Why do birdcages rust so easily?
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 87,375
Likes: 1,593
From: Western NY
I wouldn't be too sure about that....I bought a brand new Pontiac Grand Am (the "A" body, RWD car, not the compact FWDer) in 1973, and within 2 years, the roof, yes the roof, was rusting out!!
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 958
Likes: 88
From: Rexburg Idaho
Wow 2 years. I lived in the Seattle area for years and never had that kind of problem despite all the rain. But then I always took care of my cars.
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 87,375
Likes: 1,593
From: Western NY
Believe me, I take very good care of my cars, always have. I was putting a coat of wax on the Grand Am I mentioned, and as I was buffing it off, all of a sudden, a patch of paint, about 1" by 2", just popped off the roof. Prior to this, there was no break in the paint, at all. AND, the area where the paint popped off was rusty, underneath the paint. Not too long after this happened, the area along the windshield header started blowing the paint off, and there were rust holes showing. The entire roof panel on that car was a POS......
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 4,549
Likes: 343
From: Glastonbury CT
I had a brand new El Camino rot out the first year. That was 1972and i sold it in 197 3. In Ct now they pretreat the roads with liquid salt that ate up commercial state buses iin three years! I know i questioned the new bus wash stations. You have to stay home when they salt the roads . Looked at a LT1 in 1975 and the trailing arms and frame looked like switch cheeze after we penetrated these items with a awl. What does that tell you about the North East?
Racer
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 397
Likes: 77
From: Jasper, GA
I'm originally from the Youngstown, Ohio area, and it was well known that GM did their testing of metal corrosion there because of two things: 1) abundance of salt on the roads in winter and 2) abundance of acid in the atmosphere from steel mills (#2 in the world in steel production back in the 60's and 70's). I guess they never really perfected anything or chose not do do anything because they had the market cornered.
Richard
Richard
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,039
Likes: 504
From: myrtle beach sc
Army
GM did come up with a special coating. I worked in maintenance in an automotive parts plant and we made the two front engine frames for the three new "GM 10" cars.
We also made their front A frames for these cars.
We had to coat the frames in a liquid wax material. Being in maintenance, I had to help unload the liquid wax tank trucks and we had to pre-heat the metal delivery pipes with
torches and also use the torches to liquefy and drain said flexible metal pipes. This is in Cleveland, Ohio and it was a lot of fun doing this in 15 degree weather.
My GM replacement C-3 frame was also coated with the wax. Lou.
We also made their front A frames for these cars.
We had to coat the frames in a liquid wax material. Being in maintenance, I had to help unload the liquid wax tank trucks and we had to pre-heat the metal delivery pipes with
torches and also use the torches to liquefy and drain said flexible metal pipes. This is in Cleveland, Ohio and it was a lot of fun doing this in 15 degree weather.
My GM replacement C-3 frame was also coated with the wax. Lou.
Last edited by loup68; Jan 3, 2019 at 12:22 PM.
