OT - Rustproofing/Undercoating Rant - I HATE Ziebart!

[AJMD429]

Take a new vehicle worth $25,000, and after about 15 years, the 'blue book' value may be more like $2,500, even if it has been meticulously cared for and maintained. If you live in a road-salt area, there will likely be rust on the lower parts of the door panels and so on.

The solution? Why Ziebart, of course! If you take your vehicle to them when new, get an undercoating/rustproofing treatment, and go back yearly for 'touch-up' treatments, they'll pay for any rust you get, right? Sounds good, and since my truck was the first new vehicle I'd ever bought (or probably ever will), I decided to do that, since I planned on owning it for several hundred thousand miles of use.

Rust began showing on my truck after about ten years, and when I pointed it out to the Ziebart people, they said they wouldn't repair it yet, but only when it got to the 'rust-through' point. Hmmm. OK, I guess...

Well, finally after each year pointing out more rust had developed, and many phone calls and runarounds and so on, they allow us to get a body-work estimate, and they'll pay for either our guy, or their guy, whichever is less, to repair the vehicle. Estimate is around $6,000, as by now the rust is so bad that to fix it right would require panel replacement. Fine, when do we do it?

Well, sir, we decided to 'total' the vehicle, as the book value of the vehicle is only $2,300 due to its age, and the rust is so extensive that the repair cost exceeds the vehicle's value; go buy another 'equivalent' vehicle on us! (I suppose that would be a 15 year old truck with an equivalent amount of rust, whose owner had spent $250 on an initial treatment, and $40 per year for touch-ups, or not?) If the $850 that hypothetical owner of an 'equivalent' truck is something they want to recoup, I suppose that means I really only can buy a $1,450 used truck. Given that it is an extended cab 3/4 ton 4wd with towing package extra-heavy suspension, off-road setup, I'm sure I can find a dandy one for $1,450 plus $850 for a similar Ziebart 'rust-free' guarantee.

Basically, the game seems to be to postpone doing anything about the rust until the vehicle ages enough that the cost of repairing the rust they let get so bad, exceeds the depreciated worth of the vehicle.

What a racket. . .

I won't be that naive again. . .

Maybe that $2,300 will pay down some other bills, with some left over for spray paint and stensils. . .

I might paint "Thank You, Ziebart" on the sides of my truck. . .

[Rusty]

I think I'd consider that a first offer.

I doubt the truck would be worth a mere $2300 if the body panels were as they were the day it left the factory which is what they say they provide. I'm not a lawyer but it sounds more like a failure to preform on their end of the contract. The $2300 worth of truck isn't what's at stake. Maybe you state attorney general would like to weigh in on it. Or since they are a nationwide company maybe several thousands of people would be interested in a class action suit for failure to preform?

Lay out some of the details and see if they'd like to make another offer.

[20cows]

The first time they declined to repair the rust you showed them was a breach of contract. It just snowballed from there.

[pshort]

Howdy,
I like the "Thank you Ziebart" sign..........
(Make it large!)

Paul

[salvo]

You have to stay on them. I was hit in an intersection about 8 years ago in my 98 Dodge Ram. The body shop said they had a life time warranty on there work, wich sounded good to me since I tend to keep my vehicles a long time (Still have my first vehicle, 54 Chevy truck) Anyways, the clear coat started hazing and then started pealing and burning through. I took it back about two months ago, they did there little dance, I finally got them to have there paint supplier inspect the clear coat. it was determined by the paint manufacturer that the clear coat was put on to thin and not prepped properly. Took me three trips to the shop and two months of persistance but now I just picked up my truck last week and it looks brand new. They had to re-paint and clear coat the hood, grill, right front fender and right front door at no charge! Persistance pays off.
Get after those scam artists!

[J Miller]

Rant-ON

I think any vehicle sold in road salt country should be made from stainless steel, fiberglass and plastic. Regular steel is no match for road salt.

IN 99 I bought an 89 F250 that had been Ziebarted. It was a really nice looking truck. No rust showing on the sheet metal at all. Two years go by and it's still good. Then after the third winter it just exploded with rust. I got rid of it three years ago and it was turning into a rust bucket.

Same things happening to my Pathfinder. I hate road salt, I hate rust. Nothing worse than spending a ton of honest hard earned money on a very expensive vehicle only to watch it rot away before your eyes.

Rant off.

Joe

[Rusty]

The one year I spent in WV where I met my wife was the winter right after the year when there was no salt for the roads. There was no salt because the state road dept. waited too late in the year to order it and all the barges got frozen in. No way to get the salt off the barges either. That year they used"cinders" or fly ash from local power plants to put on the roads. Everyone I talked to up there said the cinders gave better traction and lasted longer too.

[Nath]

I spray old engine oil under our cars every fall, seems to work, gets in all the nooks.

I will depending on the car drill holes in the inner sils and squirt loads of oil in, around the rear arches too.

N.

[Blaine]

My Mom and Dad gifted me Ziebart on a 83 Ranger I bought new. I didn't keep the truck long enough to judge the effectiveness, but it sure did a wonderful job of soundproofing. Took a noisy truck and made it into a Caddy Truck Personally, I think the trick is to run it thru a carwash every week...one that pressure washes underneath as well as the top. Problem solved.

[66GTO]

Solution: Move to Florida! The only salt we have here is in the air, if you live on the beach, but that is no longer a problem. Thanks to BP, all of that salt air has been replaced with an oily mist. Great for rust proofing

[20cows]

West Texas' only salt is out in the flats (and easily avoided by cars) or in a shaker! (Don't rain enough to rust it from the topside either )

[Ben_Rumson]

Look around in the salt free states for a comparable rust free truck for your $2300...

[Cliff]

I have an 1985 Ford F-150. Still no rust, about 152,000 miles. Of course I live in Florida. As Ben Rumson mentioned head south to a no salt state and you might find what you are looking for. I lived 30 years in Illinois, average life back then on a new car was three years before rust ate them up. I have seen cars in Texas, New Mexico and other areas where salt isn't used. A lot of old runs still looking good. Btw Some undercoatings are Alox, the same type used for bullet lube. Sometimes you can a quart or two from a shop who still does undercoating. Don't what Ziebart uses. Good Luck.

[.45colt]

I have lived in N/E Ohio all my life. the huge salt mines are about 60 miles from where I am sitting under lake Erie. the state salts the roads all winter, and now use some kind of liquid salt brine that they spray on the roads also. the big three auto makers in Detroit made billions of dollars in the last 50 years because of rust. and for years they could care less until people just quit buying there junk.... and all of the rustproofing in the world can't stop it. it's all a giant money grabbing scam and Ziebart is just a spoke in the wheel.

[20cows]

My truck is a rust-free '76 Ford. I've had it 23 years so far.