Rust prevention (from those in the rust belt)

I’m in a similar boat. Moved from Idaho which doesn’t use too much salt to New Hampshire which uses a ton. I’ve just done my absolute best every spring and fall to repaint any areas that have the rock chip surface rust. This is the only winter I plan on having to drive my jeep in the salt but need it to last this winter as I just started a new career and don’t have the ability to not drive the jeep. I don’t have any real rust as of now so I am hoping with the well covered paint and washings when I do drive it will at least be minimal rust to where I can clean it up come spring time. I don’t want to do any oil under coatings since it will be harder to remove that stuff to sand and repaint come spring time. Will be curious to see others ideas.

If’n I was gonna daily my jeep in NH then I’d invest in a heavy coat of NHOU. New Hampshire Oil Undercoating. It’s made for the job. I’m sure you can find someone close to do it for you. I use it on Luci’s YJ because she wants to drive it and it’s hers, and on my F-250.

https://nhoilundercoating.com/
 
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Looks like a regular water bath is going to be the ticket for my situation. I'll see if I can get my on demand camping heater set up to at least provide some warm water for a better flush so things don't just instantly freeze.
 
I had my LJ in Baja for two years, storing it under wraps during the summer. I used it to drop my boat in the water. And drive around the country of course, and beach driving. I washed it after every boat outing , but it still rusted the outer axle ends. I applied POR-15 to that area and used their top coat over the that and the rest of the axle. I also used the top coat on the frame the first winter there. And used Fluid Film on the entire frame. Arizona Jeep back to rust free status.
 
Looks like a regular water bath is going to be the ticket for my situation. I'll see if I can get my on demand camping heater set up to at least provide some warm water for a better flush so things don't just instantly freeze.

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https://www.amazon.com/s?k=under+ca...dhm31_e&tag=wranglerorg-20&tag=wranglerorg-20
 
I’m in a similar boat. Moved from Idaho which doesn’t use too much salt to New Hampshire which uses a ton. I’ve just done my absolute best every spring and fall to repaint any areas that have the rock chip surface rust. This is the only winter I plan on having to drive my jeep in the salt but need it to last this winter as I just started a new career and don’t have the ability to not drive the jeep. I don’t have any real rust as of now so I am hoping with the well covered paint and washings when I do drive it will at least be minimal rust to where I can clean it up come spring time. I don’t want to do any oil under coatings since it will be harder to remove that stuff to sand and repaint come spring time. Will be curious to see others ideas.

First thing I'd do is to drill holes in the frame bottom to allow the crap that builds up in the frame to come out. Keep it washed regularly (although most car washes re-use the water which then has salt in it) and spray some Fluid Film, Woolwax or Surface Shield on the underside.
 
First thing I'd do is to drill holes in the frame bottom to allow the crap that builds up in the frame to come out. Keep it washed regularly (although most car washes re-use the water which then has salt in it) and spray some Fluid Film, Woolwax or Surface Shield on the underside.

Have holes drilled and will do another coat of East wood internal frame paint then one of those oil based sprays on everything as a top measure since they seem to wash off pretty easy so I can wash it off come spring time.
 
Looks like a regular water bath is going to be the ticket for my situation. I'll see if I can get my on demand camping heater set up to at least provide some warm water for a better flush so things don't just instantly freeze.

if you're going to do this plan on spending a good amount of time with the hose inside every inch of the interior of the frame, that's where the death brine will lay in wait & do the most damage. It's tough to do given that when it gets in there you're moving so it's sloshing around coating 360 degrees of the frame walls, but when you're rinsing it out the jeep is at a standstill so it's more difficult to rinse it to the same degree. The other option is to hose down the interior of the frame with fluid film which comes with a broadcast sprayer, then just leave it alone until spring & go full nutty with hot water & blast the whole thing out but good, re-coat, repeat. This approach can however damage the Eastwood coating of you've put that on first, a high pressure spray will blow that stuff off, ask me how I know.

Doing this annually sounds like a huge pain in the sack & I wouldn't want to do it personally, so I just forgo driving it during salt season, but I'd do it if for some reason I had to drive it in salt...
 
First thing I'd do is to drill holes in the frame bottom to allow the crap that builds up in the frame to come out. Keep it washed regularly (although most car washes re-use the water which then has salt in it) and spray some Fluid Film, Woolwax or Surface Shield on the underside.

That's been done a long time ago.
 
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So I'll just restate this sentence since it seems like some folks didn't read the first post.

