I'm thinking about having the installer that sprayed by bedliner also spray on an undercoating. Anyone have this done by an aftermarket supplier? Any drawbacks/problems. I thought our trucks had a factory undercoating but I got under and actually saw a place where my frame had been scuffed and sme surface rust has appeared. I'll sand that spot down and coat with some paint prior to having it undercoated.

 

I am planning to get it on mine from the dealer for $299. The thing I liked was the 10 year warranty against rust and they are going to throw in free touch ups for the life of the warranty, which is good at any Ford dealership. Just puts my mind a little bit at ease. I have seen some 2004s with surface rust underneath and didn't like the way it looked.

 

A long time ago when I worked at a Porsche dealer, we had this waxy kind of undercoating. It wasn't like a paint or sprayed on bed liner type of stuff. It looked like it did a good job and was easy to remove in areas where you might need to do some work. I haven't had a car that's rusted since the 80's myself (without undercoating). I live in an area where they salt the road in winter too. If you can find one that does the waxy type undercoating (for lack of the proper name), I'd go with that it you really want to. Personally, I would avoid anything that creates a hard shell that's a pain in the a$$ to remove if you need to work on something.

 

make sure its the oil based stuff,

I have seen some of these places get some of it plastic surfaces (such as the grill) and it screws up the plastic.

Buyer beware.

Make sure they have a warranty to cover damage to other body parts that catch overspray or drippings.

 

I had it done by the dealer when I bought the truck. He said it gave the underside a lifetime warranty against rust. There's only a 5 year warranty on the body for rust-through.

I played it safe and had the dealer do it so everything's covered under the dealer warranty.

 

Dusty,

How much did your dealer charge you for it? I guess I'll call mine tomorrow to see how it compares.

 

Lariat - I remember reading a Porsche 911 resto article in Car & Driver that talked about that. I believe it was parafin based, and used on older 911's (like they were restoring).

 

In the UK when I rebuilt my old Peugeot rust bucket (back in '86) I used Finnigans Waxoyl, there were two types, black tar like substance for wheel arches etc and oily liquid to spray on the inside of panals and subframe. Used it on my rebuilt front end of the car, coated a good half inch thick in the high impact areas and never saw any rust even after driving on the salty roads in the UK, of course the rest of the car that I did not coat/treat rusted away and it ended up at the scrap yard. Waxoyl was a favourite with LandRover owners for the chassis, and still is for classic car restorers.

Rich.

This link has breif details on it under rustproofing.

http://www.hammerite-automotive.com/

 

Personally, I don't think I'd spend the money on it. I live in Wisconsin, and we drive on salt for about 5 months of the year. My '97 was never undercoated, and the body is rust free.

I feel if you keep the weld seams on the bottom of the doors and tailgate washed (once a week should do it), and the outside corners of the cab and box fairly clean, you won't have a problem with rust in the body. Stuff like leaf springs and driveshafts are going to rust simply because rocks and debris will knock any paint or protectant off. Personally, I'd rather not have that black junk on the underside of my truck. Makes it a pain to work on.

I think the steels used in these trucks have vastly improved in the last 20 years. I had an '83 that was fully undercoated. Within 8 years the body practically disappeared!

 

blacklariatfx4,

The undercoating was about $250. I was originally just going to get the undercoating, then I changed my mind and got the paint sealer and leather protectant which gave me a 5 year warranty on paint and leather.

 

If you live in an area where they use salt on the roads, I find it really makes a difference if you can avoid the commercial car washes during the winter and do it yurself, even if it doesn't get washed as frequently. Most, but probably not all, car washes recycle their water. So the salt that's washed off of the 20 cars in front of you gets high pressure sprayed into every nook and cranny on your vehicle. Think about it.

 

Just to set the record straight. On average a carwash recycles about 80% of the water used in the wash process. When the water is sprayed onto the car it runs down into a large drain in the floor and then through a heavy duty filtering process in which all solids ,oils, waxes, soaps, etc, are removed from the water. Also the final rinse in a carwash is fresh water applied with spot-free solution to aid in the drying process.
If a carwash was re-spraying salt water all over the place, the machines inside the tunnel would rust away in no time what so ever!

 

So, you're saying that these filters are capable of removing ALL the salt in the water. How come the water that flows out of the mirror cavities and gets blown all over the side of my truck the first time I accelerate or go up an incline turns a solid white as soon as it dries? Sorry, but from my personal experience those filters are definitely not capable of removing all the salt from the water. And the last time I looked, most of the equipment in a car wash was either very rusted or stainless steel. Just one guy's opinion.

 

I really don't drive through any salt right now, just he salt from the sea-spray in the air here in Florida. I'm only thinking about undercoating due to possibly being stationed up north if I stay in and to ensure the truck lasts as long as possible. Thanks for all of the advise/opinions. To tell you the truth, I never take my vehicles to the auto-car washes. But then again, I've always lived down south (san antonio and now FL) so it's never to cold to wash your car/truck.

Thanks again, Jerry