Corrosion Control - I hope

[Road.racer]

Cars are destroyed by salt in the rust belt, Toyotas seem to be the worst, but every car I have ever seen rusts. Since it’s a really warm weekend in WI, I tackled the job this (at a minimum this takes two days, due to dryin) here is what I did:

1. Removed all fiber panels from the wheel wells and undercarriage, along with the front plastic tray. Sprayed all steel panels with cosmonline (RP-342). This includes suspension arms, and subframes. focusing on pinch welds and seams.

2. Sprayed the inside of subframes, and body cavities with 3M cavity wax. Purchased the 3M wand set, to easily get in places such as rocker panels.

Still need to do the inside of doors and tailgate. Thinking of using wool wax on those since there won’t be much dirt attracted inside of those areas. One note, this is a very messy job, I went thru 3 tyvek bunny suits, wore a respirator (the fumes are nasty), and put plastic under the ST. Here are some wheel well pictures. Three of the wheel wells are still wet (bottom pic is dry) cosmoline is very runny, but the runs seem to go away by the time it dries.

 

[F=MA]

Whoever owns the vehicle in 2040 will be so lucky ...

 

[66gt350ps]

Cosmonline great moisture preventive preserver but comes off with solvents like brake cleaner so careful ay when using those kind of poducts. CRC brand Lectra Shield is same product coating.

 

[dolsen]

Nice work. How often do you have to redo this? And doesn't Ford spray the cavity wax at the assembly plant?

 

[Road.racer]

Not sure how often it will need to be refreshed, WI is pretty hard on cars, we will see. I expect that minimal touch ups will be needed in a year. I expect that Ford does use cavity wax in some places, but not all places I did. It looks as though Ford also uses cosmoline in some areas, but certainly not everywhere.

To the 2040 comment above, I sure hope so. From my experience with modern Fords, if I did nothing, rust would have a good start in 5 years. YMMV based upon where you live.

 

[66gt350ps]

Remember that it is a waxy compound that does not cure to a had surface so it will allow the build up of dirt, grime and salts. While it will protect the metal surfaces from corrosion from this build up, any hot pressure wash will also remove some or all of the protectant. It is most commonly used on military vehicles for long term storage or shipment.