Rust-proof a car?

Now that I'm in the salt bath of Lansing, MI I'm wondering about places that claim to keep your car rust-free up here. My BIL told me about a place that will inspect your car then spray it with something and then give you a warranty that's good as long as you take your car in for an annual inspection and respray for like $300 or $400

Anyone hear of such a thing? Legit?

By the way, you guys were right saying that Lansing keeps up on their snow. It was like 5 degrees and still snowing but the highways were clear enough to maintain normal speeds. I guess they're not okay with sub-zero temps though, as seen when the whole place shut down last week.

Fluid Film and Krown are two products that pretty well regarded, but nothing is guaranteed to stop rust.

Having lived in the Chicago area my whole life the only way to keep a car from rusting is to not drive it and keep it inside.

Being that the whole purpose of owning a car is to drive it then the second best way is to not drive it in the winter.

I to have heard good things about "Fluid Film" but just haven't gotten around to using it on any vehicle I've owned.

That being said one vehicle that I've owned that had the lowest incident of rust was my 1989 Ford Ranger PU.

I rust proofed it myself and it was rust free when I sold it to my nephew 8 years later. He drove it a few more years then sold it at a 175K miles, it was still rust free (No holes in the body).

Best thing to do now,is.. lots of fresh water,lots and lots of it

 On my California Alfa Romeo, I found a recipe of mineral oil and parrifen wax

 Heat the oil up. And using a cheese grater, slowly grate the wax into the oil, letting it melt,stirring the oil and wax as you you do this, about 1 pound of wax, well.do. if interested  send email, and I will send the whole specs.  Think I copied it from a mg of miata site

My son's FIL has his truck redone at Zeibart every year, after the initial cost it's $50 a year. I think the warranty is for perforation, not surface rust. I don't do anything to our vehicles and they're just starting to show exterior rust. Scion is a 2006, MINI is a 2003, Astro is a 2001.

DeadSkunk said:

My son's FIL has his truck redone at Zeibart every year, after the initial cost it's $50 a year. I think the warranty is for perforation, not surface rust. I don't do anything to our vehicles and they're just starting to show exterior rust. Scion is a 2006, MINI is a 2003, Astro is a 2001.

Are they still around? I went looking a few years back and they seem to have vanished. I remember back in the 70s my dad would take all his cars there as soon as he got them. They all had those little plastic plugs in the rocker panels.

At one point I was going to take my then-new 2011 F-150 to a Krown place over in Windsor (closest to me), but I ended up just doing Fluid Film myself. I only had the truck for 5 years, but it was spotless.

My uncles used to spray the underside of their vehicles with oil, not sure if they added paraffin.  Uncle Adam's '56 Chevy was fairly rustfree

Tom, he was telling me about a Zeibart in Ypsilanti and we had the conversation at this year's NAIAS , so I assume it still exists. 

In reply to Toebra :

I grew up in Quebec and people would spray with kerosene, even the exterior surface. Oil was good for the underside.

I just did a Krown treatment.  Normally I wouldn't worry about it... I'm used to rust at this point, but I bought a 94 pickup that was super rust-free because it had been a snowbird truck (folks went to the south for the winter).

Krown treatment was something like $140 with tax, it took about an hour, and so far I'm happy.  It's a parafin based stuff that keeps creeping and self-healing.  The guy recommended I do it every two years.

There are specific rules for the warranty.  Mine didn't get a warranty because of its age and there was some rust on a bumper.

Oil, grease, anything petro-chemical will help keep the rust away, but you have a mess in the spring and need to re-apply as it gets washed off.  

The best? leave it in a garage for the winter.

When I lived in Michigan, I had an early 90's Honda Accord - not exactly known for avoiding rust. I would freeze my nuts off every week (sometimes 2x's a week) in the diy car wash, spraying the salty goodness off the old girl. My sister had the same car and did nothing of the sort. In a 6 year timeframe, her car was Swiss cheese and mine looked amazing. I also left the car outside and I heard that warmer temperatures in a garage can accelerate corrosion.

Basically, the goal is make sure salt never touches un-protected metal and doesn't get a chance to wear through any paint / coating anywhere under the car.  Spots where salty water can get trapped are of particular concern.  

kilgoretrout said:

 I also left the car outside and I heard that warmer temperatures in a garage can accelerate corrosion.

DD's should absolutely not be garaged with salt on them. Salt activates in the presence of water. Salt and ice do nothing. The melting the garage allows the corrosion to go everyday.

The last vehicle I "rustproofed" used a product called "Corrosion Free". It is more wax-based than oil-based like Krown. To keep up the warranty it had to be re-done every 18 months. Up here in the Great White North it was $89 per application instead of $159 for Krown. Krown had to be re-applied every 12 months.

