issues chassis rust

[blackdragon]

hi everyone.

interested to know if anyone else has rust issues with the chassis rails on these challengers. friend dropped over yesterday to show me his vehicle and some fairly large areas of the bottom of the chassis rails are rusted badly, to the extent its quite thin with holes etc. worst part, both sides where it goes up for the front suspension have some nasty cracks appearing (just in front of the cab mounts) which will lead to a serious accident in the near future.

without a doubt, I reckon its seen a lot of beach/salt use with previous owner but what really concerns me is generally a lack of noticeable drainage holes along the bottom of the chassis rails which certainly wouldn't help.

Please if you own one of these vehicles, give your rails a really good going over, esp in the front section where it leads to the suspension, if you have cracks, they will be quite noticeable. just putting this out there as this may not be an isolated issue.

[Dicko1]

Anyone who takes a vehicle onto a beach or seaside sandy area and then doesn't give the underneath a complete and thorough washing with fresh water obviously has no interest in their vehicle...

[cookie]

I took mine on many beaches and lots of boat launches and never had any rust in the chassis rails, but I did hose them out from time to time. There are quite a few drain holes which may be blocked.

Sounds like it been driven in salt water and never flushed.

Just before I sold mine I did find a big rust bubble in the floorpan just under the driver's feet.

[Dicko1]

Have a look at the number of rusted boat trailers at a boat ramp. Now these are all galvanised. Only a few vehicles have gal chassis. It takes 5 minutes to wash your vehicle down after a beach run. 5 minutes could save thousands of dollars repairing rust at a later date. Not hard to park car on lawn and put sprinkler underneath for 10 minutes and move the sprinkler around under the chassis. Hose the brakes/wheels and flood the chassis rails..

cheers

[Sam Pato]

I got my chassis rails cleaned out and then filled with a sort of fish oil by the Lubitorium place on Brisbane north side for about $100.

I go nuts with the cleaning after the beach but it was still worth the dollars I reckon. Next car I'll get the full underneath spray done I reckon.

Cheers

Sam