Hi,
I bought my car last year before winter. However, I did not do rust proof. Do I need to do rust proofing? If so, when?
Thanks. Vivek.
No you do not need it and besides it is to late now anyway . All you would accomplish now is trapping moisture in places you don’t want it.
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Never. Drive on and spend the money on something you really need.
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No.
Tester
NO unless the dealer is your son in law, in which case everybody needs rustproofing!
I concur that is most cases you do not need rustproofing.
However…it really depends on where you live. Where I grew up in Central NY…cars still rust out there at a much faster rate then the rest of the country due to the amount of snow and the amount of road-salt used. Here in NH we average a lot less snow, thus a lot less road salt, so we’ve never seen the need for rust-proofing. If I moved back to Central NY, then I’d consider it.
So the question is…Where do you live?
Yes, location is a factor, but the fact remains that–no matter where he lives–applying rust-proofing to a car that is now more than a year old is not a good idea.
If it’s done right…then it’s not an issue. Ziebart is still around in central NY. They have a process that will eliminate any current rust that’s not a rust through situation before they apply their rust protection.
The caveat is - it has to be done right.
Barring disassembly of the car, there’s no way to “do it right” because moisture will get up into crevices that neither Ziebart nor anyone else can get it out of before putting the rustproofing on and sealing that moisture in.
And they will tell you that this doesn’t happen at Ziebart because they use oil rather than undercoating, but then in another pitch they’ll tell you their oil is special and solidifies on contact with the car so that it won’t drip. Well, if it solidifies, then it’s gonna trap moisture somewhere.
Besides, any more the frames are pretty rust resistant - at least for long enough that you’ll be more than ready to get rid of the car by the time the frame dies, if the car is even still running by then. The big problem is ugly body rust, and that’s mostly caused by paint chips due to road debris impact.
So, before every winter get a good, bright light and go over every inch of the car, paying particular attention to the wheel wells and the front of the hood. Fill every paint chip, removing any surface rust that might be there first. And consider getting a clear bra for the front of the car, otherwise your hood will end up looking like it has acne with all the touchup paint you’ll be putting on it.
And avoid the temptation to get the car washed every 5 minutes. All you’re doing is taking a high pressure hose and forcing salt water up into those crevices, giving it the chance to do some damage before it drains out. I’m not saying never wash the car, but it doesn’t need to look perfect all the time in the winter.
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They have these things called scopes that can get into places without disassembly.
As I said…very few places in the country would ever benefit from rust proofing. I haven’t had a vehicle rust proofed in over 30 years. A few cousins and Sister who still live in Central NY swear by it. They’ve seen the benefits.
This was back in 1969, so maybe the product has improved. My FIL bought a brand new Ford F100 pickup truck and immediately had the Ziebart rust proofing done. In four years, it had rusted worse than any vehicle I have ever seen in a four year period including Ford pickup trucks. He lived in an area that receives a lot of lake effect snow from Lake Michigan.
If you seriously think they’re meticulously going through every crevice in the entire underside of the car with razor-thin air blasters to blow water out before spraying the oil for less than $250 then you have a lot more faith in their resistance to the profit motive than I. 
Unless they’re buying two identical cars and rustproofing only one of them to see which one rots first, that’s a rather unscientific test. When I sold my then-13 year old Acura awhile back, I first had to do an axle repair which let me look at the undercarriage. Looked great. In fact the only rust on the whole thing was from paint dings that I’d missed, and no undercoating service is going to prevent that.
In short, it’s possible that the Ziebart is doing nothing for their vehicles because the vehicles came from the factory sufficiently resistant to rust - and they couldn’t know if this were the case unless they started with the two vehicles and only rustproofed one.
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You see it all the time. Many Ziebart vehicles will have a sticker in the window. A 5yo Ziebart vehicle looks a lot better then one that’s not in that area. This area averages over 200" snow a year. Lots of salt. Vehicles that don’t rust out in other parts of the country can/do there. Especially pickups (mainly tailgates, doors and the rear fenders.
KROWN rustproofing is the best if available in the states.Watch what they do here:https://www.krown.com/en/home/