DIALOG WITH MY BROTHER WHO TEARS APART CARS AND PUTS THEM BACK TOGETHER.
HIM:
Well, I agree on the car being sealed with rust preventative, but not from a dealer.
ME:
Do you mean from the factory, or from who?  Do you need it on today’s cars?

 Not really. The new cars have galvanized lower panels and the main body’s are dipped at the factory in statically transferred epoxy primer.

Good to know. I know in a vague way factory techniques are better, but don’t know exactly what they do or how impressive the results are. Warranties are typically 6 years the way I remember it. That would indicate some effort on their part, but 10 years would actually impress me more in a New England climate.  

 If you are concerned about rock chips…….

Not really rock chips. I may think about this in terms of some other parts of the car, don’t know if wheel wells would be important to me or not, would have to think about that, or what other parts would be worth thinking about.  

 Again the word “epoxy” is the key. I use POR-15 and will be using it on the truck to cover the rust. Again for restoration purposes.

I’ve heard of POR-15 in the past and don’t know much about it. I can’t believe it would look the same as the original factory Ford Deep Impact Blue as far as the depth is concerned, though I imagine the color hue, saturation and darkness could be matched.  

 Could you or should you put “under-coating” on a new vehicle? If you did, it would work if applied when the vehicle is brand new and clean underneath. Do you need to? No.

Yeah, I wasn’t too sure about undercoating seeing how over the years the attitude is changing on that.  

 Should you apply “rust preventative”? It won’t hurt, but the factory already sprays the “waxy” coating on it.
 Drill holes to get in panels? I wouldn’t. The inside panels are already treated and drilling holes just invites rust.

By the time I got done researching stuff, I was thinking that drilling holes is a bad idea. I didn’t really know or was sure about the factory already spraying waxy stuff in fenders and doors. I didn’t know if that was done on just luxury cars or if it was done on cars like Mustangs.  

 The main key is to keep the undercarriage washed during the salt season. That will greatly reduce the rust.

Yeah, I usually spend money on that after especially bad salt loads.  

 My ’72 Cutlass was sprayed with oil and driven on a dirt road. If you rub away the dirt it looks brand new.  
 Again the key here is “oil”. This procedure is illegal today though.

Okay, I was definitely gonna ask you next about oil. I remember hearing about or seeing about some guy in Chichester who does it, but if it’s illegal (I didn’t know that), then I guess that’s out of the question. I’ll assume that during a yearly inspection someone might give you shit about seeing the entire car bottom covered in oil, or report it. I don’t know.  

 Spray stuff underneath with WD-40. This was actually designed as a rust preventative. When it dries, it turns “waxy” so it is okay to use to loosen bolts or clean oily dirt off but for a permanent lubricant, it is a no-no.

I didn’t know WD-40 leaves a bit of waxiness, good to know.
So you’re saying that, for example, when my car was on a lift and we were looking at all the bare metal under the car, some bits rusted more than others, that spraying WD-40 over all of that would be a good way to go?

[TO BE CONTINUED]