How do you prepare your IX for winter?

[aberg83]

I live in Canada and the roads are salted in the winter. Have about $5k into my current IX build. I still have some rust to sort out (i.e. rockers, floor jack points as the major spots). I obviously plan to drive her during the winter but don't want her to waste away due to rust. What do you guys do for protection during winter?


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[chuckdizzle]

Best you could do is keep the undercarriage clean, rinse it off thoroughly to get rid of the salt that'll stick. I also painted over my replacement strut housings with POR-15 rust protector as my original housings rusted away.

[Northern]

Undercoat the fuck out of it, as well as inside the rockers down through the door sills/behind quarter window door cards, or drill holes. Unless you're willing to deal with the rust before winter, even if its just sanding off and por-15 everything.

And +1 to washing the salt off regularly, underside included.

[saurey]

Stoked for winter. Fresh tune up, adding Bilstein HD's (old shocks are super soft and gone) and adding Thule rack soon too. Can't wait for Winter!

[Northern]

Ugh, mine is still apart to do the timing belt, just waiting to find an updated intermediate shaft gear so I dont have to use the old stamped one.

[ihavefingers]

Undercoat the fuck out of it, as well as inside the rockers down through the door sills/behind quarter window door cards, or drill holes. Unless you're willing to deal with the rust before winter, even if its just sanding off and por-15 everything.

And +1 to washing the salt off regularly, underside included.

With por-15 you pretty much have to remove, sand, and prep anything that your coating correct? I've been trying to figure out what to do with mine to rust proof it some. Luckily it has pretty much no rust that I can see, but I want to keep it that way.

I'm thinking of using por-15 on everything I can get to/remove easily. Then undercoating the rest. Is there a specific type of undercoating I should look at? Worth taking to a shop? Or easy enough to do myself?

[Swanny]

Do not use undercoat. Get bed liner instead.

[MikeDE]

Old German trick: spray the underside liberally(and 'responsibly') with WD40, then wipe off the excess. Also, park it outside rather than in a garage, giving it little chance to dry. There's way less chance of damage if it stays damp.

[chuckdizzle]

Old German trick: spray the underside liberally(and 'responsibly') with WD40, then wipe off the excess. Also, park it outside rather than in a garage, giving it little chance to dry. There's way less chance of damage if it stays damp.

Never thought of that, but sounds effective.

[Northern]

I would use something a little more durable than WD40. I can't see WD40 doing much other than dripping off/evaporating.

I'd try something more like LPS 3, or any other type of spray on undercoating that thickens into a hard gel that doesn't easily rinse/wipe away. There are many purpose-made automotive undercoating products like this.

and for POR-15, It is advertised as paint over rust, but I've had very little success with that feature, so it would obviously be best to remove all the rust, then either POR-15, epoxy prime, or prime/paint it.

If you just want to do something to stop it from getting worse, grind off all the loose rust and POR-15 it to keep it dry/sealed, and it will keep it dry and slow it down.

[Swanny]

^ proper application of por 15 is a must and its a pain in the ass. Stuff is amazing if applied correctly but it takes patience and doing and entire under carriage would be quite the project. There's a great winterizing thread on here that has you go through and apply antisieze to just about everything under the car and to look for damaged areas of the factory under coating. As I mentioned earlier make sure you use something that will not trap moisture as many of the spray on rubberized coatings do. Bedliner is a great as you can just brush it on or spray it if you have the equipment.

[EyExR]

I talk to it nicely... and let it know that I'm going to give it a good pounding. But I ease any fears by letting her know that I'll rub her gently and clean off all that nasty salt at the end of each snowy romp session... :mrgreen:

[Big swifty]

FluidFilm. Just sprayed all my vehicles.

[Swanny]

More on the fluid film?

[Big swifty]

More on the fluid film?

New York uses it on all it's salt trucks. Wicks like crazy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fluid-Film-2-gallon-kit-Rust-Preventive-and-Lubricant-use-as-undercoating-/160873987772?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2574d63ebc

Heard about it on one of the Vanagon sites I frequent. Others on the site from the Northeast concur. I have since spoken to others here in VT who have used it for a few years with great results. Easy to apply. I sprayed it @ 90 psig in my driveway. Went on nice with no aerosolized losses.

My upcoming first winter. We'll see but I have high hopes.