Fluid Film undercoating and alternatives

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
75
Location
Pennsylvania
Hey all...I recently moved to Northeastern Ohio from Southeastern Pennsylvania and am astounded at the excessive use of road salt here. Back home in PA, we wouldn't have used half as much salt. Here they started salting the roads a week before a single flake dropped.
mad.gif
No wonder everybody's trucks look like brown Swiss cheese.

To further compound my irritation...I bought a 'new to me' truck. It's in good shape and I want it to stay that way so I decided to rustproof/undercoat it as well as I could afford to.

I read some really positive things about this Fluid Film stuff. A local fellow sprays cars with it for a very reasonable price, so I gave him a shot. He sprayed inside the doors, rockers, tailgate, behind the tail lights/headlights, etc. Did a fine job, only neglected to tell me that the stuff stinks worse than a truck stop parking lot full of dead sheep. It has faded substantially, but I can still smell it almost three weeks later. Not to mention, I could have easily done it myself in better weather.

So unless this stuff turns out to be magical, I'm not using any more. I am rather disappointed at turning my truck into a 4x4 sheep carcass. Looking for similar products that don't smell as such. Would like to be able to purchase gallon(s) to spray myself. Cost is not an issue. Availability and effectiveness are my concerns.

One product I have found is this: https://www.sprayon.com/product-categori...t-aerosol-lu777

Any experience with the LU777 and what other recommendations can you make?
 
Funny, I actually like the smell of fluid film. Makes me think of nature and the great outdoors lol
 
I like the Corrosion Free stuff that you spray with a gun. The aerosol version is nice for certain areas, but it drips more easily.
 
Originally Posted By: RS700L
Did a fine job, only neglected to tell me that the stuff stinks worse than a truck stop parking lot full of dead sheep. It has faded substantially, but I can still smell it almost three weeks later.


Its probably crude lanolin base, so its sheepishness isn't a coincidence.

I believe Waxoyl (which has a similar place in the UK market as far as I can tell) is (or was, maybe 25 years since I used it) also crude lanolin base, though I can't remember why I think that apart from the smell. Probably read it somewhere.

Didnt think that much of it and cant get anything like that here anyway. I use a fairly loosely defined mineral/veg oil mix (motor/diesel/sunflower in equal amounts last time around) which seems to work OK and is free. Might try straight sunflower oil the next treatment.
 
Originally Posted By: Ducked
I use a fairly loosely defined mineral/veg oil mix (motor/diesel/sunflower in equal amounts last time around) which seems to work OK and is free.


Works GREAT as a wood fence stain, also
 
Originally Posted By: eyeofthetiger
Originally Posted By: Lubener
This is what I have used. One can will do a small car. Dries to a nice coating that lasts for a several years.

https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/o.../?code=AMHSC-EA


I used to use that for a coating on all bare metal parts (except exhaust and brake rotors, duh) when I lived up north. It seemed to hold up well over a season, but I don't know about several years.

Depends on cleanliness of surface, how heavy it is applied and how much exposure the coating has to moisture. Took a long time for the waxy coating to wear off.
 
The smell of fluid film usually goes away after two weeks in warmer weather.

You can apply it yourself if you get the gun and wands. The one gallon can of FF can be bought at Napa online and shipped to the nearest store for under $40.
 
Petrolieum-diluted Lanolin will soak a little into the outside layer of any exposed metal surfaces (but won't "penetrate" them), and will penetrate any oxidized (rusted) metal below surface level, slowing but not stopping corrosion. Water is highly abrasive and will remove anything eventually.

We don't use road salt here at all, we use a non-corrosive calcium-based product, but it costs about 10% more, which might be seen as "un-necssary" or "wasteful" depending on your local politics (after all, lawmakers trade in their cars in four years or less).

The reason they spray road salt even when it's not snowing is it is only effective at relatively warm temperatures, and it is an effective ice preventative (so rain and standing water stays in the wet state, not turning to ice when temperature falls overnight). Below around 0F road salt does nothing, while the calcium product does work down to about -20F.

A thorough car wash once a week in winter is pretty effective; road salt corrosion happens when wet, salt-embedded dirt remains on the vehicle to work it's chemical magic over time (and because salt is an effective ice preventative, it's always wet). Washing it off stops the problem. Thick steel is relatively immune to salt corrosion as it's beefy enough that rust-through takes a very long time, but thin metal areas (cars and SUVs built with unibody construction) are in danger of being penetrated to the other side.

A body-on-frame vehicle (most light trucks, unless you bought a Honda) is relatively immune, just some body panels like rockers and door corners, unless you never wash it in winter. Something like Fluid Film, Krown, etc can help with those areas; on the rest of the vehicle it's almost wasted as it can't stay in place for long in the first place.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Petrolieum-diluted Lanolin will soak a little into the outside layer of any exposed metal surfaces (but won't "penetrate" them), and will penetrate any oxidized (rusted) metal below surface level, slowing but not stopping corrosion. Water is highly abrasive and will remove anything eventually.



