993James993

My son and I are considering an early 911/912. We live in southern Arizona and hope to find a rust free car.

What precautions should we take to avoid rust? We are probably in the best of locations as its fairly dry here, they don't put salt on the roads and this will be a weekend car.

What specific steps should one take to minimize rust? Is it ok to drive the car in the rain? Will weekly washings harm it? Are there areas that will likely collect and hold water? Should we use a specific battery or put the battery in some type of tray?

We haven't found the car yet but are starting our search.

Thanks for you advice!

hoffman912

I would avoid weekly washing.. infact minimum washing is best. i would wash it, do a full detail job everywhere, polish, wax etc. then from there on out i would use a spray detailer to clean it up after that, griots garage, maguires etc all have them. cleans it up nice and keeps you from washing it too often. I would maybe wash it once a year, unless its legitimitly filthy with bugs, mud etc. Dust can be wiped off with a microfiber cloth or a california duster.

I would coat floor and trunk pans with por15. take a wire brush, clean up any rust or rough spots in the in the inside of the trunk, then paint over it with por 15. Outter floor pans should be undercoated instead of just por 15. www.por15.com

I would store it in a garage, and never outside. in AZ, the sun will bake the heck out of these cars if they are left to sit in the sun all day. It will kill the vinyl interior and paint. also the sand will literally sand blast the paint. So, when not in use, store inside. some i colder areas sware by heated garages, or car bubbles and dehumidifiers in their garages to protect their cars, but that will be over kill for you.

I would not use a car cover to cover the car in the garage if it has been raining, or recently been wet (rain, or car wash). If its completely dry and not humid you should be OK with a car cover. The problem with car covers is that they dont breath. I will not use one in ohio cause of teh humidity. if there is moisture in the air i dont want it to be covered and not allowed to breath. I dount you would have this issue in Az.

never keep salt or any abrasive chemicals on the garage floor or anywhere that might leak near the car. 10 years ago when i was 17 and just got my 912, my dad put the rock salt for the water softener right next to the 912 on the floor. I immediently moved it away to the other side of the garage, where it was not right next to it. yeah, its in a bag, but salt can still flake out through little holes or dust could be in teh atmosphere... OK.. so I'm OCD, **** Retentive and paranoid.. but i just dont chance it .




you should check out the 912 registry www.912registry.org and the 912bbs forum www.912bbs.org
the 912 bbs has covered these topics (and just about everfy topic imaginable) to a great extent, and the forum there has so much knowledge to share. you can learn alot by searching around there and picking the brains of other 912ers (thats the forum where most of us post).

hoffman912

yup, a good coat of wax is a must! But washing it every week is over kill. California Dusters are awesome at wiping off dust and are used everywhere.. and are exteremely safe against scratching. you can get them at any car place like auto zone. After you dust it off use the detailer spray from maguires or griots. I garuntee this works pretty darn well

Another thing, get a safe cell battery like an optima, so that battery acid will not leak on to the battery tray. many batterey trays are rotted out because of this. use an optima or an Odyssey, they will not leak acid and will prevent rust (plus they store alot of charge, are strong and last long).

hoffman912

ps.. the problem with too many washings is that water will get into the nooks and cranies you cannot get to to dry. like between the fenders and trunk (which are notorious). or into rotten rubber window seals (and for the rear the water will seep in and rot the rear shelf, rear seat area and the metal around the rear window.)

another really good thing to do is to take out the interior pannels, carpet etc (gut the whole thing) and to remove the horse hair sound deadener. The factory insulated these cars with horse hair and tar. the horse hair and tar will soak up water and moisture and trap it in... this is why many of these cars get rotted. Seals go bad, rain water gets soaked up into the horse hair, and will sit there and start rusting everything away.

after you remove the horse hair, clean up the metal and then coat with por 15.. then you reinstall the interior. this is the most common and best practice.

hoffman912

btw... here are pics of what happens to the place where the fender attaches. There are seals and stuff there, but water will get trapped there regardless.

Edited by John D.
These photographs are copyrighted by the late Dave Hillman. His website can be found at http://www.hillmanimages.com



here is a pic of the same kind of damage on a 964 (89-93 911). see, even the newer galvanised cars are not immune from this damage.




I wouldnt bother with any kind of solvent.. that will make it messy as hell and gross. I would get out a good old fashioned metal putty knife, elbow grease. just dig under it and scrape it off. After you get the majority of it scraped out, a drill with a heavy wire brush attachment will help get the remainder off. It will also help remove rust, loose paint etc.

butzip

I believe rust was a factory option on all cars from the late 60's. Take it seriously because if you can see it, it's really 10 times worse under the surface. My car was infected in all the text book places: lock posts, rockers, susp pan, rear window corners, rear floor pans, front fenders, turn signal boxes. It took quite some time and $$$ to fix it all. If we weren't original owners and I didn't do most of the work myself it would have never made any sense to make the investment. But we did and I do not regret it for a minute. The removing the horse-hair is on a par with siberian hard labor but it must go. I sealed all seams that appeared vunerable with Sikaflex and try not to subject it to too many elements. 11 years after the resto, not a sign of rust anywhere.

Good luck and brgds, Peter

hoffman912

what butzi said.. if you see rust, its 10x worse in reality

find the best example you can buy. meaning dont try to save money, cause when you buy a lesser example to save money, you will spend 2X that to fix it and make it right and as good as the one you could have bought.

this golden rule goes for body, engine, mechanicals, interior, etc. repairs and replacements are not cheep.

butzip

Amen!!!

I notice the Sikaflex type sealer on the 964. I think they stole my idea

hoffman912

look at the rust though


i would refrain from using a sealer.. sealers will allow water to puddle in there, and get trapped, and not flow through. there isnt anywhere for it to escape -hense rust. i would lean towards using cavity wax (which isnt exactly a sealer), or maybe nothing at all

John D.

Harry....

If you are going to use pictures from ANOTHER WEBSITE - where they are NOT your pictures - you will please give credit, where credit is due!! I edited your post above...

Thanks!

John D.

hoffman912

I am sorry about that. will not happen again. I am sorry that that you had to receieve that email regarding this issue. I did not check my email for a few days, so i did not see the email to know that this was a problem.