Originally Posted By: Fuelman
Hey guys. I read this entire thread and noticed a lot of opinions on a lot of things regarding rustproofing, both spray oil and chemical, namely Krown and Ziebart.
I happen to own a Ziebart Franchise in Albany New York as well as a specialty fuel business.
When rustproofing is desired, all the processes out there work well when applied as designed and maintained as designed. The biggest problem I see with the penetrating oil sprays is such as Krown/ Rust Check is the technicians just spraying the stuff over mud packed frame rails and areas exceptionaly dirty with built up road/mud debris. My brother was a big fan of Rust Check (which is like Krown) untill the third year in a row his retreatment was not much more than soaking down the mud pack. it was never power washed off.
I can see in any rustproofing operation the key to it working as designed is in the quality control of its application / reapplication.
I will defend all types of oil/ chemical rustproofing as I see how well it works in an intense road salt environment. But remember it's success has more to do with the quality control of the shop processing/ maintaining your vehicle than it does with the ability of the product to do its job.
At my Ziebart for instance, the biggest problem with cracking/ peeling undercoating is from the customer insisting that another coat need sprayed on during thier annual rustproofing cleaning/ inspection/ touchup required to maintain their warranty. It builds up so thick that it cracks as it gets older and starts peeling. The stuff was never intended to be more than one application thick, with nothing more than spot touchup where abraision had worn it down.
About the coment regarding power washing the underside and spraying the vehicle before completly dry at a Ziebart.....Well, what do you think they do at a Krown or a Rust Check center?
Regarding the Ziebart undercoating material, first- this product is designed to displace water and does so very well when sprayed on a wet or damp vehicle. If I'm processing a freshly washed vehicle, it drips dry for about 20 or so minutes but what remains is not shot over, its is displaced when applying the rustproofing. There is a wave of water droplets that are pushed out of the way by the product as I shoot rustproofing material, it does not get traped. I can literaly stick the wand in a bucket of water and rustproof the inside of the bucket while being half full of water. It'll get messy but I can do it.
My truck for instance is an '03 Ram with now about 126000 miles on it. it is 100% completly rust free top and bottom and has been a salt baby its entire life. It is proof that when applied correctly, Ziebart rustproofing is 100% successfull.
A couple comments about vehicle rust: In the salted road areas of the world and coastal salt air/ sand/ spray areas, ALL VEHICLES WILL RUST, PERIOD!!! With many people keeping them clean will delay the problem, but it will get you in time. Rustproofing of any type is better than none at all in the rust prone areas. The best rustproofing is of the type where reapplication and/or inspection on an annual basis is required.
The worst vehicles for bad rust problems (in my professional opinion) are in order of worst first:
-Any car/truck with injected foam filled panels- they all rust.
-Anything Toyota Honda or Subaru
-Anything GM, turcks are the worst of the pack
-Ford Trucks
-Anything Kia Hyundai or Korean
The reason the above ones (except GM) tend to rust worst is primarily because of foam filled cavities, a lack of drain holes in areas that collect moisture and porly designed cavities that will collect and hold moisture.
Ford trucks have rusty frame problems, even though they tout themselves as using hardened steel frames. guess what? it's a lot thiner than the other carmakers frames and rust out fairly fast when untreated. Ford trucks also have liberal use of foam filled sound deadener material.
The worst quality control for sheet metal panels I see is from GM. Paint is the first line of defense for rust. We've seen insides of doors, fenders, quarters, underbodies and other areas completly bare metal- no primer, no paint, NOTHING!!! on so many GM vehicles that it is a serious lack of quality control that is systemic, not just a fluke. The trucks are the worst offenders, Caddy's/ Vette's to be fair are not included in this problem. We see brand new GM vehicles straight from the dealer with rusty inner fenders, inner quarters and bed undersides. I will not allow a warranty to be written on these affected vehicles.
The vehicles with the better rust protection right from the factory are- best first:
-VW / Audi (good factory rustprotection on late models)
-Volvo (late models)
-Dodge/ Chrysler (newer stuff like '03 & up)
-Mercedes
-Nissan
I know Dodge/ Chrysler had a real bad reputation for rusting out for thirty years. Well, as far as getting their panels at least primed before assembly on the late models, they have come a long way. Quality control in that regard has come "light years" and has surpassed all other domestic makes for at least basic protection from corrosion, especially in trucks.
Sorry for rambling on and not checking my spelling but this subject for me is near and dear to my heart (and livelyhood).
Please dont flame me as the above is my opinion.
Brian.
Good post...I just had my 1998 Dodge 2500 Cummins Rust Checked. I must have been under my truck about a 1/2 dozen times at my work with a hot water hose getting rid of all the dirt the last owner neglected to remove. On the day I got it Rust Checked, it was spotless...I even removed my tailights and hosed that area down (like the place I took it to urged me to do, they were concerned about the truck being as clean as possible for best results). The guy at the place did an awesome job, as well...he used black rust resistant paint to cover my springs, diffs, frame, con arms, trailer hitch etc before he applied the rust check. All those areas were surface rusty, and applying the paint on them only covered surface rust up, but on those areas they're not too susceptible to bad rust anyways...and it looks great now! Yeah, it drips on the driveway and is coming out of every possible area on the truck, but I'm not worried about it rusting much anymore. Truck really looks quite new underneath...I'm sold on it.
"Why don't you folks who's state/province use highly corrosive salt push science and/or legislation to stop using it and find alternatives? From an environmental standpoint that salt isn't a part of the natural ecosystem and must also cause problems....right? (No, I'm not an environmentalist but being that these anti-rust products are touted as 'eco-friendly' isn't that sort of silly given the tons of salt dumped on roads?).
I think it's high time that with all our technology, and the big 'green' movement right now that a cost effective alternative be found. Aren't all you folks tired of having to buy new cars so frequently from rusting out? What a money maker for the automobile industry!"
By the time any law is pushed and R&D goes into this, most folks cars would be long gone...expecting the state/provincial government to take care of something like this is almost like expecting them to fix all the roads in disrepair and every pothole....
Plus, I have better things to do with my time then get involved with politics related to the idea. I'll bite the 150 bucks a year for a rust protection package.