Subject: Rust prevention for cars

From: [email-masked] (Knut Pedersen)
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 10:28:10 GMT

I have heard of an electronic unit produced in USA which prevent cars from 
rusting. Can anyone give some information. Does it work? Price etc.
Knut Pedersen
University of Bergen
Norway

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From: [email-masked] (-Mayo,H.H.)
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 17:50:11 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Mike Rehmus <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] 
>(Knut Pedersen) writes: 
>
>>
>It should not work since the process requires the presence of an 
>electrolyte, according to the writings of "experts".  I would be very 
>wary of this unit.

I have heard this objection repeatedly from evidently brain-dead
"experts". What two substances cause a car to rust?: water, and salt.
What is the underside of every car coated with after a snowstorm?:
water and salt.  What makes one hell of an electrolyte? A mixture
of, you guessed it, water and salt.  The device is called a Rust-
Buster. It will not protect large surfaces of metal, but does retard
rusting at small ding and scrape spots on the underside or inside of
car bodies. I have one, and it seems to work on my car.

                                                Larry Mayo

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From: [email-masked] (Mike Rehmus)
Date: 7 Feb 1995 17:11:42 GMT

If the idea worked, it would have shown up in production cars instead of 
their increasing and expensive dependence on ZincroMetal (steel sheet 
with Zinc bonded smoothly on both sides) to slow corrosion.  Of course 
they add a few chemicals to the body parts to help.

As for a guarantee that they will pay for rust damage to your car if 
their unit fails to provide protection.

Mike

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From: [email-masked] (Norman Yarvin)
Date: 10 Feb 1995 20:54:10 -0500

[email-masked] (-Mayo,H.H.) writes:
>of, you guessed it, water and salt.

The objection does make sense.  The operating principle of this device
is similar to that of a battery.  If one sticks two steel electrodes
into an electrolyte, and puts a voltage across them, one of the
electrodes will oxidize away, and the other electrode will either build
up metal, or will just be protected from oxidation, depending on the
nature of the electrolyte.  Thus what this device does, is make the car
the electrode which is protected, and have another "sacrificial"
electrode which erodes away.  But one needs a continuous path through
the electrolyte from one electrode to the other, for this effect to
occur.

Such devices work well on metal ships, where there is a continuous path
through the surrounding sea, from the sacrificial electrode(s) to the
hull of the ship.  But cars are usually not surrounded with such an
electrolyte.  On the occasions where the underside of the car is, as
claimed above, literally "coated" with water and salt, this device will
work.  Otherwise it won't work.  Perhaps, if the voltage is high enough
(which I doubt), it can even convert rust back on such occasions.

>  The device is called a Rust-

Perhaps you are observing some other effect.  Different cars have
different types of paint, undercoating, and in some cases
galvanization, which can make a big difference in rust rates.

--
Norman Yarvin						[email-masked]
 "So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it
  enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to
  do." -- Benjamin Franklin

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From: [email-masked] (Einar Sj�vik)
Date: 11 Feb 1995 12:30:08 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>,
>rusting. Can anyone give some information. Does it work? Price etc.

No, it doesn't work.
For more indepth info, read the book:
Motor Vehicle Corrosion Prediction And Prevention on Vehicles.
By Hugh McArthur   ISBN 0 9515778 0 7 Paperback GBP. 7.95
In Norway, get it from Automobilia Bookshop in Oslo for NOK. 131.-

Regards
Einar Sjaavik
.

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From: [email-masked] (Tim Nye)
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 14:40:01 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (-Mayo,H.H.) writes:

>[...] It will not protect large surfaces of metal, but does retard

Either that, or the double sided galvanizing of the body panels is doing the 
job.

Tim