Undercoating Questions, Ziebart/Rusty Jones, etc Options

[turtleman]

Those of you who have done complete restorations might be best able to answer some of my questions.

I was wondering if anyone had experience removing a Ziebart undercoating from a car and how much rust was present under that coating? My floorpan appears very solid and rust free, however, I am aware that on occasions moisture can form between poorly bonded rustproofing and there can be much rust under the undercoating.

I assume that cars that were rustproofed at the dealer when they were new might have had a better chance of having betterbonding of their undercoating than cars where the undercoating was applied at a later date when dirt and grease might have made the bonding poor.

I am interested in knowing if anyone had a car that had Ziebart rustproofing that turned out to be relatively free of rust when they removed the undercoating?

Also out of curiosity, I wondered about anyone who had a Rusty Jones undercoating how their car looked after removing the undercoating?

I sure would hate to remove all my uindercoating if it is actuially working and still effective, which appears it is.

I appreaciate any discussion on this topic.

Chip

[bondo]

QUOTE (McMark @ Aug 26 2005, 04:07 PM)

I think that a greater rust issue for these cars is the fender sealing foam, not the undercoating. The sealer that was sprayed up in the corners of the fender wells (rear door jamb/sail panel area & rear tail light area especially) is causing most of the problems I'm seeing. Before I would recommend any spend time dealing with undercoating I would make them deal with this foam/sealer.

I agree.. that foam is evil.. I just extracted some from a rear fender. It isn't actually sprayed in on the rear corner of the fender.. it's a cast foam piece (like the "footrest" foam block) that is stuffed into that corner.. then they put seam sealer over it to seal out moisture. As long as that seam sealer is intact you're probably ok, but once that is breached it's all over.

The front corner of the rear fender IS some sort of sprayed in foam, and it's hell to get off. Even with the fender off I had to burn it out, and even then it took hours. (the vent bit that vents the cabin to the door jamb area is right in the middle of it)

I think the biggest problem with the foam/tar/seamsealer used on these cars is they did it BEFORE painting the car. Any breach in that stuff (that doesn't stick to steel as well as paint) and it's rust city. If they had painted first then did all that we'd be much better off.

Of course this foam stuff won't make your car fold, that's from the battery.. make sure you get a sealed battery in there before it's too late.