Cons of drilling holes in the frame

Tripbus

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Joined
Jul 17, 2022
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31
Location
MI
I live in the salt belt and contemplating drilling holes in my frame to allow for drainage. I have read alot of pros of doing this, but are there any cons that need to be considered?

As an alternative, I am also investigating having my frame sprayed with an oil based undercoat (NHOU). Has anyone applied this instead of drilling holes and had success of preventing frame rot?
 
You gotta get whatever is already in there outta there before adding anything to avoid rust in there. Whatever else ends up in there in the future also needs to get out of there so I'd say drilling those holes is step number one.
 
Only con is the possibility that you're opening up bare steel that's difficult to get cleaned, prepped, and sealed back up with new paint, but chances are if you live where you do there's already bare steel galore so the tradeoff makes sense. From what I've seen it seems like the paint they gave us in the frames qualifies as barely more than overspray.
 
I drilled holes in my frame near where the stock frame mounts were. I think it is necessary in the rust belt. I highly recommend trying to clean out the inside the best you can figure out how to and then pressure wash the inside. After it dries use fluid film everywhere, especially the inside.
 
I drilled holes in mine right at the low points for the frame. Cleaned out the frame (which was already pretty clean) and spayed the frame inside and out with fluid film.
I sprayed the inside three years ago and the fluid film is still there. I'll check it again soon. I spray the outside of the frame and entire underbody except exhaust and brakes every year
 
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