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Minnesota Rust

usedto

usedto

Lunatic Member
Sheltered life that I've lived for the past 60 someodd years, I've never traveled any further east than Burlington, Colorado, and not too much farther north than I am right now. I've always heard people talk about how the cars from the northern states rust, but thought it might be a little exaggeration.

Yesterday morning I had to run uptown for a bit, and stopped at a stop light. A car rolled up beside me, and I happened to glance over. It was a late 90s, early 2000s Ford Crown Victoria, white in color. I swear, that car had rust in places that I didn't even know the car had places. Every crevice, crack, seam, and joint had either holes or the telltale orange rash. I couldn't believe how rusty it was. When the light turned green, she took off quicker than I did, and I spotted the Minnesota plates.

I guess you guys don't lie! Now I see why people advertise rust-free California cars.
 
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Yeah, it's the salt they use on the roads. Park your car in the ocean for a few months and see what happens! lol

Some cars are worse than others, but in northern states they ALL end up that way eventually if they see winter use.
 
My 1993 Explorer lived in Massachusetts and Michigan and the rust will bring her down before probably anything else.
And it's a hopeless cancer. After a certain point, I just spray paint over it every other year to blend it in a bit.....
 
I remember my father selling his pristing Buick wagon, a '57 and as the new owner drove off he had a flat tire. He jacked up the car and jacked and jacks but the wheels never left the ground. The body had rusted off the frame and the frame was all but totally gone. I think pop bought the car back and had it towed off.
 
I had a 1978 Dodge Magnum where the rear leaf spring shackles pushed through the rusted out lower body and into the trunk.

Most folks here can tell a story about knowing somebody with a hole in the floor of their car. I've had a couple myself, including the aforementioned Explorer...
 
I sold a car to a kid in Fisherdude's neck of the woods a few years ago. It was what he wanted, and couldn't find anything near him that wasn't a rust bucket. He garages it in the winter. My Dad was born and raised in Detroit (I was born in Livonia), he bought a 'new' '56 Buick in '57, one of a kind--custom ordered by a Buick engineer (he later decided to wait for a '57, so it sat in a warehouse). Custom paint, one-off interior color. Had it about 5 years, and had to junk it...:tears:
 
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Couple of Michigan rust stories here...

I remember our cruisin' vehicle of choice was a 1976 Chev Malibu station wagon with the third row seat. By the mid 80's, the body wasn't too bad, but it had two big rust holes in the rear seat floor boards, literally big enough to throw a basketball through. We tossed some plywood over them and went on our way. Perfect holes to throw firecrackers through as we travelled to see them explode behind us.

Another one was my Dad had a '76 Plymouth Volare station wagon with the headlight dimmer on the floor. Back around 1985 or so he hit the brights and put his left heel right through the floor. Again, the body wasn't too bad, and he sold the car to his boss a year or so later. His boss filled the gas tank and it dropped onto the road from the weight. In case you were wondering, my Dad kept his job :D

They must have really improved rust resistance since then. My 2003 Pontiac Vibe doesn't have any rust, and it's lived in Michigan all its life.
 
Growing up in Iowa, I had a '65 Mercury - bottom of the trunk rusted out, and the spare tire fell out on the road. Saw a guy get into his Opel GT and go right to the ground when the rusted-out floor gave way. Cars are better now, but that salt in the winter is a killer.
 
blessed

I came out of ND. They don't (or didn't) use salt. The cars tended to last longer but the winters are brutal. Some older cars (pre 80s) were pretty well made as far as NOT having places for the crap to build up on the inside and under side of the body so rust was easier to control. A lot of people would "undercoat" the cars. It's a spray on tar like thing. That would help a lot. But, rust never sleeps.

The first time I saw a 49 chevy pickup in Las Vegas for sale, I checked it out, just walking by mind you. They did a fairly cruddy job shoe horning a small block into it (it fits OK, but there was no "finish" to it. But the body! I could NOT find ANY rust on that thing ANYWHERE. (OK surface rust on the under side, just normal,but NO "cancer" rust). It blew my mind.
 
Minnesota is bad, but Chicago and Detroit are probably worse since they have a lot more usable temps for salt. Under 10F degrees salt starts to lose its effectiveness,a and we often spend the entire month under freezing, sometimes weeks under 0F. Last time I spin a car off the road it was -20F and I was completely at the mercy of the ice.

dew.
 
ahhhh rusty car memories where to start a good one would be my 69 Chevelle SS that the floor pan and trunk pan were almost nonexistent, a funny memory for me was my brother had for awhile moved to Colorado, while out there he bought a 70 Chevelle SS with a blown engine and later had some friends from Colorado haul it home for him when he moved back, this thing body wise was pristine still had the factory paint on the undercarriage.

when his friends arrived with the car , i remember i had just got my Chevelle a few months earlier and i remember my brother at one point saying to his friends hey look my brothers got a Chevelle, i swear i still remember the look his friends gave each other and the one says hell man we don't even use cars that bad for parts!

