Livin in the rust belt

This is an ad from one of those buy/sell groups on facebook. Seems like a nice 8.1 truck. One line really made me laugh about the joys of living in the rust belt. "....only thing it needs is rockers and cab corners....."

Somehow I don't think that phrase is seen in too many Arizona ads

The wisest automotive move I ever made was from MI to NV. The cars I see in the junkyard here would make rust belt folks weep.

I've realized that it's well worth the extra time and money to go south to buy used vehicles. It cost me $750 to go get a rust free Astro. Worth every penny, and more because it will still be alive for several years longer than one purchased locally.

Too bad rust isn't gold I remember when I lived in Ohio and my truck door was so rusted that I could grab the interior door handle from the outside.

"Only thing it needs is rockers and cab corners"

Only around here. He might find someone to give him $9k for that rustbucket, but it sure as hell wouldn't be me.

The rock salt on the roads this morning was so heavy I could slide around on it like gravel. berkeley you people.

EvanR wrote: The wisest automotive move I ever made was from MI to NV. The cars I see in the junkyard here would make rust belt folks weep.

I live in the rust belt, this is so true.

When you get to work to find chunks of salt stuck in the tread of your all-terrain tires, you know it's bad.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: The rock salt on the roads this morning was so heavy I could slide around on it like gravel. berkeley you people.

When there is so much salt on the road, that it looks like there is actually snow on it.

Crawled under the car to do... something. I don't even remember what I was doing. Got a mouthful of salt dust. Tasted that literally all day

Close your mouth, we are not codfish.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: The rock salt on the roads this morning was so heavy I could slide around on it like gravel. berkeley you people.

My city just skips the rock salt altogether now and applies a brine solution. The good news is you don't have chunks of salt bouncing off your car and chipping the paint................the bad news is it can now effectively penetrate every little crevice of your car and eat it from the inside out too.

In reply to Feedyurhed:

It does that with rock salt as well, once it mixes with water and slush, which it does most of the time around here. They use both around here and I really don't see much difference between them. I just sold my rust bucket 2001 Sierra that was much like the truck in the ad above. Then I took a long weekend and went down to TN and bought a rust free truck. Its currently half apart while I clean and rust proof everything possible.

"I remember when I lived in Ohio . . . "

The cars as SO bad here in New England, that I had my most recent project shipped in from Southern Ohio.

Go figure?

We do a lot of the brine solution here. It sucks. The E30 basically stays parked from the first salt to the last one, and I feel bad every time I drive either of the other cars. Plus, dealing with rusty hardware all the time makes even basic repairs take forever.

The_Jed wrote: Close your mouth, we are not codfish.

I loled

The key to being a car guy in this geography is "Acceptance".

Accept that your car is going to be worthless after year ten. Don't really matter what you do. Buy cars that you can afford to amortize to zero by year ten and learn not to care about the exterior. No car washes needed and minor dints and scratches are inconsequential. Park where you like, cause it don't matter. It is actually a rather liberating mentality once adopted.

I suspect that one of the reasons why Canadians as a whole buy cars one price notch below Americans is that we know that it is wasted money at the end of ten years. We can't afford to toss out a BMW or Lexus every ten years, but a Corolla, Mazda 3 or Camry is pretty disposable and gets us to where we need to go as well as the more expensive options.

You can always have a second toy car that you care about stored for the winter.

TeamEvil wrote: "I remember when I lived in Ohio . . . " The cars as SO bad here in New England, that I had my most recent project shipped in from Southern Ohio. Go figure?

Southern Ohio vehicles are a lot cleaner than northern ohio vehicles.

NOHOME wrote: The key to being a car guy in this geography is "Acceptance". Accept that your car is going to be worthless after year ten. Don't really matter what you do. Buy cars that you can afford to amortize to zero by year ten and learn not to care about the exterior. No car washes needed and minor dints and scratches are inconsequential. Park where you like, cause it don't matter. It is actually a rather liberating mentality once adopted. I suspect that one of the reasons why Canadians as a whole buy cars one price notch below Americans is that we know that it is wasted money at the end of ten years. We can't afford to toss out a BMW or Lexus every ten years, but a Corolla, Mazda 3 or Camry is pretty disposable and gets us to where we need to go as well as the more expensive options. You can always have a second toy car that you care about stored for the winter.

This is true to an extent, BUT, it's not as bad as it used to be. Back in the 70s and 80s, it was common to see visible surface rust on cars that were ~3 years old. It takes longer now because of better corrosion protection on modern cars.

Anyhow, my truck gets Fluid Film every year, gets waxed several times a summer, and washed often. I know the rust will win eventually, but I'll be damned if it will be any sooner than it has to be.

And my toys have always been stored for the winter.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

What you say is true but not Dodge and Ford bedsides.

You can still read grease-pencil numbers on the underside of these trucks while quarter-sized holes line the bed above the rear wheels.

I don't even look for rust-free cars. I just look for the rust holes that are less complex to fix or aren't part of the structure.

EvanR wrote: The wisest automotive move I ever made was from MI to NV. The cars I see in the junkyard here would make rust belt folks weep.

Hell, I'm from NE Ohio. The first time I went to a junkyard in Columbus I was flipping out. I felt like going Crazy Cat Lady and trying to buy entire rows of cars.

Tom_Spangler wrote: "Only thing it needs is rockers and cab corners" Only around here. He might find someone to give him $9k for that rustbucket, but it sure as hell wouldn't be me.

I worked with a guy who did that with F150s. When one would get too flappy, cab sinking on the frame, etc, he'd just get something with a bad engine or trans or something from Virginia and swap the cab or bed over. Ended up with a lot of spare other things, too.

The dude was nuts. He'd leave work on Wednesday, come in on Thursday with a different colored truck. New truck? "Nah, I re-cabbed the old one last night."

ebonyandivory wrote: When you get to work to find chunks of salt stuck in the tread of your all-terrain tires, you know it's bad.

I kinda like this image. It's somewhat telling...

This was three years ago, the car looks way way worse now. Before i stopped driving it, it was hard to see out of the back window because of all of the salt on the inside. Wiring harness is one big crispy critter from corrosion. And then there was the morning the rear wiper started smoking when it began to short internally. That was one of those days where either the lights were all green or the A-holes would creep slowly to red lights instead of zooming up and stopping.

gearheadE30 wrote: We do a lot of the brine solution here. It sucks. The E30 basically stays parked from the first salt to the last one, and I feel bad every time I drive either of the other cars. Plus, dealing with rusty hardware all the time makes even basic repairs take forever.

Recently read a local news article about vehicle corrosion associated w/ brine solutions... that E36 M3 is just berkeleying nasty. There are anti-corrosives the highway dept. could add to the solution but many don't... Pa. is one of them. I started using the auto car wash w/ undercarriage spray just for that reason.

Tom_Spangler wrote: "Only thing it needs is rockers and cab corners" Only around here. He might find someone to give him $9k for that rustbucket, but it sure as hell wouldn't be me.

I'd be surprised if anyone would even give $5k for a rusty 8.1L.......although gas is down at the moment, and people never think ahead......