4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Checked out this used truck yesterday
It’s past my tolerance
It’s past my tolerance
Your tolerance for rust?
- Thread starter Kurtatron
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Kestas
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The average age of cars is 11 years. That means fully half the cars on the road are over 11 years old.
Never on the body, I punted my old CR-V because every ******* fastener was rusted out so something as simple as changing brake pads took 4.7million years as half the time was spent removing stripped/damaged bolts. That car is still on the road so clearly nothing structural was killed by rust and the new owner’s time is worth less than what I value mine at. Live in Arizona now so our cars will be perma-new underneath for as long as we can stand them.
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You know what’s nuts? We’ve got some property in SW Colorado. They get a bunch of snow, and don’t use salt on the roads and driving in the winter even in my RWD is pretty much the same as I remember in New York. The cars there are also in great shape. I always wondered why they don’t just do that in the rust belt? Seems like the positive externalities of not having cars rust to nothing would outweighs the additional costs if there are any.
Zero, I hate it!
As long as the rust is cosmetic and doesn't cause any complications (safety issue, or when it's impossible to remove a bolt), it's ok
There is no good reasoning why we in the rustbelt have this much salt use other than people all just assume this is the only way to go about handling it. I have been to both AK and CO during various winter conditions and observed that they use zero salt and everyone continues to drive, using care as well as correct equipment. Both are often missing around me in the PA area where often people are routinely seen trying to drive RWD cars through 12" of snow with summer tires. Looking at the below link it seems pretty clear to me that there is a certain area of the country that believes they cannot live with staying a home a few days or just slowing down during winter months.... Hard to believe when you look at the voting colors....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Belt
This is the only rust on my 1985 Chrysler Laser, and it makes me a little anxious. This is how fender rot gets started. Not sure how to go about fixing it for prevention, other than sanding it, and using the cans of primer, base and clear I ordered for the car. Don't want to just cover it up with touch-up paint, as that does nothing but make it prettier.
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No idea why you’d throw in “voting colors” but I think you’re missing one important fact when talking about salt, the use of it, why they use it, etc.
Temperature changes. Extreme temperature changes throughout the course of the day and overnight. It’s not unusual in New England to see 30 degree temperature changes in a single day...and it really ruins things. You get the melt, then the freeze. Then the ice. You’ll get some rain at 6:00-10:00...then it turns over to sleet, then freezes. Then snows on top of it. Without the salt no one is going anywhere. It’ll be all ice underneath and you won’t make it out of your driveway. Or you’ll be stuck right in the middle of it while it’s happening and end up dead when you go off the highway into a tree. It’s the temperature variations that other states don’t get as much of. From freezing to not freezing...the melt/thaw...the re-freeze.
Canada might stay frozen the whole time. Colorodao in parts too. But not those states you mentioned. It’s maddening and it’s awful. Been dealing with this garbage my whole life.
Strut tower rust from my 1995 Ford Escort:
Colorado is the king of temperature swings. I’ve had days at the cabin where it’s 8° in the morning and 60+° later in the afternoon then back to single digits over night plus at 7000’ the sun does a good job melting down snow so it can re-freeze in the dark yet we had no issues with widespread icing. Personally having lived in the northeast and CO I’d wager the southwest had more temp swings. I read about Buffalo using salt brine on the roads yikes, no thanks. Voting comments really have no place on this thread IMO.
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Doesn't bother me a much as it used to. I'm just trying to keep it a bay as long as possible, think I've added quite a few years to Escape and Focus. The Dodge I'm trying to stop it before it starts. Whether or not it's worth it in the long run don't know but cheaper than a new vehicle. My family growing up replaced vehicles in 3-5 years except the trucks, so didn't grow up around rusty vehicles. The trucks always rusted out but no one cared since they were for work and getting up beat up in general.
I'm okay as long as it runs and drives safely.
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Well then I’m stumped, can’t understand why we are using this much salt up here. I hate it, if we don’t need it then why use it? Aside from the obvious different way people vote in states. Lol
Nothing worse than driving on a fresh dump and just hearing it blasting your car the whole time. Or the rest of the time when the roads are white and it's like driving on powder, and your car is white and grey all winter no matter how much you wash it. The salt amount is definitely excessive.
While I hate rust, it's the way of life around here. I prefer to not have any at all, but a little scaling on the frame or subframe is acceptable. I try and be as diligent as possible keeping them washed off after a snow storm and Fluid Film what I can. My Tacoma has some scaling here and there on the frame, but is mostly solid. I try and run it through the touchless with the undercarriage spray after every salt event. If it's real bad I'll throw on a pair of overalls, crouch down on the concrete, and spray down the underside in the self serve bay before going through the touchless. It will still rust, but I can do my best to curb it.
It is that way in many places. Where I was for a long while it was near the ocean with additional salt in the air in addition to salted roads. It is a bit like fighting a losing battle, it can be slowed but never stopped completely in these kind of places. Shorter vehicle life is part of the cost of living and doing business in those sorts of places.
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