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I've in the middle of replacing the floor pans and braces on my 57 Dodge. It's all bare metal inside the rockers and between any double metal nooks and crannies. Whatever undercoating was on the car cracked with age and allowed water underneath. Once trapped there it really made a mess of what was a western no salt car.
As a veteran of 30+ years in the Ziebart rustproofing business here in Detroit (doing it the right way at our shop, not the quick way) I see two major changes in modern cars. Primary is better design (meaning better drainage) and second is the use of the modern paints/coatings by the factory. In the early days we saw rust through in 2-3 years. Its what got the Ziebart business off the ground in the late 1950's. Through the 1970's rust would show at 4-5 years. Other than a few oddball vehicles today its 7-9 years before we see anything serious. Modern design and factory coatings is what made me decide to get out of the business in the mid 90's.
As a related issue, undercoating was not rustproofing. A good rustproofing material had the ability to penetrate seams and had a waxy base. It dripped till the solvents dried but stayed flexible for the life of the car. It had to be sprayed into the right areas and would not plug drain holes. I do have to say there were a lot of hacks in the business through the years and a lot of bad workmanship. Part of good job in the old days was actually adding drain holes to the rockers and bottom of the quarter panels to let the water out. Even into the late 1970's brand new Aspens and Volares would come in with a gallon of water sitting in each quarter panel.
Jim Krausmann
Detroit
-------------- Original message --------------
From: Greg Filtz <filtz1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Not to be too much off topic... What was the change from the 50s through the 90's to now? I can remember growing up in Milwaukee Wisconsin (major salt), that all the cars on the road that were kept for any length of time had serious rust problems in the wheel wells, rocker panels, and trunk area's. Now days it is rare to see a car in that much rust! Is the paint better? Is the metal better? Is the body design better (all aesthetics aside)?
Greg in Snowy and Salty WI
56 Dodge
Ron Waters wrote:
> Now THAT is some serious speed rusting !
Actually, that's quite believable. I lived in Syracuse in the mid-70s. Because they got tons of lake-effect snow, roads were salted like mad from Oct to April. You would see cars that were less than 5 years old with serious rust. Many folks put the good car away and drove a 'winter rat' during the snowy months.
Ron
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] car lifespans
My 58 Fireflite convertible started life in Syracuse, NY. Evidence shows that it changed hands in 1960 and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where it died in 1968 of terminal rust failure and got stuffed in a garage and forgotten. The second owner that took it to Madison was a professor at Syracuse, and transferred to the U of W.
When I tore the car apart to restore it a second time (as if you could call the first time anything but a patch job), we discovered the lower quarters, fender caps and bottom skins had all been replaced. This would have occured PRIOR to it being sold to the second owner in 1960, as he stated the car never had any work like that done on it while in his care. Now THAT is some serious speed rusting !
Most of the FL cars that made it out to Seattle suffered from the perpetual rain we got there, even without the salted roads. I live in the desert now, and the sheetmetal fared as well as baremetal would in the desert. I find FL cars from time to time. The dust gets in them here and settles to the lower body areas. Then, when the rains do come, the cars have mud pies drying out in their lower bodies for weeks or months after. It isn't like the salt cars, but even the dry cars suffered from lack of build quality.
Brent
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