All,
I thought I was good to drive my car thru the winter, but Addicted to Boost pointed out that it should be rust proofed. As I have mentioned in other posts, this car is in showroom condition. We just had our first snow overnight, here in Massachusetts and the words "get it rust proofed" are nagging at the back of my mind. Of course I will read all the threads on this topic.

Where does the rust usually appear on these cars? Is it prone to rusting?
What is the consensus of the forum members?
RR

 

Sills, floors, front shock upper mount area, "under" the windscreen there is cavity where cabin air is taken in. Trunk opening arc front corners. To name a few. Under rear seat there is boxed sections where is no acces at all. You can see that there is a cavity there but no acces. And of course wheel arches.
Mainly spray al lots of wax or oil type cavity oil to the sills. Of course making sure forst that there is no dirt and sand.

 

To expand on Vauxi's comments, I would say that just about any panel is prone to rust including the bottom edge of doors and the trunk.

You don't say whether you plan to do this yourself or have a shop that specializes in rust proofing do it for you but I would recommend the latter. I would also recommend a complete underbody treatment of floor plans etc. but again making sure that there is no dirt and sand and that there is absolutely no prior rust or moisture remaining before application. A good shop won't do it "while you wait" and will insist on keeping it overnight to dry first.

It's also worth noting that this is not a "once and you're done" undertaking - it will need redoing every year with any damaged areas of the undercoating taken back and cleaned before repairing. The car will "weep" for a couple of days and will test your olfactory senses for a couple of weeks so be considerate of where you park.

You don't say whether you're parking inside or outside but most people think parking inside is "better" which is not necessarily the case. When it's cold outside and the car is parked inside after all of the panels have reached the outside ambient temperature, there will be condensation everywhere when exposed to the inside warm air (think the outside of a cold glass on a warm day). It's the humidity and not water per se that can be the real enemy.

Lastly, alhough easier said than done, try to keep her washed and waxed through the winter and pay particular attention to the "inside lip" around all of the wheel arches where road grime and salt and moisture will end up being well-packed in place to do what they do best if not regularly kept clean.

Good luck - my XJR is a daily driver through the winter as was a previous Series 3 V12 VDP for 15 years. Good dedicated snow tires are a must but with that - and not being foolish - I have found them to be as reliable in the winter as the rest of the year.

 

As a "restorer" of old cars, I kinda hate aftermarket rustproofing. Cars usually seem to rust through anyway. Mostly it always appears to be from the inside out do to capillary action of poorly sealed body seams, crevices and cavities that hold leaf litter (you'd be shocked what your car is already holding) and simple condensation on the inside of the panels - Ken above is spot on).

But now I've got that much more work to do to remove the rustproofing first before I can tackle the damage. If the back or inside of a panel has rustproofing, I can't grind or weld around it for fear it'll catch fire (learned that the hard way). And anywhere that can be seen at a car show, like with the hood or doors open, it didn't come coated like that from the factory so the old rustproofing has got to go. Thirty year old rustproofing is very hard to remove. That tar-like stuff in particular is near impossible. Its a manual process of heating it up and scraping and then completely refinishing those surfaces. Its so much work that its only sort of worth it on very high dollar cars so I kind of worry for an X308 whether it's preserving the car or just extending its service life by a few years. If its really in "showroom condition" I'd be inclined to spend the money that a professional rustproofing application would have cost on a "winter beater". At least discuss the impact with your potential applicators. Some modern products may be easier to remove later. And you certainly don't want an overzealous application, too thick in places or I've had to remove it from parts under the hood where it didn't make any sense.

 

It's going to be stored outside under a cover when not in use for long periods. It may be driven 3 or 4K miles a year.

I have 2 other cars and a truck I rotate thru during the year. They are a 1996 mercedes SL500, a 1994 E320 cabriolet, and a 2002 F150 Harley Davidson edition. They are all older then most people are comfortable driving. It works for me as I usually have two cars available at all times to handle the occasional component failure. The downside is I have no garage and have to store 2 cars at a remote location.

I will not be doing the rust proofing myself. I will check the local area to see who and how much it costs. I am interested in protecting it from the salt as I drove the 94 mercedes last winter and notice paint bubbles on the bottom of the door as a result.

RR

 

I got the Krown rust proofing treatment after a search of local rust proofers. The guy who did the rust proofing said the under carriage was in fantastic condition. It was $139. They want you to do it annually.
The car is ready for winter use.

 

139$ That is really really cheap if it covers all. My current winter Volvo had complete uder coating including certain sill areas sandblasted and painted. After that all caviats and floor and everything was coated. It was done by previous owner. 1300euro. With todays exchange ratio it makes 1400 dollars.

 

After reading Pdupler's response, I decided on a film rather than a heavy tar. Ziebart- Heavy tar treatment, wanted $500 to $700 and still expected the car to be brought in for an annual touchup.
Krown treatment drill holes in the doors and rear door columns (8 total) and plugs them. They do under the hood also. It does drip in the driveway for a few days after, so the shop advises keeping it out of the garage til it stops.
I was a little nervous when I saw all these 20 year old kids working there and ask the 40 year old guy(may the owner) how many times the person doing the treatment had done it. He said he would be doing it and had done hundreds.
What really impressed me, they had 2 pint jars of salt water with a pad of steel wool in each on the counter. One treated and one not treated. They had been in the water since August 23rd. No rust at all on the treated piece,looked new. Could not even see the pad on the untreated, just liquid rust.
Going to do my truck this week. It has rust issues. If I can slow it down or stop it,more than worth the hassle of the 2-3 hour wait to get it done.

 

Robin, As far as I know the Ziebart and the Krown treatments are not interchangeable. The heavy Ziebart style is for the undercarriage (floor pans etc.) while the Krown style is for the inside of body and door panels etc. I had both done…