I put my car on a lift for the first time last week and finally got a peek on the underside and to my amazement my axle was completely covered with rust. Nothing deep but my car was made in July and I got it in October and I have only driven it in the rain a couple of times (When I couldn't get it home fast enough to cover it up!) but it looks like rust is starting in. Is this normal? Would just taking a light wire brush and spraying it down with WD-40 every couple of weeks help out? I don't understand this, don't they (the factory) spray some kind of anti rust enamel on it? Thanks for any advice in advance.

Travis

 

Yes it is normal. GM doesn't put any type of coating, paint or otherwise, on the 10 bolts in the F cars. I believe only the Australian 9 bolt rear used in some of the 3rd gen cars came painted from the factory.

 

Its nothing to worry about. My 1995 is a rare duty vehicle (lol) and its rusty underneath...


Jason

 

yes it is normal but if I were you I would just leave it alone becasue if u scrape off the first layer of rust then it will just go to the next layer so actually the rust you see is acting as a protectant coat. Also IMO wd-40 doesn't stop rust it just retards it.

 

Well my 02 Z has rust on the rear end, which this summer I am going to take care of it with Por-15 the rust preventative paint.. The stuff is expensive but it actually does stop rust in it's tracks. WD40 will slow the rust down but there are actually 3 ways to stop rust.

1. Use Por-15.
2. Sandblast and Paint the Rear with some Paint.
3. Cut it out and start with fresh..

The first 2 will work for anything that has mild corosion. But the 3rd option will not work for a rear end but for rusty body barts on any car old or new (besides the plastic but anything metal)...

 

Thanks dmnall, that stuff sounds great and best of all I can get it here in the UK. Thanks to all who replyed!!

Travis

 

WD-40 will help keep things from rusting. That's what it was originally intended for. WD-40 stands for water displacement-40. It was developed for the government to keep ballistic missiles from rusting, but as it turns out, it's an alright lubricant as well...

 

The rear axle housing is practically rusty from the factory because it isn painted. Mine was whinning from the factory and when it was changed the car had 2000 miles on it. It was rusty already. GM replacement rear comes aftermarket and its painted black. The car has 12000 miles on it now and the rear is just starting to rust. Its only a cosmetic eyesore because the rust won't hurt it too bad, for many years.

 

No Problem Travis, Por-15 is great but one advice, when you do it, paint over it because any prolonged sunlight exposure can break it down and the rust will surely come back...

Take it easy,

Charlie

 

has anyone ever polsihed one and then put a clearcoat over it????



in theory it should not rust right?

 

Yeah my buddy has that stuff in black on his car and he is not having any rust issues

 

Um, if the rear end is subjected to sunlight, there are bigger problems. "Greasy side down, and if it is a plane, greasy side down and pointy side forwards".

 

Well I was just putting out some info about what Sunlight does to the Por-15, besides turning black to a greenish color, it will let the rust come back... It should not be a problem on a rear end, but for safety purposes I would paint over it.... I have a friend who did some body work on a couple of cars and when he used por-15 and let it set in the Sun for a couple of hours, the por-15 changed color to green, then he painted over it and 3 months late the rust started bubbling up under the por-15 and paint... Now he is letting the por-15 dry in his shop and then primering over it before he lets it set out in the sun... So far no rust has came back on his latest work...