Is moving a nice FJ 60/62 into rust country evil (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Threads
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178
Location
minneapolis, mn
If a stock FJ 60 or 62 has survived and still looks great in the South or West, is it evil for someone like me to buy it and take it to the Midwest where it will start to corrode? I found a really nice one clean stock one, and it would be my daily driver year round. If I do purchase it, is the best way to prevent oxidation and corrosion, washing it often during the winter?
 
Buy two, a nice one for summer, a rough one for salt.
 
You're looking at this wrong. You should move to the Cruiser.
 
Yes, it's evil. Drive an old K-car in the winter, and use the Cruiser in the summer. Or, get a 3rd gen 4Runner or something more 'disposable' for winter use.

The problem with old Land Cruisers is that much of the engineering is poor, as far as corrosion goes. Too many seams, too many crevices, too much seam sealer, too many trim bits that hold dirt/salt/water. Parking it outside is the last straw - you get fresh condensate every day on your truck, and this wets down all those seams and rust points.

Washing it is a double-edged sword - you wash off all the salt, but you wet it all down. Parking it in a heated garage after a salt-run is the final evil - nothing worse for the body than this.
 
Man I was just having the same horrible thoughts. Do I take a CA cruiser that is very clean to Hawaii and sadly watch it rust or cut my arm off and sell it.
 
If you want to buy a cruiser, buy a cruiser. Research the various methods of undercoating/rust prevention, treat it the best you can, wash it often, and enjoy it as long as you can. You can't worry about the other stuff.
 
I suggest learning some bodywork/welding skills.. I'm in the same boat, so to speak, I live 2 blocks from the ocean, and she stays outside (the '85 635Csi stays inside). Seems every day I find a new streak of rust stain coming from somewhere. Pretty soon I'll be pulling the rear cargo windows to tackle the rust starting in the corners there. Drip rails were a terrible design..
 
I feel guilt every day of winter I drive in NH. My DD is a 62 with only 75k miles. My only consolation is that it was already exposed to salt before I bought it. Now I Fluid Film it every Fall, getting into every nook and cranny. Even with that and galvanizing the frame, I only expect it to last 10 years.

The alternative is to drive something besides a Cruiser and I've tried that, resulting in less smiles.
 
Take a look at www.Krown.com

There are are probably similar companies doing an antirust oil spray in the states, Krown is popular in Canada but only has a few outlets in the states.
They drill holes in your pillars and doors and spray inside body panels, as well as coating the underneath and flooding the frame. It is somewhat messy, but it doesn't smell and it's non toxic. (Fluid film is non toxic, but the sweet wet sheep smell drives me crazy)

Doing this every year and being really particular about fixing paint chips will keep your cruiser going in the rustbelt. And may be the only way to do it with any level of success.
 
It's Evil no doubt about it. But the Cruiser gods will grant you forgiveness for your transgressions if you make every honest attempt to preserve your junk. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I just drove my '62 from Omaha to NJ. Salty to more Salty. The truck was pretty clean when I picked it up, so I cleaned up the underneath and painted the chassis with Chassis Saver (thread here: Chassis Saving.)

More recently I made up some home-made Waxoyl and soaked everything. I have used Fluid Film on my Silverado and the wifes 4Runner the last two winters in Omaha (which gets a decent amount of salt - lots of rusty vehicles.)
The Fluid film has it's limitations though - it's excellent for the insides of doors and inside frame members, but it does wash away on high spray areas or if you're in mud. It has worked great on the 4Runner (still looks like it never left Oregon), but on the Silverado the cab front cab mounts and a few other areas rusted anyway. The frame paint (if you can call it that) Chevy uses really looses adhesion when the fluid film soaks in. The 4Runner has pretty much stayed on pavement, whereas the Silverado saw some use on the typical muddy slimey rutted rural backroads, the kind that leaves your truck caked with 2" of slime underneath. That kind of use will wipe away the Fluid Film. On the 4Runner, the Fluid Film has stayed put pretty well, with most everything underneath still coated pretty good after spring wash down. One great thing about the FF, if you get the spray hoses that Kellsport sells, you can snake them up into the door and hatch drain holes and get good coverage inside the doors and other area. The FF creeps better than my mixture, so I will continue to use it on inside panels and seams.

I had done some reading on the various recipes for Waxoyl, and thought it should hold up better to water spray and dirt/mud. So I made some and sprayed it on. I used about a gallon on the '62. It goes on pretty wet, but dries to a waxy/oily coating that is only slightly tacky at room temp. The underside of the '62 is still clean and pretty much dust free after driving cross country this past week. I did some test spray on a rusty section of the frame on the '40 and it looked like it would work well in that application too, made the area a little darker but nothing really rubbed off on your fingers when you touch it, and if you spray water onto it it beaded right off.

