Rust Proofing

[2fatty]

Just curious if anyone has done any no-dealer rust proofing to your vibe? What did you do? Why did you choose it? that kind of info.

[baltimore17]

I sure hope the Vibe is built out of two sided galvanized steel and will never, ever, need rust proofing. Can anybody confirm this? I think that the galvanized stuff is pretty common for GM cars, but we all got ourselves a batch of Toyotas here.

[PBFlash]

I had my car undercoated with Ziebart. Only got it done because it was free.

[slbpsi63]

I just had a rust spot treated under my left tail light. Not too happy with the paint job. I have 4 nicks on my hood now. They soon will rust.

[SCTM]

quote:I sure hope the Vibe is built out of two sided galvanized steel and will never, ever, need rust proofing. I'll put undercoating, even if there is the two sided galvanized steel... There is lot of stuff around unprotected; bolts, suspension system, linkage, and so on... There's also to much salt spreaded on our winter roads up here. Unless you keep your car less than 4-5 years I suggest you to put undercoating. No matter if it's Toyota built or GM built, I'll do it. The more protection you have, the more money you save later (in bodyshop repairs).

[baltimore17]

Experiences: My 1975 Chevy was given the full Ziebart treatment the day after I bought it. At five years, it was rusting. At 13 years, I had the body redone, including replacing a passenger door that was too rusted to save.My 1993 Saturn used galvanized steel for the spaceframe. While crawling around the undercarriage just before I sold it at 10 years, there was no rust anywhere on the body. The mechanical bits of the suspension and exhaust system showed no substantial deterioration, just a little surface rust in places.Undercoating will stiffen up with time. At that point, the developing cracks will allow moisture in behind the coating which will then hold the moisture (and salt) against the underlying metal, safe from evaporation or rinses at the car wash. At that point, the "protection" is doing the opposite.So, based on my experience with Ziebart on a conventional steel unibody, and with a bare nekkid galvanized steel spaceframe, I'd recommend leaving the undercoating back in the 20th century.PS: Yes we get snow in Maryland. And they use lots and lots of salt on the roads. And rather than a constantly frozen winter, we get lots of freeze/thaw cycles that are absolutely wonderful for promoting car rot.

[PBFlash]

Why did you redo your truck. Shouldn't it have been covered by Ziebart's warranty? I only got the Ziebart undercoating because it was free. My company had a prep facility in Baltimore that does Ziebart. I was down there for the crabfest and they sprayed it for me.

[Vibe Rater]

Baltimore is correct. Ziebart type rustproofing simply traps moisture and speeds corrosion. The ONLY rust treatment anyone should use on any vehicle is 'KROWN' or 'RUST CHECK'. Not even oil. Oil traps moisture as well. Krown and Rust Check are not oils, but are a chemical that prevent rust from starting and stop rust that has started, therefore it is suitable for new or used cars. Apply it once a year. About a hundred bucks.

[baltimore17]

quote:Why did you redo your truck. Shouldn't it have been covered by Ziebart's warranty? The warranty in 1975 was only for five years. Is it lifetime now? At five years, I took the car (never have gotten around to owning a truck) to take care of the rust. They sprayed a little more Ziebart around the rust and said it was fixed. The body rework at 13 years was precipitated by the car getting creased by a garbage truck (should have taken that as a sign from above, but I'm pretty dense). Since the trash folks paid for their damage, I kicked in the extra bucks to have everything cosmetic redone. The body shop honestly said that within three years it'd be rotting again. It did. My next car sat in the garage in bad weather and never saw salt in ten years. No rust. Then came the galvanized Saturn and I really mean it when I say that the metal underside showed absolutly no rust where galvanized.Have we confirmed that the Vibe is made from two sided galvanized sheet metal? Somebody with a body shop manual? If this were a Malibu, the marketing brochures would be all about the practical benefits of no-rust construction. Guess we're all suckers for the sizzle.

[coratz]

just look at older corollas, i have never seen a rusted out corolla. spray the undercarrrage every couple of weeks

[Pugs]

just wondering if the rustproofing (undercoating) made much difference in reducing road noise??...or if adding insulation matting in selected areas would work better and not give the problems associated with undercoating??

[rubberman]

Up here in in the great white north you need some sort of rust protection.Rust Check or Krown are the better products. Ziebart is crap and very hit and miss.I prefer Rust Check because i used to work with the product and what i seen in 6yrs it works but you have to have it done every year Krown is about the same.

[PopeyeFAFL]

