Rust Prevention?

[Taksang]

Hey guys,

Got a 2001 LC and would like to prep the undercarriage against rust. Winters are not severe in Mid-TN but roads occasionally salted. Any undercoat/spray products recommended for a Southern truck? Experience with shops or coatings? Frequent washes enough? Thanks!

 

[excessive]

Fluid film or "surface shield"
i use surface shield because it doesnt smell as bad as fluidfilm

 

[vishmuzty]

Big fan of AMSOIL Metal Protector HD. Unlike Fluid Film this stuff dries to an amber wax coating (like Cosmoline) and lasts for years without picking up dirt/dust. Buy 6-8 cans of aerosol and a respirator and go nuts.

 

[Red Beard]

Here is a test this guy did:

BUT, this is his most recent update with PB Blaster:

Watch if you're curious. This guy ultimately recommends PB Blaster Surface Shield. Its a new product that isn't available widespread evidently.

I got Fluid Film 2 years ago and NH Oil last year. NH Oil definitely stunk more but I think it remained on the frame longer. Haven't tested them long enough to give you a suggestion beyond my short experience. Also, it is annoying working under the cruiser with the oil on there because you always end up getting oily. But hey, it keeps salt water off the frame.

 

[Rhetoric]

RP-342 and Surface Shield have worked well for me.

 

[Import Driver]

I Fluid Film my Tacoma and Honda Fit before every winter. I buy Fluid Film (clear and black) by the gallon and use a sprayer & compressor so it ends up being very cost effective. I just bought the LX and it will get sprayed before winter as well.

Am I saying Fluid Film is the best? No, I'm not. I use it every year and I'm happy with it. My suggestion is to USE SOMETHING and use it regularly. Everyone will post the product they use (and that's good), I'm just glad they've picked one and use it. I wish everyone would.

Edit: The reason for this comment is that I know people who swear by a product other than what I use but... they don't actually use it. So their magic product wont work in the end because they don't actually use it.

 

[Luke M]

I'm a big fan of the AMSOIL Metal Protector HD or RP-342. I have tried Fluid Film and Surface Shield, those are great for door cavities, but for frame rails, axles and general undercarriage undercoating the cosmoline products can't be beat.

 

[Rednexus]

I like Woolwax. Similar to Fluid Film but thicker. The coating on my GX is 2 years old and finally needs a touch up. It's easy to DIY apply with their spray gun kit and a compressor. It's also nontoxic and quite literally acts like lotion if you get it on you. So NBD if you get a bunch on your skin while wrenching.

FYI I use Fluid Film inside the frame since it's thinner. Zero rust progression on my GX.

 

[bob1008]

Woolwax™ Labor Day sale going on now.
Link to Labor Day Sale.

There are a lot of good corrosion protection products out there, and quite honestly I don't think that you can go wrong with most of them. They all have their pros/cons. We feel that Woolwax™ is definitely the most durable and most resistant to wash-off. Also Woolwax™ has almost no smell. And the Woolwax™ black is 100% colorfast and will stay black for the life of the coating. Our competitors black washes out very quickly. However in colder weather Woolwax™ can be a challenge to apply. It needs to be heated up. That is our "con". We make it viscous enough so that it cannot wash-off after it cures a bit and gels up.

I would just like to point out that the product a couple posts up represented as a "test" is not unbiased. That is the only one of our competitors that uses paid influencers to hype their product. The video comes across as some guy reviewing all the products. That person is actually a full time employee of Blaster. I guess I could also be considered a "paid influencer" as I am certainly biased towards Woolwax™. But everyone knows who I work for, and I don't disguise it as an unbiased reviewer looking for the "best" product. Maybe I should not say anything, but it is a pet peeve of mine. The poster above believes that he was watching a "real review" as he said "This guy ultimately recommends PB Blaster Surface Shield". What else would he recommend? He gets paid to "recommend" that one. I have to say that we have many competitors (Fluid Film, NHOIl, Krown, PFC, Rusfree, and more) . And without exception they are all ethical and honorable in their advertising and all their products perform well.
The company above with the paid hypester is the exception. You will notice at the very beginning of the video they post in the upper left hand corner a very discreet disclaimer that this is a paid promotion and paid hype.. They only leave it there for a few seconds.

 

[Kabanstva]

Big fan of AMSOIL Metal Protector HD. Unlike Fluid Film this stuff dries to an amber wax coating (like Cosmoline) and lasts for years without picking up dirt/dust. Buy 6-8 cans of aerosol and a respirator and go nuts.

