A Fiat that resisted rust??
THAT was a pink unicorn with candy hooves…
Something no one but you has ever seen! Not saying your experience was wrong, but most Fiats dissolved faster than an alka seltzer when then were dipped in water.
I have no hose connected as days below freezing would make it useless unless drained after use. Sure plumbing upgrade put in a frost proof spigot, used to have to turn off the supply to the hose bib and drain the water with a relief screw cap on the feed.
My facility was my garage, not attached to the house, and had good drainage. The car would keep the garage warm long enough for the water to drain. The air temperature rarely got much below freezing because of Lake Erie. Before I had the house with the garage, the old cars that I had were already pretty rotted out.
Garage cement floor, oil pan, bottom of engine, transmissiohousing - non combustible.
Not much, if anything, in thelectric skilleto catch fire.
If none is home, the vehicle is being driven and skillet unplugged.
A 95 Ford Windstar made it to 250,000 miles in the north always parked outside during the last 160,000 miles of ownership. It was to where it was using about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. 3.8L head gasket replaced twice. Does anyone know of this vehicle doing better in the south?
Did washing off your cars like that make a significant difference? When the salt is dry and there is no moisture I don’t think it needs to be done on that day. But when there is snow or possible condensation then I think washing it off helps a lot. Even below freezing any ice will melt because of the salt and start corrosion. Do you agree?
Never washed my 03 trailblazer much, the biggest rust problem ended up at the bottom of the doors. So these newer cars got to remember t clean and wax that area.
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I bought a 95 Ford Ranger from a dealer in SC with 220,000 miles on it. The 3.5 liter 6 looked, sounded, and ran like new. I thought it must have had an engine replacement but the dealer said that the owner just always followed the maintenance schedule and insisted on Castrol oil. I only kept that vehicle for about 10,000 miles and used no oil. The only reason I sold it was because it only had a driver airbag and I needed one that had a passenger airbag too.
In Cleveland there was always Ice and slush and the sooner you got it off the better. It works its way inside the doors and into the rocker panels where its hard to flush out. If it was dry and there was salt dust it would get into things and start corrosion everywhere. Rust spots would start to appear on a new car after about 3 years. Extra undercoat was a big deal in Cleveland but that gave you maybe an extra year.
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Not necessarily!
In a different thread recently, I referenced the “Fiat in the woods” which is located in one of the state parks adjacent to my home. Somebody abandoned it at the edge of a farm field in the '70s, and then the forest grew around it after that area became a state park. Even though all of the glass is missing as a result of people using it for target practice, the body is surprisingly pristine.
It is somewhat jarring the first time that you are hiking through that wilderness area and–suddenly–you encounter this aged out-of-place relic, but it’s even more surprising to see that it is essentially rust-free.
I remember that post now… maybe Fiat cheapened up the metal they use or the process to add rust resistance. The ones we saw roaming around Ohio in the 60s, 70s and 80s rusted faster than a Vega… and you KNOW how fast that happened! 3 years for rust thru was not uncommon and Fiats were as bad or worse. Maybe the salt was the culprit… sitting in a field eliminated the salt.
The museum I volunteer for searched far and wide for a very early Fiat Multipla (think tiny minivan) and found what appeared to be a rust free example until they stripped it for paint. The bodyman had more than a few patch panels to create and weld into place before paint.
No doubt about it. The condition of that Fiat–after sitting for ~45-50 years–is truly counterintuitive.
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Is it possible that '59 Fiat frame happened to be made from melted down WWII era military high grade steel?
All of Europe back then was making do with wartime left overs.
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Anything is possible. Let’s not forget that the sudden surge in aluminum siding sales and the birth of the aluminum lawn chair industry were both the result of the government selling-off huge stockpiles of aluminum, post-WW II.
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Had wondered if our Al chairs had been aircraft.
In high school, a friend of mine bought a used Caravelle, from a used car lot. It was a hard-top convertible.
When he got it home, he removed the hard-top, jumped into the driver’s seat, and the car immediately bucked into a “V shape”, where the metal beneath his seat was touching the ground.
The undercarriage beneath the seats was rusted through.
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Just as cold as it is outside if it’s not heated - which is a bad idea if you live in snow country.
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This garagetsome heat losthrough three common walls withe house. Also on the leeward side of the structure.
The induced draft furnace, in the basement nexto the garage, forces exhausthrough its vent pipe.
Would be fun to pipe thexhaust into the garage and gain that waste heat.
But how much moisture would be added? (We have a CO alarm but no CO2 alarm.)
The skillet istill working well. At 3:20 a.m. thengine was warm.
Wonder how many on/off cycles before it fails.
Is it possible to weld beams to replace the rusted-through undercarriage members?
Did he take the car back?
Robert-Gift:
I applaud the creativity in your idea.
-
Will most of the heat be wasted?
Sure -
Will it help raise the temperature of the engine overnight?
Definitely. Perhaps only by a little. -
Will the engine get warmer by a meaningful amount?
No one knows. But some of us would be interested in your results.
I base the above on many experiences camping out in sub-zero temps. We’ve learned that if you drape a tarp over the front of a lean-to, the heat from the camping stoves, while cooking in the lean-to, does get trapped a little, raising the temps by 10-15 degrees.
The less wind outside the lean-to, the better this works.
Your idea is similar, and there is zero wind in your garage, which will help you.
While I may not have chosen this approach, I do applaud your eagerness to try it out and your thinking outside the box.
Mine had the removable roof too. Attractive vehicle but grossly underpowered and a real piece of junk. I was able to return it, dealer allowed me the cash I had paid towards any other car on the lot. Got my beloved ‘59 Catalina 2 door hardtop.
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