Winter car care?

[STLRegal]

Winters come and salt is on the roads. I know putting it in the garage, or not driving it would be the best, but as this is my only car thats not an option. I might be able to cutback on my driving and use my moms car though. So what can I do to help prevent rust from eating away at my car?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Hose it out regularly to keep the salt from sitting there too long. I would also go underneath the car and paint any exposed areas with Rustoleum after removing any peeling or flaking paint. I do this every 6 months to a year on my beater ( 98 Nissan Frontier with 275k on it) as a precaution and it is fine-but I never drive anywhere that it snows either. It is important that you do not allow leaves or dirt to build up in any cracks or crevices of the car too as they will hold in moisture and salt for an extended period of time. This will accelerate rusting of these areas. I would also put some grease on any exposed bolt threads under the car to keep them safe from corrosion. I routinely paint mine, but that will not be enough up north and they will quickly deteriorate to the point of being impossible to remove.

Unfortunately, other than what I just spelled out there is not much you can do. Driving on salted roads every day is almost like constantly driving your car in the ocean. Salt is going to get up there and it is going to have problems on any exposed metal. Just look at the white film on every car on the road up there-that's salt. When I went to NY last winter for a week, I was struck by this as I drove around. That salt just gets everywhere under and around the car because it is carried by water from the puddles caused by snow melt. Needless to say, I pressure cleaned my truck's undercarriage as soon as I got back to Florida!

 

[GP403]

Something else you can do, but it is a little messy, is to slob some gear oil or plain motor oil around in and on the spots most prone to rust, especially underneath. (Not so much on the paint as it'd probably be bad for it!). Like in and around the rear frame rails and quarters, down the corners of the trunk, up on the frame rails on either side under the door, inside the fenders, etc.. It'll smell like oil (who doesn't like that?! "Uh, that's my air freshener, yeah, thats it!") and drip for a while, but it'll help to keep the water/salt out. Won't do much for surface rust on the outside, but hey.... Just keep it off the exhaust and brakes! 😀

And if you are parking her for the winter in a barn, outside or someplace else prone to small furry mouse-like animals, toss a few mothballs around under the hood, in the trunk, and inside to keep the little f-er's out. Again, stinky but effective.

 

[STLRegal]

Thanks for the tips guys, I figure taking her to the local car wash once a week spraying down the undercarage and inside the wheel wells will work pretty good. There is some minor rust on a couple of the floor pans that I should take care of before it gets bad. What sucks is I dont have a dry, much less warm place to work on it. Our garage is a 2 car but one sides filled with crap and the other has a mustang sitting there.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

One of the thing I did on my car is that when I pulled the body from the frame, I de-rusted and greased the frame rails in the rear. I first chipped or ground all of the rust off ( It was a 10 year old car that had never left the south and I was surprised how much was under those rear mounts!), then painted them with rusty metal primer then some black paint. After paint, I slathered them in wheel bearing grease in the sections rear of the back wheels. I figured the grease would attract dirt and entomb them in a greasy crust that would keep out water. It's what some call "British Rustproofing" because old British cars ( Triumph, MG,- basically anything made by British Leyland) are extremely prone to rust. They also have a big problem with oil leaks, so the only place they didn't rust was where the leaks coated the underside with oil!