Rust and comparative car models

[VWScott]

I'm curious about rust in these old cars I've dealt with. Granted it's a small sample of VW,Porsche from 60's and now BMW on my '76. Were there car models of all brands in that timespan that werent rusty buckets of scheisse in 10 years?

[Son of Marty]

Volvo IMO probably would be near the top of the list, MB would be another one.,

[SydneyTii]

None that I’ve had!

Tbh my car was rust protected from new and it’s remarkably good, I think it made all the difference in these cars.

My mates garage in the UK had all sorts in, I’ve seen Rolls Royce’s with extensive rust, you’d think they’d do something about that from new given the price.

Edited May 9 by SydneyTii

[Tdh]

3 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

Volvo IMO probably would be near the top of the list, MB would be another one.,

In my experience Mercedes or the 60’s and 70’s rust just as bad as BMW or Porsche of the same era. 

[TobyB]

There's a reason a new car today costs what it does.

 

These things were supposed to be disposed of in 5-7 years.  It was an accident

that the motors lasted longer than that.

 

The industry standard was 'good enough'.  

Volvo was painting the inside of their panels by 1965- but not doing anything 

about seams.  

Most everyone was leaving it bare metal- which is a bit of a shame, as factory- applied

Waxoyl or Wurth wax would have tripled the lifespan in crappy climates.

But then, how would you sell new cars?

 

By the end of the 70's, dipping and galvanizing kicked in, and body lifespan

started to improve.  But GM was still screwing aluminum kick panels

onto steel bodies with steel screws...

By the 90's, electrostatic application was getting figured out, and that helped, too.

 

Oddly, I had a 1970 Datsun 1600 parts shell (these were classic cars in that no box sections were painted inside)

that was pretty rusty, well- wrecked and badly repaired, and I think even title- free.

So I cut it up.  The paint had come off the rockers, exposing galvanizing, and I didn't think much of it

beyond 'somebody fixed that with a road sign'.

Except they hadn't.

Had I known going in, I would have saved the outer rocker shells, as they were factory galvanized.  Spot welds,

assembly tabs and all, on a hand- assembled small- run car.  Nissan never galvanized anything

(at least into the mid- 80's) but were testing it in manufacturing these low- volume 'specialty' cars...

It was... kinda cool.

 

t

 

[VWScott]

10 hours ago, TobyB said:

There's a reason a new car today costs what it does.

 

These things were supposed to be disposed of in 5-7 years.  It was an accident

that the motors lasted longer than that.

 

The industry standard was 'good enough'.  

Volvo was painting the inside of their panels by 1965- but not doing anything 

about seams.  

Most everyone was leaving it bare metal- which is a bit of a shame, as factory- applied

Waxoyl or Wurth wax would have tripled the lifespan in crappy climates.

But then, how would you sell new cars?

 

By the end of the 70's, dipping and galvanizing kicked in, and body lifespan

started to improve.  But GM was still screwing aluminum kick panels

onto steel bodies with steel screws...

By the 90's, electrostatic application was getting figured out, and that helped, too.

 

Oddly, I had a 1970 Datsun 1600 parts shell (these were classic cars in that no box sections were painted inside)

that was pretty rusty, well- wrecked and badly repaired, and I think even title- free.

So I cut it up.  The paint had come off the rockers, exposing galvanizing, and I didn't think much of it

beyond 'somebody fixed that with a road sign'.

Except they hadn't.

Had I known going in, I would have saved the outer rocker shells, as they were factory galvanized.  Spot welds,

assembly tabs and all, on a hand- assembled small- run car.  Nissan never galvanized anything

(at least into the mid- 80's) but were testing it in manufacturing these low- volume 'specialty' cars...

It was... kinda cool.

 

t

 

My first car was a '74 Honda Civic. By the time I got it in '81 it was already thoroughly rusty. My sister got it when I left and she gave it back to my Dad when she left. As I understand it he gave it to a friend from work who gave it to his son and...promptly ran it out of oil. D'oh! 

I guess my overall point was that I expected my later model BMW to have less rust than earlier cars I restored but it had just as much if not more rust. Granted I was far more  judicious in my choices of VWs and Porsches than my '02 as I rolled the dice believing that it's a Cali car how bad could it be? Lesson learned.