best way to protect opti ?

I have blasted both of my 96 roadmasters with the powerwasher and never an issue with the anything electrical on either car while doing this. Soaked the engines down with simple green and powerwashed them off (looked like brand new!) Remeber to take your water hose and flush out the inside of the frame from all the roadsalt. Because it is warm where you live the salt becomes VERY corrosive when you add the heat and water so flush the undercarriage well.

 

Do you think my sprinkler running underneath would have cleaned the frame well enough? Or should I crawl under there and shoot the hose right down the frame.

We're in the dry season now, otherwise all the puddles usually in the road would probably clean it up pretty good.

I'd hate to get rust started, she made it through the first 18 years virtually rust-free. I wish I had a lift I could put it up on and really blast.

Any other ideas? Do you think I could take it somewhere? Maybe a body shop where they do undercoating?

As you can tell, I'm a little worried - there was a lot of salt up there.

 

Don't forget, if you go through water deeper than the height of the sidewall of the tire, get the differential serviced quickly, unless you have rerouted the vent. Cold water hitting the pumpkin will cause it to suck water in, and you will be rebuilding your rear axle in very short order.

 

Here in the buckle of the rust belt plain water really doesn't clean the salt off or neutralize it's corrosive effects , it just makes a brine solution that spreads over everything, don't forget about the chloride de-icer they use now too.
I used to do the underbody washing with water, it forces the salt into places that it didn't get into before and unless it's neutralized it just makes things worse, learned that the hard way. You have to use a solution like Salt-Away to really get the stuff off, it also leaves a film to protect the steel if you can't wash it all off good. You also have to remember all the aluminum parts the salt eats, that corrosion can be worse than rust sometimes.

http://www.saltawayproducts.com/


I've been fighting the stuff for forty years and found the best thing besides neutralizing the salt is to detail the underbody and make sure everything possible is painted or cleared for protection, water on steel turns it to rust too. The B-bodys have a lot of chassis parts that aren't painted like the control arms, even my rear end was bare.

 

Thanks for the advice on Salt-Away. I ordered a jug on amazon and used it today. I feel much better now. It came with a nice dispenser for attaching to a garden hose, so I hooked it up to the lawn sprinkler and ran underneath for about 20 minutes per quadrant. I then took the sprinkler off, put a fresh stock of salt-away in the dispenser, attached to a spray nozzle, crawled underneath and manually blasted wherever I could. Ran it right down thru the frame and watched as it bubbled out the other end. When done underneath, I even sprayed a little bit in the engine compartment, being careful to avoid the opti. Rinsed fornt and back of radiators, all the rocker panels, bumpers, door jams, wheel wells, etc. Hopefully, I got any reamaining residual salt from my trip out. If it works as described in the directions, I think I just did a really good thing for Yolanda.

Now, a general exterior wash, wax and general cleanup, and she's ready for Spring.

Thanks again for the advice on Salt-Away. I'll probably use it occaisionally from now on - since I live about 1 mile from the ocean, it might be a good idea.

 

I've started looking for that salt away stuff locally, but haven't found any yet.
There's no salt water around here so the marinas may not carry it.

 

You can get it at Amazon. It's not cheap, but if it does what it's supposed to do, it'll. Be worth it.

 

Yolanda? I dated a girl in High school named Yolanda. By the way, I was also in high school then! So Yolanda is a few years older than your station wagon. I haven't dated any high school girls for several years. My wife won't let me!
Seems like some of those drive thru car washes would have cleaned under the wagon. Back in the Midwest all I ever did was used a garden hose under my cars. Seemed to have worked. The only rusty ones I had came that way.
I don't plan on driving north any farther than the Florida state line until spring and don't ever expect to be north of that line past October any year.