LOL at the time i was crushed! but they were right it was rusty beater, i later ended up with my brothers Chevelle that they had hauled allllllll the way from Colorado as a favor to my brother so i guess i kinda had the last laugh.
 
Got the same problem in Illinois. But cars made today hold up a lot better against rust. My 10 year old Corolla is starting to get rust in the right rear wheel well and on the edges of the windshield on top.
 
My first car was a '63 Chevy Impala 2-door hardtop that I got right out of high school in 1977. Zero rust on the body, even though there was 118k on the clock. Pretty good, right? One day, I noticed a hole in the carpet that I could stick my finger through. Pulling it up revealed that half the floor on the passenger side of the car was simply gone. Further inspection found that half the frame at the rear of the car was totally missing. I sold it to a kid who was going to race it. Uh-huh.

Our '98 Taurus wagon has only one small patch of rust under the rear tailgate window about 1 square inch. But we just found out last week that the rocker panels are more than half gone. Turns out the plastic trim parts hold water and salt and rot them away. Since this is a unit body car, this means half the frame is gone. New ones are available for less than $300 each... but putting them in means torch cutting and welding and painting... maybe a couple thousand dollars all told. <sighs> Still cheaper than another car, though...

Tom
 
oh you guys....i live in one of the worst climates for cars in the world,temps that hover around freezing in the winter with near constantly wet and sloppy roads,lots of road salt...and the atlantic ocean at the door step too...cars are biodegradeable...

cars from the 70s were bad,real bad.they all rusted out in record time,since then car makers have improved things quite a lot and it takes at least a good ten years,even here,for holes to appear in most...and most cars are warrantied against it for at least five...

what happens more often than not now is that while the body tends to mostly survive,everything else under it perishes...fuel tanks and lines,brake lines,suspension etc etc....stuff which costs a surprising amount of money to replace at about 10-15 years of age,usually on a car that IS in most cases showing signs of terminal cancer.

the cure would be easy...stainless lines would go a LONG ways..it probably wouldn't add that much cost to a car overall....but in most regions it's pretty much a non issue....here its a constant aggravation.nothing worse than having a pin hole leak in one fuel line...and having to replace EVERYTHING because it's all so rusted you can't move or even touch any part of it to fix it without it crumbling.
 
240sx4u said:
Yeah, it's the salt they use on the roads. Park your car in the ocean for a few months and see what happens! lol

Some cars are worse than others, but in northern states they ALL end up that way eventually if they see winter use.
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Yep, my '94 E-150 spent its first 6 years or so in Boston, and it's slowly returning to the earth from whence it came. Full-on holes by the rear body mounts, and rain gutter/rear quarter rust.
 
I'm building my 66 Chevelle on a frame that spent its first 4 years in Minnasota. The reason I chose it was compared to a CA frame I have it weighs 12 lbs less. The car it came from was bought in Oregon and taken to Minnasota right after.

Nice uniform slightly thinner metal.

After a good sand blasting and 3 coats of Old Hammerite Black it looks awesome.
 
One of my kids needed a really cheap car quick...a friend of my Dad's had a Datsun B210 in his grove. Said it ran when he parked it...take it...it's free! Put in a battery & by cracky it ran! No muffler...stuck one from a Wisconsin swather motor on it. It really blatted. Went to jack it up to put in front brake lines and the body sagged so bad you couldn't open the door. Jacked & blocked it so it was level...then welded steel fence posts to the body pan to "stiffen" things. Ah...agri-engineering!

Manufacturers went to double-galvanized steel for car bodies sometime in the mid-late 90s...really helped with the rust problem. I have noticed that the most severe rust on a Minnesota car is often on the driver's side...comes from all the salty slush thrown up on the car by traffic on 2-lane roads.
 
Mark, were the frames from the same make, model and year cars? 12lb difference can not be all attributed to rust, can it?
 
botrytis said:
Rust belt was from all the steel mill jobs that went away and all of the hulking abandoned buildings - nothing to do with salt on the roads.
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I give that up as being politically correct. But anyone that grew up in the area,attributed road salt to that phrase "rustbelt" also. I'm 61,and have heard that my entire life. My uncle is 92,and still lives in Twinsburg,Oh. and still to this day when he sees a pile of rusted out junk car,he'll say thats what you get for living in the rustbelt. I've never heard him utter those words driving by an old steel mill.
 
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