Really bad rust stories - let's hear 'em!

[01rangerxl]

Yeah, it made me sad too. I loved that Explorer...hated all the rust. It had a faded, peeling sticker that indicated that it had been rustproofed at some point, but I'm betting that was never repeated. The previous owner took fairly good care of it mechanically, but he clearly didn't care about the condition of the body.

The rockers on it were a bad design though...they were boxed in, so dirt could not be washed out easily. The holes for the cladding let some stuff in, and the cladding itself kept dirt pressed up against the body. I wished they had used a rocker design similar to that on the Ranger...open and easy to clean with no cladding.

 

[OVERKILL]

Some rust stories:

1. My Grandmother had a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado. Dark brown with the ghosts of one thousand cows, haunting the interior. Driven in many a Canadian winter, the car soon became one of rust's victims.

The floor, behind the front seats developed a very large (12x12) hole that one could lose a foot through if they were not careful. the car was very much rotting from the bottom-up (this was during the mid to late 80's) and was eventually replaced by a not-quite-so-derelict '75 Continental with a 460.

She had it through the 90's, but it eventually got punky as well, and used to "fumigate" the interior with the exhaust. In retrospect, none of these vehicles were really that safe

A more recent story would be a good friend of mine. He was driving a mid 90's Buick LeSabre. He went to turn a corner, and the K-frame broke free at the rear-most mount points, disconnecting the steering shaft and rendering the car undriveable.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Yeah, it made me sad too. I loved that Explorer...hated all the rust. It had a faded, peeling sticker that indicated that it had been rustproofed at some point, but I'm betting that was never repeated. The previous owner took fairly good care of it mechanically, but he clearly didn't care about the condition of the body.

The rockers on it were a bad design though...they were boxed in, so dirt could not be washed out easily. The holes for the cladding let some stuff in, and the cladding itself kept dirt pressed up against the body. I wished they had used a rocker design similar to that on the Ranger...open and easy to clean with no cladding.



My sister has my old '97 sprayed now, and it seems to be doing well. You can see the evidence of the years it was not sprayed underneath it though. Not bad, but not fantastic either. My Townie looks new underneath for the most part.

 

[wander2039]

Is there any underspray places in US? I haven't seen any places advertise. They do offer it through dealers but from I've seen that hurts more than it helps. The only rusted out vehicle I've seen was a 77 GMC 1/2 ton. Given enough time nothing would of been left. I think 77 was the only year that rusted that bad.. I'll need to do something to my Ranger eventually. Being two years old I had a hard time believing how rusty the frame and drivetrain is getting.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
.. and used to "fumigate" the interior with the exhaust.


The 65 Tempest I drove through college had a rotted trunk, and it got so that people would comment on how I smelled of exhaust when I arrived somewhere. No telling what the health effects of that were.

My next car was a 74 Vega, bought from the chemical-plant part of Houston, which also happens to be right on the coast. Looked great for a few years. Unfortunatley the windshield frame was rotting out. Eventually rain would pour in behind the rear view mirror.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
Is there any underspray places in US? I haven't seen any places advertise. They do offer it through dealers but from I've seen that hurts more than it helps. The only rusted out vehicle I've seen was a 77 GMC 1/2 ton. Given enough time nothing would of been left. I think 77 was the only year that rusted that bad.. I'll need to do something to my Ranger eventually. Being two years old I had a hard time believing how rusty the frame and drivetrain is getting.

Don't worry about the steel driveshaft. It's going to get a layer of rust anyway.

The frames are coated in hot wax at the factory...no paint. It's pretty good at stopping rust, but if the truck is driven in dusty/dirty places, the frame will get a tan or brown appearance from dirt sticking to the wax. My 2002's frame still looks like new for the most part, but it is mostly a pavement pounder, though I did get a good bit of mud on everything yesterday. My 2001 Ranger was rust free, but the wax on the frame had turned to a tan/brown color from all the [censored] it had been driven through. That truck saw lots of water and mud in the time I owned it.

To test, take a wet, soft sponge and lightly wipe the frame. If it starts to turn black again, you're good.

 

[wander2039]

Wax?? Interesting.. it is brown in color I just assumed it was rust. It has spend time on gravel roads so that would make sense. In a few places it looks like the paint is bubbling though may have to try to clean it by hand.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
Wax?? Interesting.. it is brown in color I just assumed it was rust. It has spend time on gravel roads so that would make sense. In a few places it looks like the paint is bubbling though may have to try to clean it by hand.

Here is a pic of my 2001's frame...no rust at all (except for the driveshaft), just dirt.

This kind of stuff is what made it look that way...

 

[Brett Miller]

My Dad has a 1979 Jeep J10 that is used for snow plowing. Not much left of the bed...

 

[StevieC]

My dad used to have an old Willies Jeep that he had a plow on for his service stations and it rusted out after 30 years old. It was an incredible Jeep...

