I have lived basically my entire life (1949-present) in Pittsburgh, which in terms of automotive rust, is probably the heart of the "Rust Belt." Our combination of winter snow and the extensive use of road salt made rust and corrosion the biggest factors in most cars' slow slide to the scrap heap. Some cars rusted more quickly than others, but almost no cars escaped it entirely. To be fair, this was a combination of poor paint technology in cars and our corrosive environment.
One of the biggest preventive measures that was used in the '60's and 70's was Ziebart rust-proofing. You took your car there immediately after purchasing it, they sprayed on gallons of their special goop, and you were supposedly protected. When the average car was $4,000, the Ziebart treatment was a little under $200. They guaranteed no rust-through if you brought the car back once a year for a quick once-over and possibly more goop. The remedy if the car did rust through was some amount of money to repair body damage - probably a thousand dollars or so.
But in all the hundreds of car-restoration programs I have watched, I have never seen a single car that had been rust-proofed. Maybe that's just because restorers focus on cars from the Southwest, but still it is noteworthy.
Has anyone reading had a significant experience with rust-proofing...had a car that lasted longer than expected or had a car where it didn't work out? The treatment was so extensive here that I'm curious whether it actually worked.