Yeah I’ve been using this for many years too but the issue with HDMP is it doesn’t creep. The new stuff since they changed it a couple years ago fully cures in like a 3-4hr window. You still want to use a wet undercoating like Fluid Film inside your frame and crossmembers to make sure you get full coverage.

 

[Luke M]

Woolwax™ Labor Day sale going on now.
Link to Labor Day Sale.

There are a lot of good corrosion protection products out there, and quite honestly I don't think that you can go wrong with most of them. They all have their pros/cons. We feel that Woolwax™ is definitely the most durable and most resistant to wash-off. Also Woolwax™ has almost no smell. And the Woolwax™ black is 100% colorfast and will stay black for the life of the coating. Our competitors black washes out very quickly. However in colder weather Woolwax™ can be a challenge to apply. It needs to be heated up. That is our "con". We make it viscous enough so that it cannot wash-off after it cures a bit and gels up.

Bob, can I layer Woolwax on top of the Amsoil HD Metal Protectant? I see that a shop in my area does the Woolwax undercoating, might try going that route this year to avoid the mess.

 

[Kabanstva]

Bob, can I layer Woolwax on top of the Amsoil HD Metal Protectant? I see that a shop in my area does the Woolwax undercoating, might try going that route this year to avoid the mess.

No you cannot. I experimented with this years ago. Woolwax, Fluid Film, and i imagine any wet coating will break down Amsoil HDMP and similar coatings that cure dry. You’ll be left with a wet coating a few hours after you spray fluid film on top of the Amsoil.

 

[bob1008]

Bob, can I layer Woolwax on top of the Amsoil HD Metal Protectant? I see that a shop in my area does the Woolwax undercoating, might try going that route this year to avoid the mess.

So while I don't agree with Kabanstva that you cannot put wet coatings on top of hard dry coatings, I have to respect the experience he had while trying this. If we accepted his premise than we would not be able to put any wet coatings over primed or coated surfaces. Almost all of ur Undercoaters regularly put Woolwax™ over hard coatings and there is never an issue. Even the GM wax seems to do extremely well with Woolwax™. One of the busiest and most experienced rustoration places in the country is Garden State Undercoating in New Jersey. Google his FB or Instagram page and look at his work. He primes everything, and than applies Woolwax™. FJ Cruisers and other vehicles are sent to him from all over the country, and Canada. So there may be something specific to the formulation of HDMP that causes it to delaminate from the surface when top-coated with Fluid Film. I was with FF for almost 20 years and we had constant issues with FF over the GM wax. With Woolwax™ there are no issues and our undercoaters regularly apply it over the dried GM wax. Please take a look at #27 & #46 at the link below. This answers some of the questions in this post.

FAQs

We also have another water-based 1-time hard drying product called Hard-On by woolwax™. This formula dries to the touch in an hour, and is a rock solid chip guard in 72 hours. We have tested this extensively with Woolwax™ applied as a top-coat and it has caused no delamination issues whatsoever.

So I a not discarding Kabanstva's results at all. I am just putting forward some additional information. Worst case scenario, if for whatever reason the HDMP lifted off, you could power wash it off and recoat with another coating.

 

[Kabanstva]

So while I don't agree with Kabanstva that you cannot put wet coatings on top of hard dry coatings, I have to respect the experience he had while trying this. If we accepted his premise than we would not be able to put any wet coatings over primed or coated surfaces. Almost all of ur Undercoaters regularly put Woolwax™ over hard coatings and there is never an issue. Even the GM wax seems to do extremely well with Woolwax™. One of the busiest and most experienced rustoration places in the country is Garden State Undercoating in New Jersey. Google his FB or Instagram page and look at his work. He primes everything, and than applies Woolwax™. FJ Cruisers and other vehicles are sent to him from all over the country, and Canada. So there may be something specific to the formulation of HDMP that causes it to delaminate from the surface when top-coated with Fluid Film. I was with FF for almost 20 years and we had constant issues with FF over the GM wax. With Woolwax™ there are no issues and our undercoaters regularly apply it over the dried GM wax. Please take a look at #27 & #46 at the link below. This answers some of the questions in this post.

FAQs

We also have another water-based 1-time hard drying product called Hard-On by woolwax™. This formula dries to the touch in an hour, and is a rock solid chip guard in 72 hours. We have tested this extensively with Woolwax™ applied as a top-coat and it has caused no delamination issues whatsoever.

So I a not discarding Kabanstva's results at all. I am just putting forward some additional information. Worst case scenario, if for whatever reason the HDMP lifted off, you could power wash it off and recoat with another coating.

