Derek have you actually had any rusting yet or is this a preventative measure. I thought I read somewhere (there's so much info floating about it's a bit difficult to remember where) that the Bs bodywork is galvanised. Ok it will rust if the galvanising (if done ) gets damaged and your conditions are much harsher than ours.
To be honest, your pictures surprised me. While my car is a year newer, it has been driven through a winter, and the car sits outside 100% of the time and other than some minor dust and dirt (touch wood) there is absolutely no rust (surface or otherwise) anywhere on the car (suspension included). I'm wondering if Quebec uses a much harsher salt mixture than the Toronto area?
Doesn't look like they are galvanised then or if so they are left exposed to the elements before treatment.
We have to nail that galvanizing answer about our B class once and for all!
Mike found out that all classes are galvanized now.
How come that isn't a selling point when we were at the dealer.
There is absolutely no rust on my B.
The cavity wax has been applied on most metal to metal contacts of my B. All doors, all hinges, all seams...
The salt applied in Quebec is scary, from now to April. Last night the temp dropped below freezing up north where I live. The preceding day it rained all day. They have no choice but to salt.
"I promise you all that all our bonnets will rust out in the future."
If the galvanizing is there, it will make a big difference by slowing the process down.
Remember that the galvanizing is simply the sacrificial metal compared to the steel under.
If you plan to keep your B for a very long time, then do something. Looking at my B from the outside, you can't see any cavity wax and I'm not worried about the looks underneath.
The last thing you want to see is a water trap. That bonnet has water traps!
Rust is like cancer, once started, it's very hard to stop!
Last edited by Derek Lecours : 11-02-2007 at 11:07 AM.
That is one scary pic. with all that rust.
I can't imagine a galvanized panel failing that fast. But in Quebec all older vehicles look like that if you haven't made any "extra" efforts to stop it. That wonderful large caulking around many of our seams will actually make the rusting process worse. If the moisture creeps between the seams(and it will), then that caulking will trap more water in the seams and help keep it there and then the rust process starts. But it does take time.
Cavity wax is by far," not" the best defense against rust. The best availably defense is yearly oil or grease undercoating. But what a mess.
The rest of the world has glass shops for vehicles and here in Montreal we have underspray shops on many corners.
The logic is that if you keep the seams full of oil and grease, then the water can't get in and start the rust process and it works.
The MB dealers won't allow any outside products applied without voiding the body warranty. So I feel safe applying more of what's already there.
Last edited by Derek Lecours : 11-03-2007 at 07:12 AM.
The B came out in (UK) September 2005 probably a bit earlier in Germany. I would like to know how a panel came to get like that in around 2 years.
Years ago we had some grottily protected cars (I'e had a lot of experience with the early BMC Austin / Morris Minis) and even with them it would take something in the order of at least 4 years to get in that sort of state & were talking 40 years ago here when rustproofing was just a coating of underseal on the underfloor of the car.
One would hope he got that fixed on his warranty or would they wriggle out by saying the rust had come from the inside out and was not covered ?
The strange thing is that photo looks( as far as I can determine) like part of
the rear (boot) door but being so obvious wouldn't you have thought that the owner would have got something done about it before it got to that state ?
In my experience the likely cause of premature rusting in modern cars occurs when they have been damaged and repaired. Sometimes this can be a very minor body repair that is required between the time the car leaves the factory and is handed over to a customer, unknown or "forgotten" by the seller.
Linear Mode
