Jay 2000 TL

Hi Just wondering how everyone feels about Undercoating/Rustproofing? Some people swear by it. from your underside from rusting out, and others say it's a waste of $$$ Because at Ziebart for example you have to come back every year and get it touched up and spend roughly $40.00. First of all I live in Wisconsin and the winters here can be pretty rough and the DOT just dumps salt all over for no reason sometimes!!
Has anyone Undercoated their cars? IS IT WORTH IT OR NOT????

fsttyms1

i wouldnt do it! ive seen more cars rust out that had it than those with out. what happens is they spray it on the underside of the car and it ends up plugging drain holes so moisture sits and rots at the metal. they claim they clear all the holes but its unlikely. also if some of it cracks and moisture gets between it will hold the moisture in causing it to rot at the metal also.

Tom Blasing

Here's a funny story for ya. My father would swear by Ziebart for years until around 1978. I was twelve years old then and into Hot Wheels, SST's or just about anything else with wheels that resembled a car.

One day my best friend, Larry, and I were riding my jitney (wood go-cart with no motor) on the sidewalk and we had it going pretty fast down a slight hill in front of my house. Larry was steering and I was on the back pushing and jumping on to ride. Larry lost the rope that controlled steering the thing and it took a hard right. Right into my mothers somewhat new 77' Plymouth Volare (I know, it was a POS). Neither one of us could grab the rope in time to keep from hitting it. We came to a sudden stop after putting a nice healthy dent in the passenger door.

Too afraid to tell my Dad I just left it there and put the jitney back in the basement and left it there for a day or two. My dad, not being an idiot, looked at the jitney to see Kermit Green paint on the white plywood body on the go-cart. "So you did it.” he said. Surprisingly that was all he said.

Dad took off the inner door panel to see if he could just pop the dent back out and see what it would look like. He turned about 8 shades of lobster red with anger when he saw what Ziebart did, or in this case DIDN'T do when they coated the car. Ziebart coated the inside of the door all right. An area about the size of your fist and the rest was not even touched!

I don't remember what finally happened but I do remember Dad getting what was rightfully his.

Anyway-- In my opinion, when Ziebart was in they're hey-day (1970's) they had a very good product to solve a problem that every American made car had. And that was an inherent design flaw that resulted in cheaply made cars. Rust was a big symbol of this. Today, the quality of cars is overwhelmingly superior to what was being produced then.

To me, if a new car was put together so poorly with bad materials and thus needing to be undercoated then I would have to ask myself "Why am I buying this car?"

If you were thinking about coating anything OTHER than a new car then I definitely would NOT do it. The coating would do nothing but seal in the contaminants that already exist on the body. The only way to do that and make it work right is to have it done before you even drive it home from the dealer when it was new and undriven.

If I were you I would save my money and go to the best car wash in town that had underbody spray to get the salt and slush/dirt off the underbody. Maybe not every time you wash the car but once in a while should be fine.

BTW- A coworker of mine felt compelled to buy the sealant/protection package from a Chevy dealer. I told her it's little more that a coat of wax and some cheap "sealant" they just spray on. And this was on a brand new 03' Trailblazer!! I can only conclude that GM's are still built like crap and/or they still try to sell everyone snake oil that doesn't know any better.

Jay 2000 TL

Thanks guys that really helps! I have heard some stories where they just try to sell you that Undercoating, and they have an income every year because in order to keep the lifetime warranty with Ziebart you have to get you car re undercoated every time with in a couple months of the original undercoating! Sounds like the tobacco companies LOL.! Thanks again!!!

Dirk Diggler

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this, and here's mine.

For every car I've owned, I've used Rustcheck, where they apply oil yearly to your car. Never had a rust problem in any of my cars, and it even prevented surface rust from forming on parts of the undercarriage. I got my '03 TL-S rustchecked as well. The drilled the holes and everything, and I think it's worth every penny. In T.O., the winters can get pretty bad and you can't wash your car for weeks...

Dirk Diggler.

fsttyms1

^ actuall what Dirk Diggler does is good. there was a TSB for the old Full Size Bronco where that was what they were supposed to do to the tailgate and doors to help keep them from rusting.