Amsoil HDMP is not to be confused with paint/primer/etc. stuff literally wipes off with any mild solvent and even IPA….fluid film eats through it like butter and turns it into jello after just a few hours.

 

[bob1008]

Amsoil HDMP is not to be confused with paint/primer/etc. stuff literally wipes off with any mild solvent and even IPA….fluid film eats through it like butter and turns it into jello after just a few hours.

My bad. I am not at all familiar with HDMP and I thought we were talking about a fully cured, dry, hard coating. Now I understand why you got the results that you did. I just looked at their sds and it is up to 40% solvent, and 30% propane (to get it out of the can). So after the 70% evaporating material is gassed out, there is not much of a surface build left. I now understand how any wet coating will saturate and lift whatever build is left on the surface. I get it now, and I apologize for my mistaken comment.

 

[Luke M]

The AMSOIL stuff is similar to cosmoline. It dries to a dry to the touch wax like consistency. It is a pain to remove from anything that its not supposed to go on.

 

[Kabanstva]

The AMSOIL stuff is similar to cosmoline. It dries to a dry to the touch wax like consistency. It is a pain to remove from anything that its not supposed to go on.

You’re correct. I have a few bulk sized cases of the AMSOIL HDMP and a few more big cases of the Cosmoline Direct Heavy Duty RP-342 stuff (amber and black colored). I’ve used both extensively and they’re very good products.

This cosmoline spray to me seems pretty identical to Amsoil, looks and sprays the same, dries the same. I’m no scientist just a regular Joe that’s used it on several cars with good results.

I’ll say this, I have the Amsoil on my LX470 and once you go mudding…..forget about your undercarriage ever looking clean. Mud stains the Amsoil and there’s nothing you can do to clean it up besides A.) pressure wash/clean as best you can and re-coat it or B.) strip it completely so you’re back to a clean bare factory chassis paint. I don’t care how my undercarriage looks as long as it’s not rust and it’s still protected so I learned to live with it.

 

[white_lx]

I have tried quite a few products over the years. Started out with Krown, but was not too happy about the damage it caused: Krown rustproofing - collateral damage - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/krown-rustproofing-collateral-damage.1050733/ The Rust Cure product didn't seem to be very different and washes off very easily.

The last couple of years I've been happy with Fluid Film, but it does require annual re-spray and often mid-winter as well on area's that see a lot spray from salty water on the road such as front control arms, forward facing part of rear diff and rear axle etc. We have a good 5 months of snow here in the snow belt where we live.

Recently I purchased some cans of Surface Shield. However, it was impossible to empty a single can as the product would just stop spraying every few seconds. Not sure if the product sat in transit in the winter here and crystallized, but shaking or heating made no difference. Back to the store they went. A common problem, I was told.

Because of the regular re-application with Fluid Film, I'd be very interested in trying out some Woolwax. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find it in a store here in ON, Canada.

 

[bob1008]

I have tried quite a few products over the years. Started out with Krown, but was not too happy about the damage it caused: Krown rustproofing - collateral damage - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/krown-rustproofing-collateral-damage.1050733/ The Rust Cure product didn't seem to be very different and washes off very easily.

The last couple of years I've been happy with Fluid Film, but it does require annual re-spray and often mid-winter as well on area's that see a lot spray from salty water on the road such as front control arms, forward facing part of rear diff and rear axle etc. We have a good 5 months of snow here in the snow belt where we live.

Recently I purchased some cans of Surface Shield. However, it was impossible to empty a single can as the product would just stop spraying every few seconds. Not sure if the product sat in transit in the winter here and crystallized, but shaking or heating made no difference. Back to the store they went. A common problem, I was told.

Because of the regular re-application with Fluid Film, I'd be very interested in trying out some Woolwax. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find it in a store here in ON, Canada.

Thank you very much for the interest in Woolwax™. We really appreciate it. We ship to Canada every day and most shipments get delivered in just a few days. Check us out when you get a chance.

Woolwax Auto Undercoat

Woolwax brand of lanolin/woolgrease automotive undercoating protection.

woolwax.ca

 

[LC neophyte]

Big fan of AMSOIL Metal Protector HD. Unlike Fluid Film this stuff dries to an amber wax coating (like Cosmoline) and lasts for years without picking up dirt/dust. Buy 6-8 cans of aerosol and a respirator and go nuts.

I agree. I use this on all nuts and bolt heads, and small fittings and electrical connections under the hood. Be careful not to get it on your eyeglasses.