Now that's interesting. I did the same thing once back in 1982 with a '66
Bug that was rained in (somebody left the windows open) and the rear
floorpans, which are shaped like dishpans, got filled up. I never told
anyone about this and have been waiting all these years to confess! Whew, I
feel better now . . .
It worked great (except for the smell which took about a week to go away).
Unfortunately, the car was stolen, never to be seen again, about two years
later so I didn't have a chance to observe the long-term effects of this
treatment.
Jim Sudduth
jims@autodesk.com
'74 TR6 CF20076U
Berkeley, CA USA
At 09:10 PM 12/1/96 EST, you wrote:
>There has been some discussion on this list recently about the most
>effective way to prevent the floorpans on our cars from turning to swiss
>cheese from rust. One way is to do as I have done, and train everyone at
>the office to tell you when it's raining, so they can watch you run out
>to the parking lot like a madman to put your top up.
>
>At the risk of being tarred and feathered, I have found that the most
>effective treatment for floorpans and other rust-prone parts is - boy,
>is this embarrasing - roofing cement -tar. It works. I bought my
>current TR6 about 7 years ago and it had floorpans that were 92% okay,
>but there were a few pinholes up to about 1/8th of an inch in diameter.
>Not enough to warrant replacing the floorpans, but I wanted to do
>something to seal the holes and prevent further rust. A friend who had
>been keeping a thoroughly oxidized Volvo Amazon going on a shoestring
>budget gave me his gallon can of roofing cement and I went to work.
>Here's the really humiliating part: over the holes I used pieces of
>paper towel that were thoroughly soaked in the tar. The only redeeming
>virtues are that (a) I used a really high quality paper towel and (b) it
>worked great. I am currently replacing the carpet, and the rust that was
>there seven years ago has proceeded no further and there is absolutely no
>new rust anywhere that I painted the goop.
>
>Here's the best part - you don't have to remove old paint or oil film.
>It likes oily surfaces and it bonds with the existing paint. Afer
>painting the stuff on, I put the jute underlayment right into the wet
>tar. Over a couple of days, it dries to the point that you can touch it
>without it coming off on you fingers. With Corroless and POR you have to
>strip down to bare metal - but not with this stuff. Just get the surface
>clean - no loose, flakey rust or globs of dirt and grease.
>
>Purists and people prepping cars for concourse won't like this approach
>much, but for daily drivers like mine that are parked outside year
>round, there's one less thing you have to worry about.
>
>Mark Anderton
>
>1972 Triumph TR6 (daily driver)
>1984 Jaguar XJ6 (2 ea - some people never learn)
>1966 Morris Minor (everything a car should be)
>1971 Land Rover
>1967 Daimler V8 Saloon
>1958 Velocette MSS (500cc single)
>
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