This coming Saturday, I going to have my 2005 Vibe receives a rust proofing treatment (Rust Proofing Metropolitain – Antirouille Métropolitain).Ok, ok, I heard it all about “rust proofing or not”, “this treatment instead of this treatment”, etc. etc., this is not my point.I’m not sure, if a Vibe is good (rust wise), after all it has been around only so many years, but I not about to take a chance.The reason, I’m doing it, is from past experience with my last car, my last car was an Honda Accord 1991, purchased new, I kept it 13 years +, put over 336,500 km on it (210,000 miles, for the only country still talking in miles, the USA, I means, sorry guy’s, couldn’t resist poking fun at you).When I bought that Honda, I had a “one time” wax rust proofing done at my Honda dealership, for the first 7 or 8 years, no real rust problems, but the last 5 years, it grew like a cancer (mainly the driver door bottom portion, to be honest this car was hit & repaired in that area, the hood front and all four wheel housing).This is why, I’m happy to see that the Vibe have body cladding around the wheel (this might eliminate/reduced that problem). This is also why, I purchased a hood guard.Now that Antirouille Métropolitain has to be done every year (to maintain the warrantee, which is no hole, no perforation from inside out, as long as you keep the car, could be 10 years, could be 20), it is transferable from owner to owner. Cost around $70 CDN a year.My former Honda mechanics (at the end, the last three years, I was no longer going to the Honda dealership) basically swear by that rust proofing (he has no tie, no pay back, nothing, referring customers). He told me that on the hundred and hundred of cars he see every years, he can easily spot the one that have been at that rust proofing place (when the car is 12 or 15 years old, in incredible good shape, he told me that more likely then none, it has a sticker of that rust proofing inside the door, with the years checked on it).I don’t know, if this will be good, but I’m willing to give it a try, we will see.P.S.: I don’t necessarily want to keep my Vibe as long as I kept my Honda (in the next ten years, with the gas price situation, the different concept of car that will be available, it could just be fun, or wise, to change), but on the other hand, if the Vibe still work good (I’m the type of guy that just go to the dealer, and says: “do whatever need to be done”, just follows the manufacturer maintenance schedule, and bill me, this is probably why I did 336,500 km without any problems (real problems) on my Honda), and I’m not bored with it, then I might keep it until it die.

[nismo]

I got my whole car rust proofed the first week I had my car. I dunno what kind of chemical they used, but it's like a yellowish/gold color. They rust proofed my whole entire car for $170. Did a pretty good job too.Inder

[glassman]

cars usualy rust because factorys forget to pull drain plugs and other areas of bad design that water cant get out ofi have been finding body leaks in cars for 10 years for dodge honda and gmwash your car with a hose lots of water bring it in a garage and let it drip off open the door and check the drain holes in the bottom make sure they are clear once a year rinse the inside of your doors run the hose in them and rinse all the dirt till the holes all run clear same as your trunk watch the inner fender wells look at plastic some times they dont completely drain if not cut or drill so they will look for the last spot your card drips as it dries that wil be the problem area

[B18B]

Keep in mind also 2fatty that there are a few types of rust proofing available. Essentially, you can have a solid state rust inhibitor (kinda like an undercoating) which requires one massive application when new and annual touch ups, or a liquid state rust inhibitor which generally requires drilling and annual application.My experience with both has lead me to believe that the liquid state rust inhibitor is more effective (http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=12639). Also, I think its a bit misleading to compare the sheetmetal on a MY1975 with a MY1991 car in that the difference in metallurgy in those two periods is drastic, not to mention the chemicals they use on the road as well.In general, I'd say that if you have any intention of keeping the car for an extended period of time, it is certainly worth the money to have the car rust proofed. If its leased and you don't intend to buy the car out, thats another story.....My $0.02

[ColonelPanic]

The dealer had the Vibe undercoated before it hit the lot, like they do everything else, with the thick black rubbery type sprayed on... Sounds like option #1 you mentioned. I didn't know that I should get regular touch-up's... Makes sense though. Now, do I need to take it somewhere and have this done, or just buy the stuff that's in the cans and spray it wherever necessary? I've got a few areas of concern that I'm watching closely. But they're not in places anywhere near the undercarriage, these places are all high up. So undercoating ain't helping me there!

[B18B]

The undercoating we have on our 98 Nissan here isn't of the rubbery sort; its more of a tough grainy material, which I suppose is more susceptible to chips than the rubber coating you have on your Vibe. Anyhow, when it was purchased for the car, the warranty included free annual touch ups. In fact, failure to show up for the touch up would void the undercoating's warranty!Whether or not you want to have it touched up professionally is really up to you Colonel as it seems we have different types of undercoatings (damn the industry!!). But in all truth, I can't imagine that it would be terrible difficult to do yourself; lifting the car not withstanding.In terms of overall rust protection, I would still have to give the nod to liquid state rust inhibitors. The undercoatings generally only protect, well, the underside of the car, and don't do much to help other areas of the vehicle.Wherebouts are you seeing your rust?

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by B18B »The undercoating we have on our 98 Nissan here isn't of the rubbery sort; its more of a tough grainy material, which I suppose is more susceptible to chips than the rubber coating you have on your Vibe. Anyhow, when it was purchased for the car, the warranty included free annual touch ups. In fact, failure to show up for the touch up would void the undercoating's warranty!Ok, that makes sense. I was hoping that they would have told me if I needed to get mine touched up. lolQuote »Wherebouts are you seeing your rust?I found a pretty small spot when I pulled up the weatherstripping around the hatch glass. That's been touched up, and I occasionally check to make sure nothing else is beginning to rust back there. The main place I'm concerned about is on the hatch around the license plate bolt holes. I kept noticing rust on my frame and plate, and was assuming that it was just the bolts. Took off the plate, and discovered the hatch is rusting out around the bolt holes. On the left side, the paint is actually beginning to bubble up a bit underneath the bolt hole. I put a generous coat of touch-up paint around and into both holes, and have replaced the bolts, but I'd say it is probably too late... May not have a place to hang my plate in a few years.

[MrRich]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »I found a pretty small spot when I pulled up the weatherstripping around the hatch glass.I had two of those

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[ColonelPanic]

Ouch! Yeah, I'd say yours was worse than mine! Our cars sure like to hang on to every little bit of water that hits 'em.