[catzodellamarina]

Credit the catchy title to Dave Mustaine of Megadeth.

Rust on our precious old classics can drive us nuts. My car has lived a semi-retired life since the mid 90's. Only driven seasonally, on weekends with nice weather. Looking underneath is proof of the last 30 years of a papered life. Still, there are still areas of rust that I could lose sleep over.. but I don't.
I put it all in perspective when I crawl under my 04' Honda Pilot. If my Chevelle looked like the Pilot's undercarriage, I would cry. If rust is an indicator that your car is going to fall apart, I cannot see how my Pilot is even safe to drive. The entire trailer hitch area, bumper, body sections are rotting to nothing. On the outside (body) there is little signs of impending doom. Underneath is a nightmare.
So I chose to accept some rust and spend the time my Chevelle and I do have together having good times rather than shop time.

 

[JohnC]

If you have some rust that you can live with but want to feel like you are doing something to stop it, maybe power wash and POR-15 or cavity wax depending on the area.

 

[catzodellamarina]

I have not used POR-15 yet. I used Corroseal on my Pilot last summer. It was holding up until the salt of winter ruined my good work.

 

[Blackhawk]

If you can access the rust, a better temporary method would be to sand to clean metal and brush epoxy primer onto the areas. POR-15 is tough to remove if/when you decide to fix the areas.

 

[Diabel1969]

I have not used POR-15 yet. I used Corroseal on my Pilot last summer. It was holding up until the salt of winter ruined my good work.

Did you paint over the Corroseal? if you don't, as soon as it gets wet, it turns blue and doesn't last very long.

 

[Old greybeard]

Interesting the pilot is rusty, our 2006 and 2014 Ford Focus’s are real clean, after 180 and 70k, in a rust state. Very pleased. Our Ford Rangers rusted apart unless treated with FF.
I buy FF spray cans, hit every bit of rust on my Cutlass every time Im underneath.

 

[catzodellamarina]

The Pilot has one small visible rust in an area behind the rear wheel where steel meets plastic. I have noticed this is a common rust area. Underneath is what shocks me. I previously had a Subaru Baja that looked good on the outside because half the body was plastic panels. It was roached under all the plastic panels and passenger door rockers. I took it to a body shop and they would not touch it. They told me to sell it before it falls apart on me.

What is FF?

 

[BlueSS454]

Haven't you ever seen Roadkill? lol.
I had a 94 9C1 Caprice I used as a beater car. 335,000 miles on it. That car had absolutely no business being on the road. The floor under the pedals was gone, the radiator support was totally rotted out, both inner fenders rotted out. Both trunk floor braces that hold the gas tank were rotted out (one broke the tank strap so I used a ratchet strap to hold the tank up for about 2 years). You would never know how rotted the car was by looking at the exterior body. It was mint and in original paint. Underside of the car was trashed. Even the frame was rotted out. Only reason I retired it was because the transmission blew for the second time and I wasn't putting another $1500 into it to fix it.

 

[catzodellamarina]

Did you paint over the Corroseal? if you don't, as soon as it gets wet, it turns blue and doesn't last very long.

No I did not paint it. I left it Corroseal black. I will need to try again this summer and paint it too.

 

[Diabel1969]

No I did not paint it. I left it Corroseal black. I will need to try again this summer and paint it too.

I used it on my truck frame last year. I scraped off the loose stuff, then saturated it with the corroseal. It dried, and looked really nice, but then I had to drive it in the rain and it turned back to liquid once it got wet, but then dried again. I then had the chance to paint it and most of it still looks really good, but there are spots that had power steering fluid on it in the front area that just flaked off, and a couple area's that when it got wet, just didn't last. From what i've read, corroseal is water based, so water reduces it even after it's dried, so it needs paint over it

 

[catzodellamarina]

Haven't you ever seen Roadkill? lol.
I had a 94 9C1 Caprice I used as a beater car. 335,000 miles on it. That car had absolutely no business being on the road. The floor under the pedals was gone, the radiator support was totally rotted out, both inner fenders rotted out. Both trunk floor braces that hold the gas tank were rotted out (one broke the tank strap so I used a ratchet strap to hold the tank up for about 2 years). You would never know how rotted the car was by looking at the exterior body. It was mint and in original paint. Underside of the car was trashed. Even the frame was rotted out. Only reason I retired it was because the transmission blew for the second time and I wasn't putting another $1500 into it to fix it.

I have not seen Roadkill. Is it a reality show? A guy I worked with had a little Datsun truck for years. It was OK on the outside but the bed and frame was all cancer. It got to the point he could not put anything in the bed or it would fall through. It finally died the day it tried to fold in half on the way to work.

 

[catzodellamarina]

..From what i've read, corroseal is water based, so water reduces it even after it's dried, so it needs paint over it

I had no idea it was like tempera paint!