Underbody rust a problem?

[w3rkn]

Again, if you wash your car thoroughly/often, then you don't need undercoating.

To ease your fear, if Mustangs don't rust in the road-salt capitol of the world (Michigan), it isn't going to rust in Germany. (Rust is a chemical reaction). We have salt trucks that throw salt up over your windshield that you have to use your wipers to see, that how much they put down. Sometimes piles of it at intersections.


I would recommend undercoating if you rally or dirt road a lot, because the stones & rocks will chip the underside paint and that is where rust will potentially start.

Keeping your underside clean is important.

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[goldengooner]

Thanks for all the imput. So another issue that was brought up was my car has to cross the ocean before I ever even see it. This is probably the biggest thing convincing me to do it.

its not swimming, its in a container on a big ship

 

[STangfan44]

I have a fear of rust as well. So, while it's still new and in great condition, I am going to POR15 the underside of mine to ensure nothing will happen.

 

[DrZed]

I’ve owned Mustangs since the late 80’s - every single one of them went through all seasons here in Jersey, on the east coast. Driven in snow and salted roads, year after year.

My 1994 Cobra has over 140k miles on it, the underside and body looks like my 2018...

I never had any of them undercoated at all - nor did I ever have any body panel rot, ever. Maybe it was because I always maintained them after a snow or weeks of salted roads - such as constantly washing, waxing and/or using self wash car wash station pressure wands to thoroughly rinse the underside, wheel wells, panels etc.

Sure if a car owner is not the typical Enthusiast, he/she just “drives” it and doesn’t care about the detrimental effects of road salt, debris, etc.

What folks need to know is that modern day vehicle manufacturing thoroughly protects the metal. The shell, once assembled, goes through multiple baths where the sheet metal is cleansed, then it is zinc coated, prepped, primered, sealed, etc.

This isn’t the 1950’s where rubberized undercoating is a necessity! The Dealerships push that stuff to make money, that’s it.

The other concern is this:
There a lot of nooks/crannies/crevices conjoined to make a unibody. If the undercoating traps any moisture or debris, over time the trapped moisture or debris will create cancer or rust between the undercoated area. Fact.

Ever get under an unrestored classic car and see the undercoating and how it supposedly “protected” what used to be a floor pan, but is now a huge hole?

When you get the time, watch this 1994 Movie “How a Car is Built” it shows the entire start to finish process of how the SN95 Mustang was Built - it’s very cool, but it’s also VERY informative and shows exactly how a vehicle body shell is assembled from a flat piece of steel roll, even the dipping process.

The same processes in the vid are used on the S550’s, only improved upon over the last 20 years...

[ame]







Short and sweet:
You don’t need undercoating on any vehicle built in 2018....

I thoroughly enjoyed those videos! Thanks for posting and finding them. Any more gems like that?

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