Back in the day, anyone ever hear of...

[gweilbaker]

spraying the chassis with dirty oil? When I got my coupe the chassis had a massive build up of old oil and dirt of biblical proportions that the pattern was more than a drive train leak, like the front suspension and under the side aprons. It did preserve the chassis except for wear.

[1931 flamingo]

Depending on where you lived and the conditions probably made sense.
They didn't have automatic car washes that did the underside of the vehicle "back in the day".
Paul in CT

[Joe K]

What back in the day? I used to own an 1978 Chevy C10 shortbed I used to crawl underneath with a spray bottle and spray on waste crankcase oil.

I don't think the auto inspection would let you do this today. Gotta keep the roads clean, yunno?

Said after being rejected from an auto inspection when I blew the valve cover gasket on a VW diesel and soaked the underside of the car in windblown oil. To pass inspection I actually crawled underneath the car with a spray can of GUNK (the degreaser) and then washed it all down with a scrub brush and soap and water.

And funny, they can put sodium chloride ALL over the place - and leave it to pollute the groundwater?

Ahem lest we not let this thread go "political."

Sheesh. You would have to get me going.

Joe K

[bobfrev]

people use to do this all the time in the northeast where the highway departments used salt on the roads for snow and ice, it helped save alot of chassis. i have seen alot of nice fifties and sixies cars that look great from the outside with chassis that look like swiss cheese when you crawl underneath

[mccsix]

Not only sprayed oil, but also pack the inside of the doors with grease. I restored a '57 Chevy and the inside of all the doors were packed with lube. I pulled out pounds of it and the doors were beautiful inside.
Car must have belonged to a kid/guy that worked in a gas station and he spent his time filling all the cavities with grease. Good sound deadener and rust protector!

[Bruce Lancaster]

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Garages in snow-bound hells like upstate NY and western PA, places which were early users of vast quantities of salt, very often had a special place for this...usually a pair of cement block ramps way over at the dge of their property. Cars would be run onto the ramps, some poor devil (the apprentice?) crwled under, and car was hosed with drain oil before the snow and salt flew.
A couple of weeks ago here, we had about 1/4 inch of snow which was treated with probably twice as much salt...after everything melted we went on an interstate highway and found ourselves driving through a SALT STORM! The salt had dried out on the road and was kicked up into clouds and twisters of salt that actually affected visibility in some places. I turned off the heater because I was TASTING the stuff!
We pay for this...
Parenthetically, oil is still a VERY good way to treat a car body in places like pinch welds and folds, and areas in panels that can't really be opened up...but it better go in after you paint the thing. Just a few drops of oil will migrate into all of a door skin fold, protecting tin that cannot be reached any other way.

[Cool Hand Lurker]

I hadn't heard of that practice before, but I know all of our cars leaked enough to take care of the problem by themselves.
I have thought of using STP diluted with paint thinner to put inside the doors and undersides of the fenders where there is rain, ice, snow and dirt buildup where bodies in Minnesota usually rust out. When the paint thinner evaporated then the sticky STP would be left in place and would probably stay there forever.
I want to do the same thing with my new compressor tank too. Just fill up the bottom couple of inches with the mixture and then drain it out, leaving the STP to keep the tank bottom from rusting out.
Like I say, I have not done this yet. Just theory at this point.

[29ModelA]

My dad bought a 78 Trans Am new, he promptly painted the inside of all the panels and under the car with oil.

Pretty common back in the day up here.

[Ross/Kzoo]

On another car site that I'm on they were discussing that about 6 months ago. There is a special name given to this oil soaking and I can't remember what it is. They touch it up every so often.

[matt92vr4]

When I was a kid my dad would also brush on old engine oil to his car frames before winter (in Detroit). I'm glad you posted this because I always thought he was the only one lol.

[Keith True]

There are still quite a few places in N.H,doing this.It used to be around $100.now most are $150.You have to let it set up before getting inspected though,you can't get a sticker with an actively leaking car.There is a shop near Steve Ciccalones house in Fitzwilliam that does it.They have an outside lift and when they are done they send you for a ride down the dirt road next to the shop.It really does a good job.

