What have folks done to replace the rubberized undercoating in the old 'Benzes? I've seen JamesDean complain about how it sags and creates little pockets for water to sit in, and after crawling around underneath my car, I can see where he is coming from!

I found that Advance sells this 3M rubberized spray-on undercoating. Anybody here used it? What have folks here used?

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

I have a pump sprayer from Home Depot and spray my used motor oil under the car.

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Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

Hm. Do you still have the factory undercoating on your car or have you stripped that out?

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Good God that must make a mess in a driveway or parking area.
I never heard tell of such.

Yeah, that is done in the other rust belt. There are even shops that do it professionally, but they are thinning out as this becomes less and less necessary on newer cars.

And it works. My parts car 300D looked like someone had dutifully sprayed it in the past, and many of the nuts and bolts -- such as the transmission support bolts -- were easy as pie to take out.

Of course, I was absolutely covered in engine oil after that, bu that is a small price to pay for no rust (the car had plenty of rust as a result of water leaks, but no rust going outside-in).

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

no it does not it dries and pick a dust ....many folks over here do that procedure..as long is 15w40 oil
used...the procedure is repeated every 5 years or so.... I had a opportunity
to examine some of those cars underneath.... no rust at all...

while spraying the rubber has to be avoided....


but...zinc based coating is the best way to go if you have the means...

.

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w126 500SEC gen II euro, powered by OM617 turbo stolen from 84 300SD 2.88 diff,EGR blinded
next wish/project: w114 coupe OM603 powered

Too bad the electrical sacrifice system did not do all that well. I have often wondered what results would be of placing a few sacrificial anodes around the chassis.

Well bonded electrically to the parent metal certainly would not hurt anything I imagine. Normal low carbon steel will always seek a path back to its iron oxide origins. You have to block oxygen access. My guess is that in the process of rusting once started may also generate some level of oxygen in the process as well.. Just less unless moisture is trapped as well. That is why petroleum products cannot stop rusting totally once established. Instead just slow it down to an almost inconsequential rate if coverage remains good.

Most is still there, but rust is rearing it's ugly head. It seems the oil it the only stuff that really stunts the spread of rust. Once it builds up, you don't have to do it anymore.

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Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

I have used the 3M from advance and it works well.
However it runs out quick, that stuff comes out fast.
Wear old clothes and paint it on somewhere you don't walk
Or drive. It splatters a lot and it sticks like mad to all it touches.
Wrap the exaust pipe or put up with the smell of burning tar a few days.
Don't get it on the drive shaft or bolts you may want to take off.
Other than that it makes the car look like new under neath.
Car ramps and having the car off the ground so you can get underneath easily is a big plus to
Using this stuff neatly.

I'll probably use POR-15 and then their chassis top coat.

I know it won't be as quiet as the rubber stuff but if there's a leak the water won't get trapped and travel across the whole sodding length of the vehicle (merrily chuckling and giggling evilly - ha ha I'm really going to %%%% this Benz up). It'll just rust through in one spot.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

If you're doing an all-over job, Zolatone Tuff Rider is nice stuff. It's supposed to be bedliner, but it's a much better undercoat.

It's a two-part urethane that needs to be applied with a schutz gun. It dries fast to sort of a dense foam finish with a bit of gloss and slickness. It doesn't chip, probably because it has some squish to it, so even rocks bouncing around in wheel wells become quiet and less of a distraction. Definitely good stuff.

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- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread

Well depends on your climate. In temperature swings the metal underneath the undercoating sweats. Somehow or other oxygen gets in as well. Oxidation or rusting then can be worse than on bare metal.

Petroleum products seem to block the oxygen and slow down the rusting as much as they can. You cannot absolutely stop it other than it's total elimination once underway it seems.

For some reason it is also worse in humid climates. Spraying coatings that set up over rust in general will accelerate the rusting rate. A hard coating well bonded to clean unrusted metal seems to work to some degree.

Other than that petroleum products are known to be the best alternative. Grease is better than oil. Sprayable with crude equipment if warmed up. Messy to do under chassis work afterwords unless steamed off is a problem.

The oil attacks the rubber coating - seen that a ton of times, if you really have a problem of the factory coat peeling away, use a steel scraper and some elbow grease to remove as much as possible.

Once done spray the 3M product with utmost care of splattering, wear a full banana suit.

You also should get a can or two of Nuxodol - its the wax coating that is sprayed inside the body cavities, the Noxudol is really thin and will get everywhere in the body. This is how such problems are dealt with in EU.

Using oil is a disaster by any stretch, Ive seen countless cars being destroyed by it.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

We have a real bad deal going in the eastern canadian rust belt. Dealer applied harder undercoatings applied at about 400.00 each on new cars. The cars rust out quicker than without any undercoating at all quite often.

For example my son in laws 2002 Honda civic was not undercoated and fared far better than his friends similar cars that were dealer undercoated over time.

Sprayed and touched up yearly with silicon based oil products instead from new properly they do very well in comparison. I suspect thin oil products or the leaching of the oil component in grease ties very tight to the steel denying it oxygen so it cannot rust.

I still have our hydraulic grease and graphite spray set up. You cannot buy the mixture anymore and it is slightly illegal now to use this. It compressed the product to several thousand pounds pressure and sprayed it through a small orfice. We found it quick,fast and effective.

I have always suspected the Mercedes coating was intended as a noise reducer primarily more than a rustproofer. Otherwise I could not see why the factory stuck to applying it. Their cars rusted out really seriously in our climate.

i've heard that mb uses atmosit.

terson atmosit

i sorta like the idea of oiling up the iron to deter rust. my car is a rust magnet. hmm ... when it's rusted away it's no longer magnetic so technically that's wrong.