Preparing for age of BRZ... Rust risk?

[FTA_Dave]

The rocker panels poorly sealed by the rubber air flap ahead of the rear tire. I recently pulled the interior out of my car and found the rockers full of sand/ salt. I vacuumed an easy 8-10 lbs out of the rockers/quarters/trunk of the car. If you plan on keeping this car for the long term get a winter beater.

[scmil95eg]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

I had a 1998 Subaru Outback that had 286,000 salt-covered winters on it.

That's a lot of winters in 18 years!

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by ajcarson11

Having an intention of keeping my car for a long time

You are a minority. Nice decision!

[Stang70Fastback]

Originally Posted by scmil95eg

That's a lot of winters in 18 years!

Haha, shit. Fixed!

[Lynxis]

My car has been through 3 Canadian winters now and it's 4th is fast approaching. I haven't done any rust proofing at this point. I've done lots of work to my car this year and found lots of surface rust in various places. I'll talk about the places that I've noticed and any notes about them:

1. Heavy surface rust on suspension knuckles.
2. Heavy surface rust on hubs, probably because they were exposed with my winter steelies.
2. Completely rusted front sway bar end link nuts and bolts. I had to cut my OEM end links out in order to install my upgraded suspension.
3. Minor spots of surface rust on front and rear subframes.
4. Heavy surface rust on exhaust, completely covered from front pipe to back wheels.
5. Minor surface rust on the bottom of my pinch welds. I suspect this is due to scraping over some particularly nasty speed bumps. I've since learned how to take these bumps without scraping even though I'm lowered now.

I've got a small laundry list of things to do to the car in preparation for next winter so when I'm under the car for that, I'm going to clean up any minor surface rust that is starting and hit it with some corrosion inhibiting paint and hope for the best. I think the parts that are completely covered in surface rust are a lost cause (knuckles and exhaust) and will have to be replaced when they start to fail.

[Guru Woodman]

I Krown the p!ss out of mine.

[one2onejackpot]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

Salt? What's that?

Ha, I love the Steelies! I live in Hawthorn Woods, not too far from Schaumburg. I bought some winter tires for mine just in case, but you'll never see me driving on salted roads unless I have to. My car has all the underbody paneling and isn't even a year old and I've seen rust spots pop up on the bolts last time I jacked it up to make adjustments on my Borla rear diffuser. The front end links were already rusting when I changed out the sway bars a week after I bought the car. I got mine at the end of January, so the dealer could've had it for 3 months. It only had 12 miles on it though.

On a side note, keep that car inside if it hails. If that's not an option, throw something over the all aluminum hood.

[Stang70Fastback]

Originally Posted by one2onejackpot

On a side note, keep that car inside if it hails. If that's not an option, throw something over the all aluminum hood.

Yeah, she has heated indoor parking, and I keep a keen eye on the weather when I'm out and about