Here is what I did... I used a metal pail, a coleman stove, mineral spirits, paraffin wax and bar and chain oil. I used bar and chain oil because it has tackifiers in it (makes it sticky) and a little phosphoric acid which kills existing rust. Seems those attributes would make it favorable compared to regular engine oil.

I first melted the wax (just holding the blocks and melting them with a propane torch over the metal pail).


After the wax was melted, I mixed in the mineral spirits and bar and chain oil and kept the mixture hot by placing the pail in a pot of water on the stove. I filled up the spray gun bottles from the pail while it was still hot - gotta keep this stuff hot, it goes on best when you can barely hold the bottles after filling them.


This is the setup.


And the spray gun (stock photo..) from Eastwood, which is the same one I have used for fluid film.


I sprayed at 90 psi. The 360 degree spray tip wand that comes with the Eastwood gun is great. It allows you to get into the frame, crossmembers, back inside the fenders inside behind the panels, up under skidplates, etc.


This was the original recipe I tried. I ended up adding almost twice this much mineral spirits so the stuff went on smoother and was a little more fluid. I ended up around 2 lbs wax, 1 qt. bar and chain oil, and a gallon of mineral spirits.


The stuff seems like it should work well. It covered good, and now that the mineral spirits have evaporated off the coating seems way more durable than fluid film (i.e. it's not going to get taken off by water spray and typical on-road use). I'm sure if you are bombing down gravel you're gonna destroy it, but i'm hoping it holds up better than the fluid film. It sure is cheaper.
 
Man I was just having the same horrible thoughts. Do I take a CA cruiser that is very clean to Hawaii and sadly watch it rust or cut my arm off and sell it.

There are some very nice vintage cars in Hawaii, including Cruisers. If you're not subjecting it to regular salt spray and have a garage/carport, there shouldn't be a problem.
 
It's Evil no doubt about it. But the Cruiser gods will grant you forgiveness for your transgressions if you make every honest attempt to preserve your junk. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I just drove my '62 from Omaha to NJ. Salty to more Salty. The truck was pretty clean when I picked it up, so I cleaned up the underneath and painted the chassis with Chassis Saver (thread here: Chassis Saving.)

More recently I made up some home-made Waxoyl and soaked everything. I have used Fluid Film on my Silverado and the wifes 4Runner the last two winters in Omaha (which gets a decent amount of salt - lots of rusty vehicles.)
The Fluid film has it's limitations though - it's excellent for the insides of doors and inside frame members, but it does wash away on high spray areas or if you're in mud. It has worked great on the 4Runner (still looks like it never left Oregon), but on the Silverado the cab front cab mounts and a few other areas rusted anyway. The frame paint (if you can call it that) Chevy uses really looses adhesion when the fluid film soaks in. The 4Runner has pretty much stayed on pavement, whereas the Silverado saw some use on the typical muddy slimey rutted rural backroads, the kind that leaves your truck caked with 2" of slime underneath. That kind of use will wipe away the Fluid Film. On the 4Runner, the Fluid Film has stayed put pretty well, with most everything underneath still coated pretty good after spring wash down. One great thing about the FF, if you get the spray hoses that Kellsport sells, you can snake them up into the door and hatch drain holes and get good coverage inside the doors and other area. The FF creeps better than my mixture, so I will continue to use it on inside panels and seams.

I had done some reading on the various recipes for Waxoyl, and thought it should hold up better to water spray and dirt/mud. So I made some and sprayed it on. I used about a gallon on the '62. It goes on pretty wet, but dries to a waxy/oily coating that is only slightly tacky at room temp. The underside of the '62 is still clean and pretty much dust free after driving cross country this past week. I did some test spray on a rusty section of the frame on the '40 and it looked like it would work well in that application too, made the area a little darker but nothing really rubbed off on your fingers when you touch it, and if you spray water onto it it beaded right off.

Here is what I did... I used a metal pail, a coleman stove, mineral spirits, paraffin wax and bar and chain oil. I used bar and chain oil because it has tackifiers in it (makes it sticky) and a little phosphoric acid which kills existing rust. Seems those attributes would make it favorable compared to regular engine oil.

I first melted the wax (just holding the blocks and melting them with a propane torch over the metal pail).


After the wax was melted, I mixed in the mineral spirits and bar and chain oil and kept the mixture hot by placing the pail in a pot of water on the stove. I filled up the spray gun bottles from the pail while it was still hot - gotta keep this stuff hot, it goes on best when you can barely hold the bottles after filling them.


This is the setup.


And the spray gun (stock photo..) from Eastwood, which is the same one I have used for fluid film.


I sprayed at 90 psi. The 360 degree spray tip wand that comes with the Eastwood gun is great. It allows you to get into the frame, crossmembers, back inside the fenders inside behind the panels, up under skidplates, etc.


This was the original recipe I tried. I ended up adding almost twice this much mineral spirits so the stuff went on smoother and was a little more fluid. I ended up around 2 lbs wax, 1 qt. bar and chain oil, and a gallon of mineral spirits.


