HOW TO: Prevent your car (or truck) from rusting

[Graham_A_M]

HI guys. Some more advise on maintaining your car/truck/SUV or whatever else: this time in the name of exterior care.


In this write-up I'll show you what creates rust (in most cases) and how to prevent it. MX6's in general have very well designed bodies.. and rust/ corrosion protection: 1st/2gen's alike. Thats why you hardly ever see ANY MX6's with rust. Unless they have incredibly high kilometers on them. I'll also share a few do's and don't about taking care of your paint. So this should keep your car looking mint well into its older years. Like the Leather care post I made.. this should be done VERY often (every two weeks) during the winter months. Once every three weeks until ALL the snow, salt and (SALTY)-water is off the road for good. After that... every month... or 5 weeks will do. Even longer down in Florida. Every 5 months year-round should be fine to prevent any rust from developing.

Well asides from salt on the roads.. cars generally dont rust at all. (ever been down to Japan, India, Cuba, Mexico.. or Australia where there is no salt on the roads.. ever?.. the cars are entirely rust free for the most part) Its usually caused by a built-up of road grim in the crevasses of the body work.


When your car/truck is rolling: the tires throw all sorts of harmful stuff on the road up into the wheel wells.. and eventually all other parts of the body.. such as the kick panels and so-on. So Salt from the roads... salty water (in the early spring) and road oils eventually build up in the crevasses where they can't escape. Normal washing never gets this stuff out.. and everytime this build up of very acidic, salty dirt gets wet (when you wash your car or drive it in the rain) it eats away at the metal. Here are some pics.



This is my winter car.. a 1993 MX6 LS. Here as you can see is one of those "crevasses" (Sorry I can't think of another not-so-annoying word that does this justice). its the rear wheel well.. like the front, it has a right angle... where salty road-grime and silt-like dirt stay if not properly cleaned out. more so on the top of the wheel well curve is where its really bad. The salty, acidic dirt just stays up there. Everytime it gets wet.. it eats away a the metal its touching.. more and more everytime. Everytime the roads are freshly salted.. or you drive over the same roads with the same acidic oil spills (at intersections) You get fresh contaminants sprayed back into the crevases. Over the years ... it will eventually lead to this





Is this starting to make sense now? Also.. in the rear part of the pic (the trucks rear bumper would be to the right of the pic) you can see that the metal is already decaying.. since gravel being spit up and hitting that metal.. eventually wears off the paint (which is what will happen to the kick panels of our cars) if you constantly drive on gravel roads... or like to spin the tires in gravel. The kick panel is the piece right beneath the doors. The metal is coated with a special paint in most cases.. our cars are.. if you check out the paint on the kick panel.. you'll see its kind of a rough.. rocker-guard kind of paint thats designed to prevent againest wear. That paint can only protect the metal so long. Like anything.. with enough wear... it wont last. Eventually the bare metal will be exposed.. just like what happened in the pic.. I dont have to tell you that bare metal rusts really quickly. But I'll tell you how to solve that problem in a bit.

Back to the salty, acidic grime in the creavasses: This is how you get it out.. which is idiotically simple... but nobody ever does it.


All you need is an old shirt your not afraid to get dirty.. and a garden hose.






Just spray it in there. I'd show you a little more of what to do but I needed a hand to hold the camera.

The water alone.. no matter how strong (unless its a pressure washer), probably WONT get all the silty-grime out of there. So what you do is hold the hose with one hand.. and run your fingers along the ENTIRE length of the angled metal. You'll be amazed at how much silt-like dirt you'll manage to fish out. Keep doing this through-out ALL the spaces you can get to. Incuding the area right around the gas-cap.

The best thing to do would be to put the car on a hoist when doing this. That way you can get the underbody too.. which (no [shizzle] eh?) has TONS of other spots that this salty-silt will accumulate in. Do this on every part of the body work and suspension (if you want to) to make sure ALL this silt is gone.





Here is a (basically) useless pic that should illustrate what I'm talking about.

You'll want to keep running your fingers into the flat spots as much as you can to get all the dirt out.. untill eventually the water runs clear.


Do this to the front fenders.. rear quarter panels.. and EVERYwhere else you can. If you do this consistenly then the salt/acidic oils wont be sitting there eating away at the metal.

You'll want to keep the metal on all parts of the car away from ALL chemicals such as the road tar. Since continual exposure will break-down any factory finishes designed to inhibit rust. Once those paints break down: You'll have rust forming in no time.



Thats that. Any other questions just ask. I think its pretty straight forward really. But who knows.


If you want to stop rust thats already spreading

I'll write up a few more tips for you. Well that green winter car used in the pics has some rust on the roof actually: right around the windshield and rear window. I didn't take any pics of the finished solution: but what you'll want to do is to seal up the rust spots as best as you can. For that: use some VERY good Glue or rust paint. Such as "Rust Destroyer" which you should be able to get at a local automotive supply store. For you Yankee's that would probably be Pep-Boys I'm guessing. For us Canucks.. that would be Canadian Tire. I myself was to lazy to buy some, So I just used a very good clear epoxy, that I painted on myself. Basically you'll want to prevent any moisture or harmful chemicals (and water) from coming in contact with the rust. So basically paint on this "Rust destroyer" or the equivilent (the actual Rust destroyer stuff is great.. since it actually lowers the PH level of the paint/rust so it can't rust any more) but unfortunately that stuff is this ugly Rust color.. and on white cars or whatever... it looks awful. So shop around. Anything by 3M should work... they make incredible stuff. Clear coat Epoxy's should work. DO NOT use Silicone Caulking of any sort. Since it was NOT designed for automotive paint finishes. Even if it is designed for outdoors use.. it still wont tack on to the paint/rust and will (probably) start peeling off. Not only that but it looks awful.