Sunflower oil seems to soak into rust as well. It slowly polymerises to a firm but slightly plastic coating. I'd think once its done this it would be rather dificult to wash off, though in general I think wash-off concerns are exaggerated. I've has straight motor oil last a couple of years in wheel arches, though admittedly I don't do many miles.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3864753/Coke_Can_for_Brake_Drums#Post3864753




A snag with straight veg oil is that in enclosed moist spaces it can grow mould, and I'm not sure that mixing it with mineral oil entirely prevents this. In some cases it may not matter much, but inside doors and sills its a health hazard.

As a natural material lanolin might be susceptible to mould too, though probably much less.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad


A thorough car wash once a week in winter is pretty effective; road salt corrosion happens when wet, salt-embedded dirt remains on the vehicle to work it's chemical magic over time (and because salt is an effective ice preventative, it's always wet). Washing it off stops the problem. Thick steel is relatively immune to salt corrosion as it's beefy enough that rust-through takes a very long time, but thin metal areas (cars and SUVs built with unibody construction) are in danger of being penetrated to the other side.

A body-on-frame vehicle (most light trucks, unless you bought a Honda) is relatively immune, just some body panels like rockers and door corners, unless you never wash it in winter. Something like Fluid Film, Krown, etc can help with those areas; on the rest of the vehicle it's almost wasted as it can't stay in place for long in the first place.


I've experienced just the opposite. Our unibody cars (Civics, CR-V, Subarus, etc...) still look like new underneath and I, nor any family members have never had a rust related failure in a unibody car built in the last 20 years. The '00 Civic is driven exclusively in the salt (that's why I keep it) and the only washing it gets is from the rain. Pickup trucks will go about 5 to 10 years here before you need to replace spring hangars at least. Any longer, you will need a frame replacement or rebuild (this is when they go to the scrapper). The body will look fine, maybe some rust around the rear fenders, but the frame will have holes rusted through. I've seen it happen with Toyotas, Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Nissans, etc... This is with regular underbody washes during the winter. The only way to keep a frame from rusting is not driving it in winter, or applying some oil/wax-type coating.

I think Fluid Film smells great (as does the wife, which is most important). That Amsoil stuff looks promising too. Not sure how many cans I would need though. Took 3/4 of a gallon of Fluid Film to do the Frontier and CR-V.
 
I've found that on a daily driver getting 2k/month that FF doesn't last really long. Touchups may be required. It also just slows the inevitable.

I've not tried hosing it down on a weekly basis instead of undercoating--I have a friend who swears by it, but last I knew, he didn't work on his cars either. I've been too leery of making a river of ice in my driveway, and too cheap to hit the coin-op.
 
irv, we have limited numbers of commercial rust proofers in the lake states and northeast US: Krown, Rustcheck, Carwell, and Corrosionfree.

Krown products are available in the US labeled under their industrial line. If memory serves, I believe that the industrial KL73 is the same as the T-40 rust inhibitor. This needs to be verified.

https://www.google.com/search?q=KL+73+LUBRICANT&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
https://www.google.com/search?q=KL73+is+...ent=firefox-b-1

To the OP, do a search here of past threads to find out what other products are available.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
irv, we have limited numbers of commercial rust proofers in the lake states and northeast US: Krown, Rustcheck, Carwell, and Corrosionfree.

Krown products are available in the US labeled under their industrial line. If memory serves, I believe that the industrial KL73 is the same as the T-40 rust inhibitor. This needs to be verified.

https://www.google.com/search?q=KL+73+LUBRICANT&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
https://www.google.com/search?q=KL73+is+...ent=firefox-b-1

To the OP, do a search here of past threads to find out what other products are available.



If memory serves, I believe the Krown spray can I used years ago was also called T-40 so in all likelihood it is the same stuff?
I highly recommend, if you can get this stuff, to purchase some and use it. Also, for those that don't know, the best time to use it is in the summer/warmer months as it will creep a lot better and get into those seams where moisture/salt sits and rust begins.
My buddies and I use to do our own vehicles. We'd buy the 4 ltr jugs of Rust Check and fill the tank we had fabbed up. Attach to a compressor, attach some wands and have at er.
After we were done, we'd drive to a sandy/gravel road and do a bunch of starting/stopping allowing the dust to roll underneath the vehicle. It looked like sh*t after we were done but a good wash the next day to wash all the dirt off the paint and we were good to go. I swear those vehicles we did will never rust. The dust attached to the frames and the like was on there like it was glued on.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top