- Joined
- Jul 27, 2012
- Messages
- 3,127
- Reaction score
- 491
- Location
- Brisbane - Australia
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Convertible
Hi to all,
I wanted to do a write up on the Topic of water is your '71 to '73's worst all 'round enemy for some time, as i believe it plays an important part of owning and maintaining your Mustangs. I hope you find it interesting and helpful. I have divided my talk into four major sections. 1. The car body. 2. The engine. 3. Refinishing and paintwork and 4. Care and Maintenance.
So why is water a bad deal for our cars? Lets start with the car body. It all starts when the cars were first manufactured. To the best of my knowledge, our 1 to 3 Mustangs were not factory primer body dipped when made back in those days. The complete bodies were primer spray painted with industrial spray guns, robot or man applied. This meant that all the inaccessible inner body cavities and frame sections, double skin panels, cracks, seams, joins didn't get properly prime coated. This of course leaves the cars vunerable and open to body rust issues as the years roll on. These days, cars are fully dipped, and this has greatly improved the cars not getting rust issues at all. That being the case, it created a new aftermarket industry of rustproofing. Rustproofing procedures attempt to mimic the effect of full body factory primer dipping, by trying to spray rustproofing materials into all inaccessible body areas that were not factory primed. The public has had mixed feelings about how good or effective rustproofing really is over the years. In my opinion, rustproofing does help to keep rust issues at bay, but does not offer up up a complete bullet proof no rust deal ongoing. If you are doing a full blown rotisserie, or any resto, there are paint coatings that can be applied over any active rust that take care of on going issues as well. These coatings can be sprayed/ brushed normally or with dandelion spray jets to enter into box channel frames etc as well. Sandblasting residues not fully removed can lead to ongoing rust issues as well. Back in the day, some car manufacturers offered up galvanized lower body panels such as rocker panels to help prevent lower body rust issues. That helped as well. The practice of salting roads in countries that snow in winter only acted as a bad accelerator of car bodies rusting out prematurely. Water, in its own right, is bad news for our Mustangs. Rainwater or snow and driving on salted roads doubles the trouble. Lets look at the water alone. Metals deteriorate quickly in damp environments because moist air provides an ideal medium in which rust forms. A water droplet, in effect, becomes a small battery, allowing ions to move freely between the iron and oxygen. Near the point where the water, iron and air meet, an electrochemical reaction pulls oxygen from the air, forming hydroxide ions in the water. Where metal is covered in water, iron atoms lose electrons, which causes the metal to slowly disintegrate; ionized iron dissolves into the water. In the water, the dissolved iron reacts with the hydroxide ions to form rust. Water on its own, in general terms, acts as a rust accelerator, and when combined with other chemicals, the rusting process is greatly accelerated. . The best purest, passive ph water is rain water, but sadly anyone living in a typical industrial city will be dealing with man made air pollution. This mixes with rain water to create an acidic chemical cocktail that eats or corrodes unprotected metals away faster. (Acid rain ) If you leave or drive your Mustang in the rain, then this water ends up permeating into your bodies inner cavities, and causing unwanted rust issues. Town/city water is a problem as well. Town/city water is generally full of chemicals like Alum, Fluoride and Chlorine. Depending on where you live, town water can be very hard as well, full of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Some cities go to the trouble of putting salt additives and chemicals into the water supply to soften up the water. This adds to the problem of rust acceleration. Country water supplies can contain natural earth salts and minerals as well, all acting to cause rust accelerating properties like town water does. The simple practice of washing your Mustang brings on atmospheric chemical and tap water chemical issues that act as body rust accelerators.
2. Engines. This one is a no brainer. Using town tap water in the old days before radiator additives were available, caused your cars water system to eventually brown rust up badly and fail. Thank goodness the additives today help solve this old problem. I mix purified distilled water only with my additive to help with any ongoing issues. We all know too, that when cleaning out your engine or engine bay, throwing around a lot of water can cause electrical issues you don't want to happen. Bagging or isolating off sensitive components helps, but does not guarantee trouble free outcomes.
3.When refinishing or respraying cars today, pro painters know that when wet sanding down any paintwork, you must dry off the wet panels with a rag or chamois before the water has a chance of drying on the panel naturally or in the sun. If you don't, then you can expect respray issues after you have applied your new paint. The acids and chemicals in the water etch into the paint and create contamination issues. Also, washing a car with fresh paintwork, and leaving it in the sun to dry without using a chamois first can cause paint issues as well. However, buffing the panels can remove these problems created.
