Rust proofing

80's Kid

New member
I would just like to say that if you own one of these rare cars, and claim to be a collector, then please spend the 100 bucks to get it rust proofed. I rescued 2 of these cars from nitwits who were bragging about how much they love these cars, how they dreamed of them since they were kids, blah blah blah, only to buy one and not take basic care of it.

You're not a true collector if you can't manage something as simple as rust-proofing your car, before you go pretending it's a snowmobile. I am going to great lengths to preserve the cars I have, I thought about selling them off instead of getting the rust fixed, but I would rather not let them go to waste, as I know the next person wouldn't take care of them. Also, rust-free examples are next to impossible to find in Canada.

As a point of interest, there is a 100% rust proof ST185 in Ontario, or at least there was in 2018. I happened to have seen it in person, it was in car show condition. Too bad the guy needed to sell it right away, otherwise I would have bought it for sure.
 

80's Kid

New member
I've been using Krown Rust control, but the stuff drips onto your driveway and stains it. My plan is to get the underside sandblasted, and then powder coated. Once that is done I might not need to get it done every year.
 

underscore

Well-known member
I'm curious what works as well, as I know some stuff can actually make rust worse. I'm not sure how you could powdercoat the underbody as you'd need an absolutely massive oven.

80's Kid":24lt3hym said:
I would rather not let them go to waste, as I know the next person wouldn't take care of them.

That's the conundrum I had when trying to sell my car. I want to do snow/gravel TSD events and rallyx and I didn't want to risk damage (as accidents do happen) to such a rare car so I put it for sale. I priced it high so that only a real Celica enthusiast that would care for it properly would try to buy it. That hasn't happened, and I've seen far too many well-built cars get sold cheap to people who don't care for them and end up ruining them. I figure if that's going to happen I may as well keep it and take a bit of a risk of damaging it rather than let it end up in the hands of someone I know will damage it. I hate to do it but I haven't got a lot of choice.
 

80's Kid

New member
Well, it's not like you're going to drive it through roads covered in road salt for some sick enjoyment. The guys I rescued the cars from didn't even do the basics. I thought powdercoating is just sprayed on. The whole car will be taken apart for the process, minus the bare minimum to roll them onto a trailer. I plan to repaint both cars, one white and one black. Matching opposites.

https://www.readersdigest.ca/cars/maint ... g-methods/

I'm not sure what the jury is on those rust-proofing modules. I know one of the sprays works for sure, as I did happen to see a flawless Canadian ST185 in 2018 that I wish I had bought. It was well taken care of, 1 owner too I believe, until a dealership acquired it. I hope it didn't go to some schmuck. Guy sold it for 7000. He didn't have that info though, on which spray the original owner used.

I toyed with the idea of selling both of mine and importing 1 Carlos Sainz from Europe, but it would be hard to see them go and end up in a junkyard due to neglect and it just so happens that one of them has an additional, rear differential installed way back by the first owner.
 

underscore

Well-known member
True, we don't use salt here so the risk of rust from snow driving would be minimized.

Powdercoat is sprayed on and then baked at something like 200*C to cure, I don't know a lot about it but I can't say I've heard of any that don't need heat to cure.

The electronic modules have always intrigued me but I can't see how they could work. Electricity takes the easiest path to complete the circuit so I would think you'd need connections all over the place to get somewhat even flow of electricity through the whole vehicle, and even then I'm not sure how that's supposed to prevent corrosion. I know my GTS was sold in Saskatchewan in 1992, in 1994 it was coated with I believe DiamondKote (I'll have to check the papers again). 27 years and 315k later and the underside of the car is in amazing shape, a lot of bolts and things were very seized together but no rust. It's been in BC since at least 2006 but I still think that's pretty impressive considering the state of some of the vehicles I've seen from the prairies.
 
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