[luckyal]

Back in yesteryear they did not realize that used oils contained an acidic substance that actually promoted rust. Obviously with today's sophisticated laboratory testing we are now aware that this was a harmful practice !

[steve s]

Originally Posted by luckyal

Back in yesteryear they did not realize that used oils contained an acidic substance that actually promoted rust. Obviously with today's sophisticated laboratory testing we are now aware that this was a harmful practice !

That's interesting. Has anyone ever heard of an oil pan rusting out from the inside, or even seen a rusty oil pan interior, I wonder?

Steve

[Patrick L.]

Yep, used to be somewhat common. We did the sheet metal also. Had to wear a rain suit.
In fact, with the stuff they put on the roads now being soooo corrosive I've thought about doing it now.

[SeaSlugs]

Originally Posted by steve s

That's interesting. Has anyone ever heard of an oil pan rusting out from the inside, or even seen a rusty oil pan interior, I wonder?

Steve

lol someones never owned a modern ford our 96 aerostar van oil pan rusted from the inside out. Guy at work had his ranger oil pan rot out too...

but anyways back to the topic: ive heard of this oil soak practice but never seen it done/cars with it done but i dont doubt it works

[2manycars]

I have been doing this for years. I use a garden sprayer. I thin the used oil with kerosene, and spray the whole bottom. Oil will creep into places paint and undercoating cannot get. Drive over some dusty roads, and you preserve the frame and body.
I started doing this when as a kid, I noticed that when we bought a model a chassis from out of a farmer's field, it was all rust except around the universal joint housing, where oil, grease, and dirt had built up a coating that when scraped clean, revealed factory paint under all that mess.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Yep, in fact just last fall I used a quart of new ATF to spray the entire bottom and inside the fenders of my 28 Phaeton. It should help to keep away any further rust until I restore it.

[binkbee]

I was brought up in northern New York, town of Brownville, Jefferson county and the county road crew used to spray the dirt roads with used engine oil to keep the dust down. There were "puddles of oil in places after the spray truck did it's thing till it seeped in. Any vehicle going over it that period of time would be dripping wet and the old rigs with the outside brake shoes had no braking at all on that axle! I had a 20 "T" roadster and it was litterly "coated" underneath with oil and road tar too! They did the same with hot tar----what a mess!

[Roadster Rich]

Back in the 80's and 90's when I lived in Vermont they used to do this. I had it done at a place where they made you drive out from the application bay and into a field through a serpentine ride and then into the woods and then back through the field for a total ride of about a mile. This was all to make the car drip over that mile and not on the road near their business. They could have been shut down if the oil was on the road! Vermont was already into their super "green" outward appearance, but the locals knew what was really best for them. I did it every year while I lived there, but never on my Roadster.

[Skibb]

Originally Posted by gweilbaker

spraying the chassis with dirty oil? When I got my coupe the chassis had a massive build up of old oil and dirt of biblical proportions that the pattern was more than a drive train leak, like the front suspension and under the side aprons. It did preserve the chassis except for wear.

In 1956 as a kid, I too crawled under our A to remove "a massive build up of old oil and dirt" I was told that back in the day road crews would spray oil on dirt roads to keep the dust down. It took me three years to clean that chassis. I loved that A.

[Clem Clement]

I've done that with all my cars for years. My son had his Chebby truck in Michigan for 5 years with no sign of rust. My Tahoe has some spots coated now. Works great.

[luckyal]

Big difference between sprayin with NEW versus Used oil ! The new oil does not contain any of the acidic compounds / substances !

[gweilbaker]

After cleaning off the build up the metal looks freshly stamped including draw marks, it does not look like it was affected by the acidic compounds. I think they wouldn't use good oil on the chassis, most likely used, for sure it is a good way of disposing of it. As for rusted out oil pans, I always thought it was due to the moisture condensing with the acids that settle below the oil that did the harm. Not so?

[Cool Hand Lurker]

If there is moisture sitting in the bottom of the oil pan it has to mean that the PCV system is not working well or not designed well. Either that or those vehicles have taken a lot of short trips in humid areas where the engine does not heat up enough for a long enough time so that the moisture does not get vaporized and removed by the positive crankcase ventilation system. In those vehicles the exhaust system probably also rusts out within three years.