Like I said.. any questions.. just ask.

[Kenzie]

What about Por15 products? (Por15.com) Any good?

Also, rust spots around the windshield seem to be a pretty common problem with MX-6's. My '93 has two small spots on the drivers side each smaller than a quarter but no rust anywhere else.

[Graham_A_M]

Never heard of them. But whats available down there is different then here.

Looks good but having no personal experience.. or anything close to that.. I have no idea. Tell me how it goes.. I'd love to hear about the end result.

[Graham_A_M]

is it possible to make this and the other "Paint care tips" both sticky's in tehe2nd Gen projects? that would be really helpful for everybody.. since both of these posts were made for everybodies benefit.

[lakersfan1]

I've always just taken my car to the power wash station after each snow/salting. Power wash with soap, water, and wax every time, and I've never had any kind of rust propblem.

[TJ-MX6]

Good write up Graham...
Something I usually do after I was the car, when I spray a tire foam on the rubber, I usually spray some all along the inner wheel wells as well.
Keeps them 'black' longer..and adds some protection.. Keeps the original coating conditioned somewhat.

[schwinn]

Por15 is very good stuff, from what I have seen. It really locks out the rust and makes for a nice, hard, paintable surface.

As for the cleaning of these areas, I don't know about this process, but it certainly can't hurt. I certainly trust your advice, Graham, so I am sure it's a good idea. The dirt itself won't cause rust, but it can scratch the metal (as it moves around due to vibration and wind when driving), and hold water (which is what accellerates rusting), so cleaning it out is certainly a good idea. Honestly, I have never had rust issues in these areas on any car, but I have seen many cars with rust here...

The old rusted fender you showed is actually a pretty good example of why those stupid chrome edge-ings are so bad for any car. Those capture dirt, water, and salt from the inside and outside, and grind it against the body metal, and just plain suck... as evidenced with your photo.

[neilh2o]

Por15 is great stuff..website is por15.com....its like epoxy paint ...you can cover over rust thats been prepped first using a wire brush then with marine clean and/or metal ready..ive got a 93 Probe SE in great condition that i used the Por15 on the rear strut towers (only place on the car where rust was forming and im in the RUSTBELT : Cleveland, Ohio)...im going to get some of that lanolin oil (from Chemicalguys) for conditioning leather seats..thanx to Graham! .........only thing with Por15 be careful use rubber gloves and old clothes...dont get any paint on your body..it doesnt wash off it has to wear off! heres a very good and inexpensive product for pulling small dents w/o removing the paint... www.dingking.tv i was amazed how well this worked on my dents! works on dents up to the size of a grapefruit..ive fixed three dents on the rear quarter panel ....getting ready to do a little bondo and then prime and paint the side of the car

[Asuna]

UNDERCOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TAR IT!!!!!!!!!!!
i have so much tire shine in my wheel wells.

[Graham_A_M]

whoah, way to bring up a dead thread. But its good that it was bumped so new people that havn't seen this can see how its done.

[silvermanor]

i have rust comin around my windshield under the windshield seal, what should i do to stop it from spreading?? until now ive been using that rust check spray, its a bit like oil, all i see that it does is trap dirt, any suggestions?

[Graham_A_M]

I have that on my car too. You can take your car to a windshield place and get them to remove the lining. next up: paint a special paint on the rust.
For an example: "Rust Destroyer". You can get it at Canadian tire.. or for the Yankee friends... Pep boys or Target.

Also "Navel Jelly" will disolve the rust

After you've applied several coats, then get them to replace the trim. This way it wont spread any more then it already has. But its REALLY important that you cover ALL the rust. If water gets in the parts you missed.. all you really did is slow the process down; rather then stop it.

[silvermanor]

aweomse thanks for the reply, i have a can of rust check, will that work? its a primer, and do i really have to get the trim taken off i can peel the one i have back a bit now

[graffitimonkie]

I want to do this myself without having to bring it to the body shop but I just bought a Del Sol recently, I have a MX6 with rust too. The MX6 rust isnt as bad but its on the sun roof and the Del Sol has it all over random spots. They're not tiny either 2 inch's diameter.

I was wondering if I had anyway to get the exact paint color to match by going to one of those Pep Boys, Kragen, auto stores so that I can avoid going to a body shop to get the paint that will match. I have a black mx6 which i dont think will be too tough to find, but the Del sol is in blue. any leads to where i can find exact colored paint at an inexpensive price?

[Messiah]

why not just hang a piece of nickle on the bottom of your car so that electrons will come and eat the nickel be4 ur car like a boat