4. Care and Maintenance. I have owned my '73 Convertible for 11 years, and in that time, i have never washed my car with a bucket and garden hose, or driven my car in the rain or on wet roads. Thank God we don't salt our roads where i live here in Australia. This practice works 100% for me. I do not have any rust issues at all. I do baby my car, but i understand that a lot of Mustang owners would take a more normal approach and have no problem washing their cars regularly or driving them in the rain as such. If you do hose wash, then using a quality wash and wax product in the bucket, is a big help in preventing ongoing rust issues. For me, i see any water as being destructive to my car for the reasons i have stated above, and so, my car never sees any water at all. I have perfected ways of cleaning my car externally with out the need of a garden hose and bucket. I use a compressed air gun to blow off any surface dust first, then use a semi wet chamois to softly wipe down each panel or surface around the car. The chamois gets rinsed out several times as i move around the car. I don't get any scratching issues either. I finish off using a top quality carnuba spray wax detailer with microfibre cloths. Also, leaving town water on glass and chrome surfaces to air or sun dry, can cause etching issues as well. If you drive you car in wet weather, the roads usually have a lot of greasy, oily, chemical road grime and gritty filth on them. This wet grimy, gritty road muck gets flung up everywhere on your under carridge and lower body panels, gets into your inner cavities and acts as a rust accelerator as well. This gritty dirty grime deposited under and around your lower car, is the reason most guys have the NEED to hose or pressure spray the car off first before moving in with a bucket of suds or snow foam spray products. I don't drive in wet weather or on wet roads, so the under carridge and lower body panel dirt and grime senario is not a problem i have to deal with. Also, don't use cheap detergents to wash your car. They are full of phosphates and chemicals that act as rust accelerators. My vert, like a lot of the 1,2,3 Mustang verts has slight leak roof area issues, that can't be rectified, by buying new parts. (you gotta love the old cars!) This is another reason why my car never sees water at all. I guess there is a lot of truth when they say that in America, your hot, dry inland regions, help preserve the old cars from rusting out badly. I must have been very fortunate, as my '73 came from Ohio originally. ( Snow and salt) What saved my car from any rust issues was the original owner only drove the car on occasional weekends, and not in winter time. It was always garage stored as well. He owned it from 1973 to 2009.
So when you add it all up, water is the enemy in creating ongoing problems with our old cars. If you can do your best to keep water away from your cars, then there is no doubt, you will be doing your self some big favors, and reap some good benefits.
Cheers,
Greg. :classic_smile:
I wanted to do a write up on the Topic of water is your '71 to '73's worst all 'round enemy for some time, as i believe it plays an important part of owning and maintaining your Mustangs. I hope you find it interesting and helpful. I have divided my talk into four major sections. 1. The car body. 2. The engine. 3. Refinishing and paintwork and 4. Care and Maintenance.
So why is water a bad deal for our cars? Lets start with the car body. It all starts when the cars were first manufactured. To the best of my knowledge, our 1 to 3 Mustangs were not factory primer body dipped when made back in those days. The complete bodies were primer spray painted with industrial spray guns, robot or man applied. This meant that all the inaccessible inner body cavities and frame sections, double skin panels, cracks, seams, joins didn't get properly prime coated. This of course leaves the cars vunerable and open to body rust issues as the years roll on. These days, cars are fully dipped, and this has greatly improved the cars not getting rust issues at all. That being the case, it created a new aftermarket industry of rustproofing. Rustproofing procedures attempt to mimic the effect of full body factory primer dipping, by trying to spray rustproofing materials into all inaccessible body areas that were not factory primed. The public has had mixed feelings about how good or effective rustproofing really is over the years. In my opinion, rustproofing does help to keep rust issues at bay, but does not offer up up a complete bullet proof no rust deal ongoing. If you are doing a full blown rotisserie, or any resto, there are paint coatings that can be applied over any active rust that take care of on going issues as well. These coatings can be sprayed/ brushed normally or with dandelion spray jets to enter into box channel frames etc as well. Sandblasting residues not fully removed can lead to ongoing rust issues as well. Back in the day, some car manufacturers offered up galvanized lower body panels such as rocker panels to help prevent lower body rust issues. That helped as well. The practice of salting roads in countries that snow in winter only acted as a bad accelerator of car bodies rusting out prematurely. Water, in its own right, is bad news for our Mustangs. Rainwater or snow and driving on salted roads doubles the trouble. Lets look at the water alone. Metals deteriorate quickly in damp environments because moist air provides an ideal medium in which rust forms. A water droplet, in effect, becomes a small battery, allowing ions to move freely between the iron and oxygen. Near the point where the water, iron and air meet, an electrochemical reaction pulls oxygen from the air, forming hydroxide ions in the water. Where metal is covered in water, iron atoms lose electrons, which causes the metal to slowly disintegrate; ionized iron dissolves into the water. In the water, the dissolved iron reacts with the hydroxide ions to form rust. Water on its own, in general terms, acts as a rust accelerator, and when combined with other chemicals, the rusting process is greatly accelerated. . The best purest, passive ph water is rain water, but sadly anyone living in a typical industrial city will be dealing with man made air pollution. This mixes with rain water to create an acidic chemical cocktail that eats or corrodes unprotected metals away faster. (Acid rain ) If you leave or drive your Mustang in the rain, then this water ends up permeating into your bodies inner cavities, and causing unwanted rust issues. Town/city water is a problem as well. Town/city water is generally full of chemicals like Alum, Fluoride and Chlorine. Depending on where you live, town water can be very hard as well, full of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Some cities go to the trouble of putting salt additives and chemicals into the water supply to soften up the water. This adds to the problem of rust acceleration. Country water supplies can contain natural earth salts and minerals as well, all acting to cause rust accelerating properties like town water does. The simple practice of washing your Mustang brings on atmospheric chemical and tap water chemical issues that act as body rust accelerators.