Can't tell how it worked out - vehicle got traded in before the ex and I split for a Mazda CX-5 for her (that I paid for!!!).

In reply to NGTD :

That holds true in climates where it stays cold enough for the car to stay dry and salty (or icy and salty but not melting).  In most of the US, it's not cold enough for that.  So unless there's been a dry stretch of weather, the car sits wet and salty (or with slowly melting salt slush on it). 

I've been keeping my garage around 45 - 50* and the heat pushes a good bit of air around when it's running.  Plus I have a dehumidifier in there and a pair of ceiling fans that can be turned on for more air movement (which I tend to do if the car is overly wet / snowy when I park it inside).  Generally the car melts clean and is completely dry within a few hours of being parked in there with salt slush on it, so it only spends a few hours at most wet and salty (then it's dry and salty) instead of spending all night wet and salty if it were sitting outside (due to the higher temperature, lower humidity and more air movement in the garage). 

FWIW, I can say from other people's cars around here that keeping them outside in this climate doesn't prevent rust by any means.  And if anything, the garaged vehicles tend to be the less rusty ones. 

In Krown's case, I believe the perforation warranty is only applied if you start getting it sprayed when it is a new vehicle.

Krown paid for a university to study the effectiveness of their product: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/university-research-demonstrates-the-benefits-of-krown-rust-control-treatments-691009851.html

rslifkin said:

In reply to NGTD :

That holds true in climates where it stays cold enough for the car to stay dry and salty (or icy and salty but not melting).  In most of the US, it's not cold enough for that.  So unless there's been a dry stretch of weather, the car sits wet and salty (or with slowly melting salt slush on it). 

I've been keeping my garage around 45 - 50* and the heat pushes a good bit of air around when it's running.  Plus I have a dehumidifier in there and a pair of ceiling fans that can be turned on for more air movement (which I tend to do if the car is overly wet / snowy when I park it inside).  Generally the car melts clean and is completely dry within a few hours of being parked in there with salt slush on it, so it only spends a few hours at most wet and salty (then it's dry and salty) instead of spending all night wet and salty if it were sitting outside (due to the higher temperature, lower humidity and more air movement in the garage). 

FWIW, I can say from other people's cars around here that keeping them outside in this climate doesn't prevent rust by any means.  And if anything, the garaged vehicles tend to be the less rusty ones. 

I live in Canada.

Always drive through the water puddles

Free under car wash.

iceracer said:

Always drive through the water puddles

Free under car wash.

In Minnesota, any water puddles you may find during the winter months have the same salinity as the Dead Sea.

Thanks, all. There aren't any Krowns around Lansing but there's a Ziebart here in town. I'll be dropping by there. I won't get a warranty on a 2003 car, I'm sure, but hopefully it can slow down the rust some.

I am having trouble keeping the car off the roads this winter because of some annoying circumstances. The Accord's Missouri plates are expired and I don't want to xfer my residency here to MI until we get into our permanent address house next month-- but it needs work anyway to be road worthy.

Meanwhile I've been taking the minivan to work and my wife has been driving the kids in her mom's new-ish minivan, but Saturday at Fast Eddie's car wash it came off the track and jacked up the bumper. They're saying we made it all up and refusing to pay, and now my wife is like, "I don't want the liability of driving anyone else's car ever again!" Sooooo onto the salt flats it is. I've been missing driving it anyway but all this crap is kinda discouraging :\

There’s many home recipes on the internet.

I used toilet wax ring, mineral spirits and used motor oil in a garden sprayer.

I called Ziebart today. $225 for underbody with something that sounds like it applies like LineX, $450 for underbody and body - like in the fenders, in the door and door jambs, under the hood; they have to drill some holes to get into some of those places. The coating they use on the body he said was like a wax.

There's no possibility for warranty on cars over 3 years.

Annual follow-up is $40 for underbody only, $55 for underbody and body.

What do you guys think about the drilling holes part? I'm not rich but I'd like this done right.

I won't drill holes. Nope.

My dad had a truck with Ziebart in the 70's. First place to bubble? Around the holes.

NGTD said:

I won't drill holes. Nope.

My dad had a truck with Ziebart in the 70's. First place to bubble? Around the holes.

I had a similar experience but it was with a car that would have been a pile of iron oxide if not for the Ziebart treatment. It was a 1972 Corolla and it was almost rust free but with some bubbles around the Ziebart plugs. I'm certain that the Ziebart was a net improvement in that case. Seems like rust on a 1970s Ford truck also would be a given, so maybe it was still a gain?

My uncle had a 70s AMC Hornet that he drove everyday from brand new to 2005 in Maryland weather.  It never was garaged and never had rust till the next owner stopped annually Ziebarting it.  FWIW