Lets hear your home rust proofing from the rust belt guys

[LowBuckX]

My old boss had/has a 75 f250 that he drove in the snow/salt but the truck looked brand new.
His way or rust proofing was to mix 1 qt of tranny fluid to 1 gallon of WD-40 and with a garden sprayer coat the underside before winter and again mid winter... Ive been doing this to an engine block I have sitting in my shed. I had it degreased and shot clean then I ground the valley smooth but stopped building when My 406 came along.. No rust on this block anywhere with the wd-40 and tranny fluid...... With winter coming anyone esle have home brewed solutions..

In contrast my dad has had his trucks ziebarted (and who ever else sells that tar looking rust proof) and his has rusted through the tar stufff

[LowBuckX]

oops please move to outhouse

[Kenova]

That tar-like stuff does more to trap moisture than anything else.
I've heard of guys up around here using a variety of oils, some of them thinned with solvent. I've even heard of someone using chainsaw chain oil. Apparently the stuff is quite sticky.

Ken

[67 ls1 vert]

diesel fuel removes tar. No harm to paint.

[DarkoNova]

This is actually an interesting topic as I plan to move to North Dakota in a few months and I'm afraid of my Nova rusting away. My friend says they don't use salt out there so I don't have to worry about it, but still...I might try that ATF+WD40 mix when I get out there.

[ponchopwr70]

I try to touch up the paint on the frame with rust-o-leum then wd-40 the whole undercarrige. WD is a great product, use it on my dirtbike after I wash it too. Also I'll use silicone spray.

[bigshotsho93]

Every Ziebart car i have worked on that is more than a few years old is rusted out. The tar-like stuff plugs up the drain holes everywhere and the salty water from melting snow gets trapped in all the bad places. The only way to stop the rust around here is to not drive your car here in the winter.

[Jim85IROC]

Around here (Northern New England), we preserve our cars by storing them for the winter. There are a million tricks to help slow the process, but the only way to own a car permanently around here is to keep it OUT of the salt. Winter driven vehicles are a disposable commodity here.

I grew up in my father's body shop, and if there's one thing I learned, is that salt will ruin steel no matter what you do to it. The best you can do is hope to slow it down.

[Boatmark]

Back in the day my grandfather long distance commuted in the northern Ohio snow. His rather odd practice was to spray the underside with some sort of thinned oil at the beginning of winter, then after he washed the car each week (heated garage with a floor drain) he mixed about a cup of Kerosene in a bucket of water and floated it over the entire car. Swore this prevented all rust.

I don't remember his cars ever having rust, but then again he ran up the miles and traded every other year.
Kerosene gave them a sort of odd sheen (he never waxed them)

[19,69camaro]

I know a guy who waste oil sprays his cars and trucks (hes and oil man) and he swears by it

[77thor]

...we preserve our cars by storing them for the winter...the only way to own a car permanently around here is to keep it OUT of the salt. Winter driven vehicles are a disposable commodity...

+1

Just store it.

Moisture tends to build up in un-heated garages, so if I store my car in one, I will spray the underbody with WD-40.
It helps to keep the surface rust from forming.

[MrQuick]

Its not a home brew but this stuffs good and lasts a long time, no constant re application makes it low-buck. No silicon to kill o2 sensors.
as seen on Dream Car Garage.
http://www.krown.com/#products/aerosol/ Krown T40

If you can find a friendly Canadian to ship you some, otherwise you can get the T30 US version sold here as Carwell CP90.

[Taman]

I have a car jacket. I put my dry bags in the oven for the prescribe time., unzip my car jacket, throw the bags in and under the car, put on the car cover on, zip the the car jacket up. In spring my TA looks just like it did when I put it away.

[Jim Nilsen]

The less water the better is what I have found. It takes moisture and heat to make rust and there is always plenty enough heat to make rust so the moisture has to be controlled.

Rule #1 for me is to not wash the car unless it is warm enough and the humidity is low so the water will evaporate. When you wash your car you get all than water down in the doors and a lot of other drainage areas and the water just sits there, the longer it sits the more it works its way to the steel through the paint and primers. I usually use a spray bottle and towels to wash year round now but it is far more important to keep the water off of and out of your car in the winter. I have found it is not the salt that is so bad but the chemical reation it has with water, the dried salty areas don't seem to rust, it's the moist wet ones that do it the fastest.

WD-40 is a good rust preventative but it isn't great for paint.

The best thing is like everyone who lives in the snow belt is to store your car and if you can always garage it. Having a garage will keep more moisture and water off of your car than anything else. Keep your garage heated above 46 degrees and condensation will not form as easily for the car when in storage for a long winter, otherwise a heated garage can tend to lead to condensation when the car goes from one extreme to the other and this causes rust in places that you would never dream of.

Waterless car wash is the best thing that ever came out to wash a car in the winter !!!