Is it due to lack of rust proofing? Bad metal? What is it that causes Plymouths to rust away?

Also wondering why the Vegas were known for rust issues....?

all sorts of little nooks where dirt and moisture can get trapped and do their work over time.
in old Mopars, the spring perches like to poke thru the trunk and hit the trunk lid. hell, i saw one nice early 70's Dart that had a perfect body, but the roof was rusting out on both sides where the quarters were welded to the body.
and on Vegas and other H bodies, they like to rot out where the rear suspension bolts to the body.

Thank you Derrick for the input. I don't suppose this is the same reason why all older cars such as our beloved Chevelles like to rust out?

I had a 74 chevy pickup and you could almost watch the rust grow, They supposedly added some sort of galvanized material to the steel to prevent rust in the newer years, then took them a couple more years to figure out how to make the paint stick to it!

Plymouths don't necessarily rust any worse than any other car around here.
Can't find a 73-87 Chevy pickup without rust and a rust free Chevelle body is non existant also.

Salt on the roads is the main cause.

I got to say, more GM cars survived here than other models. The Mopars were the first to go - they rusted away -quick! The mid -seventies stuff was all a bunch of rust buckets, any make, model, didn't matter, dom or import. You never really know what it means to live untill you driven in a Datsun B-210 with a 2x4 for a rear frame rail, or have your knees pushed into your jaw from a muffler pushing through the floor when you hit a frost heave in your Chevelle(just ask my friend).

I believe it has to do with garage status too. Expensive Cadillacs get garages and cheap cars get the driveway.

I believe it has to do with garage status too. Expensive Cadillacs get garages and cheap cars get the driveway.

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!

After restoring and rust repairing many cars for the last thirty five years, I've noticed that some cars, and this includes all makes and models, did not have a coating of primer on the back-side of body panels. The first line of defense never existed. And those leaf spring mounts were just traps for oxidizing materials on snowy roads. The outside of the cars may have been washed, but not the underside in cold weather.

Not many garages were used back in the day. It was expensive enough to live in a 1500 ft3 home and if you did have a garage, it was a single stall.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, king of the rust belt. It was a dealer option to have cars rust-proofed or under-coated. The more money people spent on their car, they tended to spend more on dealer options as well as having a garage. Frequent washing also helped.

Mopars and fords were the cheapest cars and probably got the least attention.

I had a 74 chevy pickup and you could almost watch the rust grow, They supposedly added some sort of galvanized material to the steel to prevent rust in the newer years, then took them a couple more years to figure out how to make the paint stick to it!

So is this why GM (and a few other auto manufacturers) had issues with the paint peeling from the primer in the early 80's?

So is this why GM (and a few other auto manufacturers) had issues with the paint peeling from the primer in the early 80's?
Not only the early 80's, my 90 GMC pickup had to be repainted under warranty and our 94 GMC pickup is peeling off pretty bad.

I've been told it's because of the government mandates that says paint can't contain xxxx

Not only the early 80's, my 90 GMC pickup had to be repainted under warranty and our 94 GMC pickup is peeling off pretty bad.

I've been told it's because of the government mandates that says paint can't contain xxxx

Dean at first I heard it was because they did away with lacquer and went to some enamel type paint that they didn't have the bugs worked out on just yet, but my dad was doing bodywork back in those days and said it had something to do with the metal being used.

My dad has my old 93 S-10 which has the paint peeling away from the primer.

Can I offer a suggestion??

Chrysler products rusted thru greatly due to unprotected unibody construction----all unibody since 1957----all kinds of places for rust to get started.

73+GM trucks did NOT need help from the snowbelt. My 79 has lived all it's life except for the first year in the sunbelt---cab corners are gone!
Was NEVER driven in icy or snowy weather.

Paint did not stick to a "new" primer---ever notice that the primer stayed on the truck and the paint came off in sheets?

Dean at first I heard it was because they did away with lacquer and went to some enamel type paint that they didn't have the bugs worked out on just yet, but my dad was doing bodywork back in those days and said it had something to do with the metal being used.

My dad has my old 93 S-10 which has the paint peeling away from the primer.

I heard it had something to do with static charges while they were being painted or some weird crap like that. I had an 88 Beretta with the paint peel synrdome.

We just bought a 95 K-1500 Cheyenne and it has some rust under the doors but the rockers/rear cab area especially since it an extended cab is very solid compared to every other truck we looked at.

I thought I lived in the rust capital of the world. IL. Hot and humid then cold as hell. Nothing like salt and humidity to do a car in. Plays hell on ceramic coated headers too.

Seriously though I swear that GM would have figured out how not to have big holes of rust in 10 years or less. But it cars were built too good then they would not break and be tossed away.

Michigan and Wisconsin seem to be two of the worst states for rust!:)
Oh! And the City of Chicago!:D

come to MN sometime.. any vehicle over about 5 years old has some rust, anything over 10 years old needs major work. sometimes, you can't see it, tho, since it's hidden up underneath where the automatic car wash doesn't reach.
people are just too damn lazy to get out of their cars or trucks and wash with the high pressure wand and really get up underneath. i usually go thru the automatic wash- but a few times a year i'll do it in the bay with the high pressure wand and getup behind the rockers and bumpers, and spray each door jam one at a time.

Sorry Derrick, didn't mean to leave Minnesota out.:o

Tommorrow, we'll find out for sure how prone to rust a Plymouth is :D

I live near Kingston Ontario Canada and at the shop I worked at in the seventies, one of our customers traded a Dodge Dart in on a new Volare station wagon. The car was white with woodgrain and had a lot of options. The front fender on the passenger side developed a large two inch rust hole beside the radio antenna, the car was five months old and had not seen it's first winter yet! Chrysler replaced both front fenders using the paint warranty and undercoated the car at no charge. A few months later we heard about a voluntary recall on the front fenders. The car was a '76 model and the owner kept it for about five years and had no problems with rust in that time. The undercoating must have helped.

Paul

They had big recalls in those years for the rust problem. I remember seeing brand new cars on the dodge dealers lot with rust holes starting in the front fenders!:sad:

Well if it's a brand new car on the lot.....is it more the less the lack of rust proofing in those days?

I lived in Michigan in the early 1970's and could remember the rolls of sheet steel going into the plants to stamp body parts was very rusty, this was the Ford River Rouge plant, but Chrysler wasn't any better. GM's are a little better about rust from this era of cars, it has to do with the black electro plating primer that GM used. My step father was looking at Mustang Mach 1 in 1973, they were rusting on the lots. My Grandfather was a Plymouth guy, they were garaged but still rusted out in about 3 years, where as my Grand Aunt had a 1967 Malibu that sat in the garage next to Grandpa's Plymouth the Chevelle was solid as a rock after 6 years...go figure.

I lived in Michigan in the early 1970's and could remember the rolls of sheet steel going into the plants to stamp body parts was very rusty, this was the Ford River Rouge plant, but Chrysler wasn't any better. GM's are a little better about rust from this era of cars, it has to do with the black electro plating primer that GM used. My step father was looking at Mustang Mach 1 in 1973, they were rusting on the lots. My Grandfather was a Plymouth guy, they were garaged but still rusted out in about 3 years, where as my Grand Aunt had a 1967 Malibu that sat in the garage next to Grandpa's Plymouth the Chevelle was solid as a rock after 6 years...go figure.

Very interesting. Syracuse is the 'Salt City' - we have a museum for salt and its production. Nothing last to long here.