner frames and/or box frames which will rust faster than a heavy-duty with a C-channel frame.

I've seen many folks replace or rebuild frames and then build a wooden bed on an otherwise okay truck.

Either way, having the aluminum body on the new stuff is nice but I don't have high hopes my 2020 F150 will last long enough mechanically for it to matter. Hope I'm wrong, of course.

[-]

TweeksTurbos@reddit

When i lived in ‘cuse. I would usually find a $500 beater from the swap sheet.

Now i live in the south.

[-]

El_mochilero@reddit

After every snow storm, diligently wash the underbody to prevent salt build up.

[-]

TealSapphire@reddit

Doesn’t work

[-]

El_mochilero@reddit

What’s your method, then?

[-]

TealSapphire@reddit

Beater car

[-]

Kdoesntcare@reddit

So there is literally no way to prevent a car from rusting? 🤔 Do you just keep buying new beater cars as they rust to shit?

[-]

TealSapphire@reddit

Cars don’t “rust to shit” overnight genius.

[-]

Kdoesntcare@reddit

As somebody who owns a 25 year old German car that has minimal rust I'm telling you that you frequently washing the salt off of your car does wonders.

Maybe it's just because I live in Pennsylvania but that second car means another $150 every year for inspection/emissions stickers. Then there's the extra cost of insurance.

[-]

04limited@reddit

The problem with that is unless you can hit every single crevice you’re just adding moisture to existing salt and making it rust faster.

Then you have some places where roads stay salted for months the second you leave the car wash it’s coated in salt again.

[-]

El_mochilero@reddit

So what’s the answer?

[-]

SkaneatelesMan@reddit

And worse, many newer car washes filter and recycle the water, and since really removing the salt from the water requires expensive reverse osmosis, only the final rinse is truly salt free. So your car gets a salt bath before a final rinse which may, but probably not, rinse all the salt off the car.

[-]

AwarenessGreat282@reddit

Lanolin based undercoating.

Surface Shield, Fluid Film, and Woolwax are the biggest known material brands.

[-]

ZaphodG@reddit

This is the way. And thoroughly wash under the car in the spring.

[-]

Munster19@reddit

I wouldn't even wait that long if you can, going to a car wash with an undercarriage wash regularly while there's salt on the road is a good idea. Also, if you don't want to get your paint scratched, find one that is either touchless or can turn off the wipers.

[-]

ZaphodG@reddit

The guys I know with yellow construction equipment who move snow in the winter pressure wash everything in the spring. I’ve lived places where you can’t wash your car in the winter. The car washes are closed because it’s below freezing. You’re not going to make an ice floe in your driveway.

[-]

beaushaw@reddit

A good tip for this is to stick a garden sprinkler under the car. Let it run for several minutes then move it and let it run, move it, let it run...

[-]

optigrabz@reddit

Lanolin is an excellent moisture barrier and this is why it is one of the most popular ingredients in nipple creams. Safe and healthy for your car’s under-bits as well.

Seriously though- some of the nastiest chemical exposures car guys face are the undercoating chemicals. Some of these are literally the express train to Cancer Town.

[-]

MountainFace2774@reddit

I have nothing to add but I thought it was neat when my wife started breastfeeding that her nipple cream and my undercoating smelled the same. LOL

[-]

beaushaw@reddit

I do this on my "classic car" that has older less rust resistant metal that occasionally gets driven on salty roads.

For my modern daily drivers that constantly drive on salty roads I do not treat them with anything. I have a subscription to a carwash and I wash them a lot. Often multiple times a week.

[-]

komatiite@reddit

Periodically go to a car wash that includes underbody sprays.

[-]

WiselyIsAlreadyUsed@reddit

car wash club in the winter months

[-]

jabroni4545@reddit

If your engine is leaking oil, don't fix it.

[-]

SkaneatelesMan@reddit

In upstate NY many swear by Ziebart. When I bought my 2021 truck new, that's what I did to my truck. It has a warranty that is in place for as long as I own the truck. The warranty requires me to bring the truck back for cleaning and touch ups. After 5 years and 100,000 miles of Syracuse area salt, it's still rust free.

One note: while the annual checkups are free, the annual visits are Ziebart's opportunity to upsell you on waxing, protective seal coating,, detail cleaning, fabric protection... all the BS upselling you'd expect. They are a franchise operation, so you can go to any location for the annual maintenance. My franchise always has a good price for interior detailed cleaning, so I do have then do that too.

[-]

KaiserSozes-brother@reddit

Don’t buy used cars!

[-]

ProfileTime2274@reddit

I use new Hampshire oil undercoating.

[-]

KaleidoscopeRound721@reddit

Purchase an unlimited car wash package, get it washed weekly.

[-]

Dimathiel49@reddit

Borrow a car for the winter

[-]

Gunk_Olgidar@reddit

Lanolin oil based rust preventative: Woolwax or Fluid Film.

[-]

Rapom613@reddit

Buying the right car goes a long way. For whatever reason most German cars, and Volvos tend not to rust much if at all.

[-]

Kdoesntcare@reddit

That statement is kind of regional. In North America the mk3 generation of VW was built using cheap metal from Mexico, they're rust buckets but they weren't the start of the problems. I had to ditch my '92 GTI because the floors were rusting through.

The mk4 is really the first generation of VW that won't quickly rust to hell because VAG started using galvanized metal to build them.

[-]

Pig-Mentation@reddit

I use an ugly old beater to drive in in the winter. Keeps my nice car clean and dry in the garage, and 100% rust free.

[-]

Mettatuxet@reddit

Move to a region that is not snowy/salty.

[-]

twdpuller@reddit

If you can’t do this park it in a garage all winter and drive a beater.

[-]

Human-Purchase-1246@reddit

Lanolin undercoating is great (already mentioned) but the application frequency matters as much as the product. Most people do it once and forget it. You want to reapply every 1 to 2 years, and hit it before winter, not after.

Also...drain plug maintenance. Many modern unibody has drain holes in the rocker panels and door bottoms that clog with debris. Salt water pools in there and eats from the inside out. Pop those open every spring, takes 10 minutes.

[-]

MountainFace2774@reddit

I Fluid Film my pickup every fall around November. No rust so far.

[-]

CommonBubba@reddit

I would add, as well as making sure the drains are open from the bottom make sure they actually drain water through them, modern vehicles have drain channels built into the structure.

[-]

optigrabz@reddit

Great idea!

Not a bad time to clear sunroof drain lines as well. Some great YouTube videos on how to spend 10 minutes to make sure you don’t get water dripping in your headliner and electrical systems below.

[-]