surface rust in voids...am I paranoid?

[konish]

Okay, my diagnosis of paranoia should only be made pertaining to my <perhaps> overblown fear of rust...

After seeing 240dkw's pics of his on-going rust repair, I could not help but be drawn into wild thoughts after viewing the surface rust in the rear (de-skinned) 1/4's on his car. Assuming this was years of living in an obviously rust-prone area, with no previous attempts to deal with the rusty voids it really doesn't look *that* bad...i.e. no real rot to speak of.

So here's my situation. I just moved to Okinawa Japan from Yokosuka which has high heat, and humid salty air. My car is a 1971 240z and pretty rust free in that it was a CA car most of it's life (although there are a few spots here and there). For the most part, it's the most rust-free daily driver I have ever seen and I want to keep it that way. It won't be a DD, and I keep it covered more than it's on the road.

In my research I (oddly enough) found some old-timer tricks that the US Army used shortly after the invasion of Okinawa. Seems the USA had *bad* corrosion issues and started researching and experimenting with different techniques. The more interesting involved using some kind of paraffin bag dropped into voids that would deposit a waxy coating as it evaporated. Another was to use a fogging oil pumped into the voids also depositing an oily residue on the surface. I guess the most modern example of this is like Krown rust-proofing that is essentially an oil that gets sprayed into all the nooks and crannies.

Of course I could not find any long-term results of said treatment but the concept seems sound. So, I'm wondering if any or all of these techniques exist today to protect unreachable voids from further rust. I was also thinking the bigger industrial type desiccant packs may work but not sure how I'd stuff them back behind the door striker panel. If I could get behind there reasonably well, I'd just treat it like the exterior, but of course that's obvious. Hell, I can't even get back there to reasonably even clean the surface for paint prep.

OR, should I just not worry about it? I mean if 240dkw's car was no worse off than the pics depict, could I reasonably expect another 40 years from the old girl if I keep the exterior from rusting (which would introduce more ingress points for humidity and salt). Of course, it's just one more reason to add ZG flares, so I can cut open the 1/4s and have a look-see *and* have the cool flares I've always wanted :paranoid::classic:

R/

Dustin

Edited August 9, 2010 by konish