Keeping engine compartment dry

huddy

huddy

Senior Member
It may still be summer, but I'm planning for another upstate NY winter.

Enrico, my poor SoCal coupe, had never known damp cold before. Over it's first NY winter it accumulated some rust on the engine and other parts. It's stored in an enclosed but unheated garage, and quite a bit of dampness seeps up through the cement floor.

I'm wondering what others living in cold, damp climes have done to protect their cars. Is there a coating, say a thin coat of MMO? Perhaps one of those electric dehumidifiers? Maybe a tarp on the floor? Those bags of dehumidifier granules? Other ideas?

Thanks
Ed
 
Hi Ed,

FWIW:

In all coastal areas, it happens "every" fall & spring ...... cool nights & warm humid days .... dense humid air condenses on cold steel surfaces ..... water droplets everywhere.

About 95% of one's time & hard work involved in engine. undercarriage & drive train painting on vintage vehicles is used in proper degreasing, old paint removal of 2 to 3 coats of paint & grease, & proper cleaning.

Priming & painting cleaned & "prepared" surfaces takes about 5% of ones time & is always done in a jiffy.

If this work is performed in "strict" accordance with written instructions from POR 15 "Coatings" , you will never see your Model A undercarriage with rust.

POR 15 is a very special "coating" that few understand, as opposed to paint.

It is very different, but preparing metal is performed "once" in one's lifetime.

Just sharing one experience.
 
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I park my car on a gravel floored shed in the winter. In order to keep the moisture down I lay a tarp down and drive the car onto the tarp.
 
I grew up in an area where it rains 300 days per year and back in the day they threw truck loads of salt on the streets during winter time. My grandpa in the old days brushed old engine oil onto the undercarriage of his car, then drove up and down dusty roads 'til the stuff turned into chewing gum. Up to about 1980-sometime I used to spray fresh oil on the undercarriage of my car and pressure washed it off in spring. When we go to the Bonneville Salt Flats, we now spray ATF under the trucks and trailer and pressure wash it off when we're back home in SoCal. A very experienced restorer I know in the 1980s brushed railroad grease on the undercarriage of his daily driver. After 20 years, it was like new without the hint of corrosion. He basically embedded everything in grease. You can do that to a lesser extend by having the undercarriage pressure washed, then brush on transparent grease and wipe it around with a rag. The good thing is that you can as easily take it off again, well, 90% of it, and the rest will keep protecting. The engine compartment you can spray with a thin layer of oil also, and when spring comes, you wipe it off and wash it off. Where there's oil or grease, or paint, rust cannot develop.
 
Aloha,
I was told to "paint" the undercarriage with Kerosene. Apparently it is a good rust inhibitor.
 
My suggestion: Spray areas you wish to protect with WD40. Good in engine bays etc. Wont harm anything and will keep moisture away. Use it all the time on my riverboat and on the cars and parts in the "Shed". Best product you Americans ever invented. Happy Motoring.
 
A couple of friends that lived near the water had purchased a clear bubble that is driven into, zipped up to enclose the entire auto and then a small fan and heater is plugged in to inflate the bubble and keep it inflated. This is supposed to solve all the rusting and condensation problems in areas of high humidity. Unfortunately both these men have passed away, but I did see one of the cars recently and it is now in a dry building and shows no rusting that I could see, and I looked it over very closely. Check the web, I don't know where they purchased the bubble.
 
Up here in the great frozen north we use a product called Krown Rustproofing on our daily drivers. The body panels are drilled for access and then an oil product which has excellent creap caracteristics is sprayed inside as well as on exterior surfaces. It really works, but is a bit messy because it never stops creaping out around door handles etc. As to storage buildings, it is best to place 10 mil vapour barrier {plastic} under the cement floor before it is poured and insulate and seal the remainder of the building as tight as possible. If the temperature change is slowed down it will minimize the condensation and sweating. This is just what has worked well for me. Good luck.
 
Stock up on WD-40. In California it has been banned in it's present form. SCAQMD said it cannot be sold here because of it's contents. The VOC is too high. We are awaiting the new formula that will probably not be as good. But the good news is our government is protecting us against ourselves. I guess they don't care about our Model A's.
 
Not the final solution but it helps. I get some cardboard boxes that refrigerators, stoves, washers, etc come in and put them on the cement floor then drive in my A. I also cover the car with the thin plastic sheeting paint shops use to mask off cars. I get very little visible condensation.
 
Try putting a dehumitifier in the building and run the hose in a container and use for distilled water. My friend has a High Performance work shop with cement floor and it take care of the rust problem.
 
I'm thinking I like the car bubble - we have lots of mice around here and Enrico shares the garage with Tricia (wife's Toyota Camry) which brings in salt-infused slush from the road. The bubble should provide good protection from both. I'm also going to do the WD-40 thing on the engine & other exposed metal surfaces. (BTW, The car bubble is sold on Amazon). Eventually I'm going to repaint the engine, but probably not this year.
 
1930 coupe said:
I currently have a well insulated shop with central heat and air. I never turn the heat off in the winter, I turn it down to 60 degrees when I am not in it. Never had a rust problem.
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I have a heater but no insulation in the garage (yet). If I run it for 4 hrs on a 20 deg day the temp might go up 2 degrees.
 
My work shop is uninsulated, & only heated when I am working out there. My wood working tools would rust very quickly, especially on those warm humid days and cold nights. I installed a pair of small, cheap ceiling fans. They have been running 24/7 for over 20 years. My rust issues are minimal. They keep just enough air moving to prevent condensation. I think I purchased the fans at Kmart for around $18 apiece. It kept the car dry too.
 
Every basement floor and walls and garage floor should be wrapped with 10 mil plastic. I couldn't convince my neighbor of that when he had his new house built this summer, and now he's dealing with water problems.

I layed plastic over the garage floor, then covered it with free used carpet. It made a big difference, plus it's nice to lay on when under the car. If you add the bubble bag and spray the metal with WD-40 you should be in good shape. A dehumidifier would also help by removing moisture, moving the air, and adding some heat.

A good way to make a car rust is to drive it into a heated garage each day with road salt on it. That road salt also gets into the cement and creaps all across the floor, and every piece of steel touching it will rust. I know this first hand after storing new clean steel on the floor over the winter. It was flaking rust by spring.
 
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Plastic tarp on the concrete floor, Calif. Indoor Car cover and an oscillating 18" fan has been our routine in our unheated garage.

Bob
:cool:
 
I live in a rain forest in the mountains of WNC. I use a device that I had used on boats, for years. (Can't get more humidity than on the water) . Called a Davis AirDryer 1000. (Can be bought from Amazon.) Plug it in, put it under the car, and forget it. Works as a dehumidifier, without the noise, cost, or need to drain. You will be amazed how this works.

We have people using this under houses, in basements, garages, spare rooms, barn tack rooms...
 
huddy said:
It may still be summer, but I'm planning for another upstate NY winter.

Enrico, my poor SoCal coupe, had never known damp cold before. Over it's first NY winter it accumulated some rust on the engine and other parts. It's stored in an enclosed but unheated garage, and quite a bit of dampness seeps up through the cement floor.

I'm wondering what others living in cold, damp climes have done to protect their cars. Is there a coating, say a thin coat of MMO? Perhaps one of those electric dehumidifiers? Maybe a tarp on the floor? Those bags of dehumidifier granules? Other ideas?

Thanks
Ed
Click to expand...

Consider an epoxy paint sealer for your concrete floor. Just an idea.
 
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