When Is It Time to Scrap It?

[redidbull]

I work with a woman who had a Nissan SUV. Her and her husband have a boat and use the SUV to tow and launch. Took it in for an oil change and the entire rear "frame" was rotted and the thing was totaled. I don't think there is anything that even resembles a frame on those things. Jim

 

[05snopro440]

I work with a woman who had a Nissan SUV. Her and her husband have a boat and use the SUV to tow and launch. Took it in for an oil change and the entire rear "frame" was rotted and the thing was totaled. I don't think there is anything that even resembles a frame on those things. Jim

In my area, any rust perforation in the rocker panel of a unibody vehicle makes the vehicle unfit for road use. When you pay attention to the number of vehicles that are on the road that have rust through the rocker panels, it's scary.

 

[redidbull]

My 02 Dakota is pretty rotten too. Front body mounts are gone and the cab sits a little low. Door doesn't close right. Bed is rusted but still usable because of a liner. In spring I'm going change the 2 body mounts. If it continues to run good and bed goes I'll do a homemade one.Trucks are ridiculous prices now and I'd be willing to put a few bucks in to it. Next big thing maybe an oil pan. Pretty rusty. Jim

 

[MercuryMac]

Smallfoot, you were talking about rusting, and I was talking about neglect and abuse, so it appears that we disagreed, but those are two different 'car' enemies. We probably agree if we keep the rusting and the abuse separate.
Yes, we have to contend with salt spray for most of the winter. The salt lowers the freezing point of ice and snow to about 0*F, so there is a salty spray on the highways for quite a bit of each winter. We have to learn how to rewire our big trucks and trailers to keep the electricity flowing properly.

 

[lazarat]

..........
A few friends and I used to spend spring breaks camping at a place called Turtle Mound, south of New Smyrna Beach. One of the guys left his brand new 1968 442 sitting on the beach when we all jumped in the buggies to ride up to Daytona to party one night. When we got back to camp, the tide had made it in there was a 1968 442 floating up on each incoming wave. The car would rise on each wave and at the top of the rise, the horn would honk and the lights would flash as the salt water had encroached already into the wiring harness and shorted everything out. A really eerie sight. Along with a huge recovery bill from a tow truck that vehicle was ruined. Some of the internals if not accessible to water would have been ok but the rest was trashed.

I have been to Daytona only a few times. Each time there was a car body surfing when the tide came in. I think the local drinkeries had a lot to do with "dude where's my car"

 

[smallfoot]

It's no big secret but many don't take into consideration that on our beaches the tide makes it all the way to the sand dunes on high tides. If ya leave a vehicle out there where it's easy to drive at low tide it'll definitely be in trouble at high tide...

 

[bob w]

Around here you see very few cars older than 10-12 years. Like Neil Young says, "Rust never sleeps".
We don't have inspections or emissions checks. The weather provides the attrition.

 

[Bamamav]

Used to be a guy here who would carry two or three cars up into snow country every year and come back with a truck load of engines and transmissions. He could get almost twice what he paid for a clean rust free from down here up there, and the engines and transmissions came from nearly new vehicles that rusted away with few miles on them. He made a lots of money for a long time.