Bought my van in the South with zero rust. Now approaching my 3rd winter in Ohio. During the last 2 winters I went to the car wash and had the undercarriage washed 4x per week. I’m now starting to see some surface rust on the frame. It’s superficial and I am not seeing any swelling or structural rust yet. Zero rust on the body also. There is a place up here that does oil spraying with new 82W hydraulic oil. I plan to have this done this year to prevent any further rust. Based on the research I’ve done this is the method I want to use. Is anyone else doing undercoating of some sort? Should I still be getting the undercarriage washed during the salty winter after I get it oil sprayed?

 

Oil coating goes back forever. Had friends in Buffalo NY, the rust belt that had 20 year old daily drivers with zero rust. They applied used motor oil to the undercarriage and into doors, rocker panels etc with garden sprayers. Some liked to mix kerosene in with the oil so it would penetrate seams better. I doubt if any of them washed the undercarriage in winter. They may have before applying?

Me I use Fluid Film on my old RV. Fluid Film seeps, if you put it on one side of a leaf spring it will seep through the spring. I use FF because it was on sale, if something else were on sale I would use that.

What does an application cost today?

 

There is a franchise that does very effective undercoating, called Ziebart.

It is not new, is very effective and thorough, but is not cheap.
Many locations are located through out the country. I purchased a used vehicle with very little rust and sprayed it in the doors, underneath and every place it might rust.
It is a messy job and Ziebart wanted around a $1,000.00 do do the job. I used NAPA Rubberized Undercoating. They do under the entire vehicle , inside the doors,fenders, and the entire lower part of the vehicle. Where I reside, if the vehicle has too much rust and might be a safety problem it will not pass the state inspection.
Sooo, anytime anyone buys or gets a new or used vehicle with little or no rust underneath, it is worth every penny to have it done. All the washing in the world is no help once the rust process has begun.
I have also at one time performed the used oil spray, but that can have environmental ramifications and needs to be done repeatedly.

A little FYI,
If you drive where salt is used for deicing , that dust get in places that are not easy to wash out, and in addition everytime any moisture gets to that salt dust the salt get activated and goes to work destroying oxidizing (rusting) the metal. Also, if you drive where Calcium Chloride is used on dirt roads for dust control, your vehicle is getting both winter and summer almost a losing battle.

 

Never use rubberized undercoating. It'll make the frame rust even faster.

 

I had a car ziebarted and right now it sits unmovable with the frame broken. It only saw about three winters in NY.

 

I have never been a fan of Ziebart or any kind of undercoating. Por 15 is a great product but not for the underside of a vehicle. The oil's petroleum or lanolin are what I prefer. Oldtimer tip, do not spray the bottom of vehicle before getting work done on it, trust me I know.

 

I would never use a rubberized or encapsulating undercoating. In theory they sound cool and look nice but they trap moisture and salt against the metal and cause even faster deterioration.

The place I chose uses a product called Signal 150 by Beacon Lubricants. It's a local Amish place and they only charged $50 to spray, excluding drilling the doors which I wanted to do myself. Had they drilled the doors it only would have been $65. They have a pit and went underneath the van and took their time and were very thorough. Alot of people in this area use them. It's a drippy mess right now but cleaning up is preferable to dealing with rust. Many of the cars around here are rusted out because people just don't care. They'll spend $60k on a lifted pickup truck but not $50 to protect it. The guy that sprayed it said depending on how the winter is I may be able to treat every other year. I'll see how it looks in the Spring. I asked them if I should wash the undercarriage - they said if it's really bad I can wash it periodically but not to go crazy with it as it will start to wash off the coating.

 

$65? Are you a time traveler LOL.

 

Yeah that's really cheap. For that price I'd go every month.

 

I'm not, but the Amish are