I have already treated it with 3M cavity wax and Amsoil HD metal protect. Of course its not fully covered in protection.

So most of the vehicle is already coated and 'protected' for whatever amount of protection coatings offer. However, I did have to drive yesterday in several hours of dried roads that previously already had salt/brine on them. So today I'm going to be washing/risnsing. Just looking for any additional steps on the already coated frame/body that I can/should do to prevent rusting as much as possible. It seems like just a thorough rinse, including under the hood, and all the cavities that I can reach, is going to be the best unless there is some chemical that can render the salt inert? I dont have a pressure washer and I dont know that pressure washing is the best idea since it can potentially remove the waxy film?
 
So I'll just restate this sentence since it seems like some folks didn't read the first post.

I have already treated it with 3M cavity wax and Amsoil HD metal protect. Of course its not fully covered in protection.

So most of the vehicle is already coated and 'protected' for whatever amount of protection coatings offer. However, I did have to drive yesterday in several hours of dried roads that previously already had salt/brine on them. So today I'm going to be washing/risnsing. Just looking for any additional steps on the already coated frame/body that I can/should do to prevent rusting as much as possible. It seems like just a thorough rinse, including under the hood, and all the cavities that I can reach, is going to be the best unless there is some chemical that can render the salt inert? I dont have a pressure washer and I dont know that pressure washing is the best idea since it can potentially remove the waxy film?

Of course the frame coating you've done is only good for an indefinite time IF you're not driving in salt/brine because it's not being attacked.

But since that's not your situation my above advice doesn't change, I believe if you're going to be driving it in salt/brine it's going to require repeated washings/coatings because as you've said yourself, it's not fully covered, so that corrosive crap is going to find iron & do its damage particularly inside. I don't know anything about the products you used, but I think you can get fully or close to fully covered with fluid film, then flush it & all the salt residue adhered to it at the end of the salt season & reapply. The outside of the frame is far easier because you have visual access and you can clean it directly from top to bottom, side to side & stem to stern, unfortunately it's the inside that poses all of the access difficulties and the highest risk/probability of damage. Again my recommendation is an awful lot of work but I'm not aware of any other way.
 
Of course the frame coating you've done is only good for an indefinite time IF you're not driving in salt/brine because it's not being attacked.

But since that's not your situation my above advice doesn't change, I believe if you're going to be driving it in salt/brine it's going to require repeated washings/coatings because as you've said yourself, it's not fully covered, so that corrosive crap is going to find iron & do its damage particularly inside. I don't know anything about the products you used, but I think you can get fully or close to fully covered with fluid film, then flush it & all the salt residue adhered to it at the end of the salt season & reapply. The outside of the frame is far easier because you have visual access and you can clean it directly from top to bottom, side to side & stem to stern, unfortunately it's the inside that poses all of the access difficulties and the highest risk/probability of damage. Again my recommendation is an awful lot of work but I'm not aware of any other way.

Thats something I was curious about. If the salt still attacks the wax film or if the wax film acted as an impermeable layer, but sounds like the salt will still cause damage.

I'm going to be washing and rinsing everything down today for a good couple hours probably. I really dont want to use fluid film because I dont intend to drive this in winter frequently, only as an as needed basis if the TJ isn't available. I also have some work to do with suspension and axle stuff this spring so I would prefer to not have that goopy mess at the moment.
 
or just a weekend day drive so it's not just sitting all winter, which poses its own set of problems.

I'll just say that the only thing to worry about a vehicle sitting all winter is how much ethanol is in your current tankfull and if the battery is on a charger like Battery Tender or something similar at least every couple weeks or even the whole time it's being stored.

Every year, October, November, or maybe December depending on the actual weather, but definitely before salt gets on the roads here, I fill up (from less than 1/4 tank) my wife's Jk with non-ethanol gasoline and put the charger on at least a couple weeks in.

Your winter may be longer than ours in Ohio but I don't think I'd do anything different if I moved there.
 
Salt doesnt usually wash off roads until breakup which is June/July. I have fuel stabilizer and was planning doing just that, filling up, pulugging the tender in, and parking it all winter. Yesterday was an anomaly as I had to make sure the tires were balanced correctly and it was too nice to not go out for a cruise. There was no active snow/salt on the roads only what was dried - but that still requires washing/rinsing it all off of course.
 
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Chad, just looked at that product in the link. I was coming to the end of the thread to say, check into some of the salt neutralizers for marine applications.
 
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