 

[addyguy]

Another one I remember is my Godfather (Dad's best friend) had a 1976 Gremlin he bought new in late 1975. He took fairly good care of it, and that included when the car got to be about 5 years old, and my family moved to their own house, bringing it over every fall, and he and my dad would touch up all the rust on their cars (Dad had a 1978 Chev Malibu wagon..)

Every year, they would carefully sand, primer, and paint all the surface rust spots they found. Last few years he had the car, they couldn't do it, b/c we moved again, and our family got bigger. When my Godfather gave the car to my dad before he left the country in 1987, he gave the car to us.

The 'top' of the car was in decent shape from all the touching up, BUT the whole bottom of the car - the fenders behind the tires, and the sill under the chrome trim, were all rotted through. There weren't really any large 'holes' in the body, but the metal was all 'spongy' and had no strength to it. I think the floors were still solid, but I don't really remember....

 

[Mr_Incredible]

I was driving my 1966 Buick Skylark back to the city from a visit home. I was 40 miles or so into a full tank of gas. This was in 1977, when gas was gold.

The straps holding up the gas tank rusted through and the gas tank was sliding along underneath the car at highway speeds, held to the car only by the rubber fuel line.

It sounded like the muffler was dragging along. Really exciting when i looked further back and found the gas tank on the ground. The tow truck driver had to pour out the gas to get the tank into the back of the truck.

 

[XS650]

I was in Minneapolis one winter day in the early 1990s. The newspaper had a picture of a Dodge Dart that had been in a minor freeway accident. The front of the car was broken completely off at the firewall, Neither section looked badly damaged, the car just separated into two sections when it ran off the icy highway into the median strip.

 

[eljefino]

Bought this 94 sonoma back in july to beat around in...

Took the bed off to fix the gas tank (rusted out) and had to also weld up the tops of the frame rails, and a shock mount.

Pic Pic Done, kind of


This was what flaked off on my floor.

The clutch slave cylinder went out, and coupled with the continuing neverending rust, I stuck it on craigslist and it sold in 48 hours, for what I paid.

Other vehicles: 1982 cadillac cimarron, I got it in 99 from my Dad/sister's car, rockers were rotten behind this chrome strip, (future) father-in-law showed me the miracle of aluma-coil trim flashing, pop rivets and bondo.

I kept this skill for most of my metal-bodied vehicles, in fact, I cannot think of any that didn't need some hole filled somewhere. Has never been the actual floorpan for me; I think they are making these stronger-- but the ancillaries like fenders, fender liners, rocker panels are made of disposibly cheap gauge metal now.

I've even seen supposedly infallible saturn s-series get rust on the rear door sills, a weatherstripping, water-trapping issue. Still good salt-belt cars, my 13 year old brake lines look new; other vehicles as young as 8 years old have needed new lines.

 

[ekpolk]

Wow, where's lght1 today? He's another guy from Maine, and he almost had me believing that in Maine, only Toyotas, Nissans, and Hondas ever rusted. I thought maybe y'all had a special flavor of road salt that selectively targeted imports...

 

[Drew2000]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
My Explorer after 12-13 years in PA...

The frame and floors were still very solid. The rockers, radiator support, and brake lines were trashed though. Amazingly, it still had the original exhaust on it.


A decent set of splash-guards installed when the car is new can go a long way in keeping the salty-sand from sand-blasting the rocker panels in winter.

I had a '91 Explorer (bought in '90) and it drove through every winter with numerous trips in upstate NY (with splash guards) and the rockers looked OK when I donated it with 225k miles in 2001. Great little truck, zero problems.

Drew

 

[AcuraTech]

My dad had a car in the late 70's (unsure of make or model, mid 60's probably) that had a rather large hole in the passenger side floor. In the wintertime he would drive it out on the lake and start ice fishing while sitting in the passenger seat! Instant ice shack.

My mom had an ugly bright yellow early 70's Pontiac that the gas tank fell out of in 1982. Of course it was right after she filled it. Luckily it was on a rural road when it happened, no one was behind her.

Rust sucks. Just about all of them over 5 years old are somewhat rotten around here.

 

[eljefino]

My uncle had a 77 toyota corona and the radiator was going bad. So he picked up a compatible one, might have been a 76, for $100 with a good radiator. It ran good so he put it on the road for what turned out to be a year! My cousins in the back had holes in the floor that they'd throw corn down through, then watch it bounce off the road and the windscreen of the following vehicle!

 

[andyd]

Heh heh. I have had VW bugs lose their batteries and front seats through the floors, Trans axle mounts rusting through. My grand Wagoneers mostly died from tinworm too.

 

[ffracer]

These pictures are pretty typical of what we see here in upstate NY. Cars have gotten a lot better, but the worst are certain GM cars, but not all, most Chryslers, and Toyota pickups. Ford pickups (I have a Ranger) rust a lot in the rear wheel wells and tailgates, but take about 10 years.

My old Hondas used to rust out behind the rear wheel well. Don't see that with the 2000s Hondas.