The stuff seems like it should work well. It covered good, and now that the mineral spirits have evaporated off the coating seems way more durable than fluid film (i.e. it's not going to get taken off by water spray and typical on-road use). I'm sure if you are bombing down gravel you're gonna destroy it, but i'm hoping it holds up better than the fluid film. It sure is cheaper.

Great post. Thanks for sharing this.

Happily, I'm in Nevada and rust is a rare thing but great tech for those who may need it.

Cheers :cheers:

Ed
 
As they say with the salt spray, location, location, location... I cringe when I see fog rolling up the street from the beach.. My only consolation is that I had a little practice on cutting out rusted metal on my '83 Hilux 4x (which is entombed in the garage, but hopefully will be resurrected sometime soon..), so I'm not too afraid of it, but it's not ever fun cutting into your baby.. And once it's gotten to some spots, it's pretty tough to completely stop. Damn it!!! Sorry, had a little breakdown thinking about it...
 
It's Evil no doubt about it. But the Cruiser gods will grant you forgiveness for your transgressions if you make every honest attempt to preserve your junk. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I just drove my '62 from Omaha to NJ. Salty to more Salty. The truck was pretty clean when I picked it up, so I cleaned up the underneath and painted the chassis with Chassis Saver (thread here: Chassis Saving.)

More recently I made up some home-made Waxoyl and soaked everything. I have used Fluid Film on my Silverado and the wifes 4Runner the last two winters in Omaha (which gets a decent amount of salt - lots of rusty vehicles.)
The Fluid film has it's limitations though - it's excellent for the insides of doors and inside frame members, but it does wash away on high spray areas or if you're in mud. It has worked great on the 4Runner (still looks like it never left Oregon), but on the Silverado the cab front cab mounts and a few other areas rusted anyway. The frame paint (if you can call it that) Chevy uses really looses adhesion when the fluid film soaks in. The 4Runner has pretty much stayed on pavement, whereas the Silverado saw some use on the typical muddy slimey rutted rural backroads, the kind that leaves your truck caked with 2" of slime underneath. That kind of use will wipe away the Fluid Film. On the 4Runner, the Fluid Film has stayed put pretty well, with most everything underneath still coated pretty good after spring wash down. One great thing about the FF, if you get the spray hoses that Kellsport sells, you can snake them up into the door and hatch drain holes and get good coverage inside the doors and other area. The FF creeps better than my mixture, so I will continue to use it on inside panels and seams.

I had done some reading on the various recipes for Waxoyl, and thought it should hold up better to water spray and dirt/mud. So I made some and sprayed it on. I used about a gallon on the '62. It goes on pretty wet, but dries to a waxy/oily coating that is only slightly tacky at room temp. The underside of the '62 is still clean and pretty much dust free after driving cross country this past week. I did some test spray on a rusty section of the frame on the '40 and it looked like it would work well in that application too, made the area a little darker but nothing really rubbed off on your fingers when you touch it, and if you spray water onto it it beaded right off.

Here is what I did... I used a metal pail, a coleman stove, mineral spirits, paraffin wax and bar and chain oil. I used bar and chain oil because it has tackifiers in it (makes it sticky) and a little phosphoric acid which kills existing rust. Seems those attributes would make it favorable compared to regular engine oil.

I first melted the wax (just holding the blocks and melting them with a propane torch over the metal pail).


After the wax was melted, I mixed in the mineral spirits and bar and chain oil and kept the mixture hot by placing the pail in a pot of water on the stove. I filled up the spray gun bottles from the pail while it was still hot - gotta keep this stuff hot, it goes on best when you can barely hold the bottles after filling them.


This is the setup.


And the spray gun (stock photo..) from Eastwood, which is the same one I have used for fluid film.


I sprayed at 90 psi. The 360 degree spray tip wand that comes with the Eastwood gun is great. It allows you to get into the frame, crossmembers, back inside the fenders inside behind the panels, up under skidplates, etc.


This was the original recipe I tried. I ended up adding almost twice this much mineral spirits so the stuff went on smoother and was a little more fluid. I ended up around 2 lbs wax, 1 qt. bar and chain oil, and a gallon of mineral spirits.


The stuff seems like it should work well. It covered good, and now that the mineral spirits have evaporated off the coating seems way more durable than fluid film (i.e. it's not going to get taken off by water spray and typical on-road use). I'm sure if you are bombing down gravel you're gonna destroy it, but i'm hoping it holds up better than the fluid film. It sure is cheaper.

Awesome, Thank you for sharing recipes and experience!
 
Since 60s are sentient life forms and not just a collection of bent and cast metal... did you ever consider the prospect of asking him what he wants?
60s have feelings too you know.

And they can exact revenge if you really piss them off.

Beware....
 

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