2. Engines. This one is a no brainer. Using town tap water in the old days before radiator additives were available, caused your cars water system to eventually brown rust up badly and fail. Thank goodness the additives today help solve this old problem. I mix purified distilled water only with my additive to help with any ongoing issues. We all know too, that when cleaning out your engine or engine bay, throwing around a lot of water can cause electrical issues you don't want to happen. Bagging or isolating off sensitive components helps, but does not guarantee trouble free outcomes.
3.When refinishing or respraying cars today, pro painters know that when wet sanding down any paintwork, you must dry off the wet panels with a rag or chamois before the water has a chance of drying on the panel naturally or in the sun. If you don't, then you can expect respray issues after you have applied your new paint. The acids and chemicals in the water etch into the paint and create contamination issues. Also, washing a car with fresh paintwork, and leaving it in the sun to dry without using a chamois first can cause paint issues as well. However, buffing the panels can remove these problems created.
4. Care and Maintenance. I have owned my '73 Convertible for 11 years, and in that time, i have never washed my car with a bucket and garden hose, or driven my car in the rain or on wet roads. Thank God we don't salt our roads where i live here in Australia. This practice works 100% for me. I do not have any rust issues at all. I do baby my car, but i understand that a lot of Mustang owners would take a more normal approach and have no problem washing their cars regularly or driving them in the rain as such. If you do hose wash, then using a quality wash and wax product in the bucket, is a big help in preventing ongoing rust issues. For me, i see any water as being destructive to my car for the reasons i have stated above, and so, my car never sees any water at all. I have perfected ways of cleaning my car externally with out the need of a garden hose and bucket. I use a compressed air gun to blow off any surface dust first, then use a semi wet chamois to softly wipe down each panel or surface around the car. The chamois gets rinsed out several times as i move around the car. I don't get any scratching issues either. I finish off using a top quality carnuba spray wax detailer with microfibre cloths. Also, leaving town water on glass and chrome surfaces to air or sun dry, can cause etching issues as well. If you drive you car in wet weather, the roads usually have a lot of greasy, oily, chemical road grime and gritty filth on them. This wet grimy, gritty road muck gets flung up everywhere on your under carridge and lower body panels, gets into your inner cavities and acts as a rust accelerator as well. This gritty dirty grime deposited under and around your lower car, is the reason most guys have the NEED to hose or pressure spray the car off first before moving in with a bucket of suds or snow foam spray products. I don't drive in wet weather or on wet roads, so the under carridge and lower body panel dirt and grime senario is not a problem i have to deal with. Also, don't use cheap detergents to wash your car. They are full of phosphates and chemicals that act as rust accelerators. My vert, like a lot of the 1,2,3 Mustang verts has slight leak roof area issues, that can't be rectified, by buying new parts. (you gotta love the old cars!) This is another reason why my car never sees water at all. I guess there is a lot of truth when they say that in America, your hot, dry inland regions, help preserve the old cars from rusting out badly. I must have been very fortunate, as my '73 came from Ohio originally. ( Snow and salt) What saved my car from any rust issues was the original owner only drove the car on occasional weekends, and not in winter time. It was always garage stored as well. He owned it from 1973 to 2009.
So when you add it all up, water is the enemy in creating ongoing problems with our old cars. If you can do your best to keep water away from your cars, then there is no doubt, you will be doing your self some big favors, and reap some good benefits.
Cheers,
Greg. :classic_smile:
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