Cosmoline as an undercoat for my truck?

[Ithaca Gunner]

Yeah, it sounds funny and I laughed about it myself...But I wonder how it would actually preform.

Back up a few months, a fellow who has every, ''Mechanics Illustrated'' magazine from the past 50 years was telling me he undercoats his Jeep with a mix of WD-40 and Marvel Mystery Oil twice a year and never gets rust. Fast Forward to this past week-end at a gun show. A dealer had several M-1 Carbines on his table caked in Cosmoline. I quipped to my brother, ''Pay $1,800 bucks for a Carbine and get two and a half pounds of free Cosmoline!..Wonder if I could undercoat my truck with this stuff...''

I googled, ''Cosmoline'' today and they still make the stuff...They even pay your state tax on it. They have several kinds and it comes in every imaginable container from a spray can to a 54 gal. drum. They even have one that, ''creeps'' for hard to get to places.

cosmolinedirect.com

[waksupi]

Probably cheaper to get it undercoated.

[Castaway]

At one time, vehicles were preserved with it, which I suspect was for open deck shipping during the war. You can always used what’s left in place of Lee Liquid Alox

[Ithaca Gunner]

Probably cheaper to get it undercoated.

Nah, take a look, the stuff is pretty cheap, and undercoating does little if anything to prevent rust.

[farmbif]

well since water displacement formula 40 was first created to shed the ice and water from some of the first rockets ever to take off from cape Canaveral it should work to displace moisture from truck frame.
cosmoline sure does stick good, if you can find the real stuff and coat in on clean truck frame members It probably will work

[zarrinvz24]

If you are looking for a protective coating for the underside of your vehicle, I would highly advise you take a look at fluid film applied via a garden sprayer.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Yup, a yard sale one time use sprayer. It's made by the same company, Houghton International, the original developer of this gunk in the 1890's as a ''balm'' for cosmetic, skin, and veterinarian use. It comes in several grades, military, industrial, marine, and automotive.

[GregLaROCHE]

I don’t think the cosmoline will hold up as well as a regular undercoat. I don’t think it’s that hard and would wear off in areas where there is sand and gravel abrasion.

[Mk42gunner]

I think it would work well, as long as you let the vehicle set for a day or so for the cosmoline to gum up.

I have only applied real cosmoline once, when we replaced the gun port shield on my second ship. It came out of the gallon can real thin, almost like varnish, but thickened/ gummed up in a short time once applied with a brush.

Cleanup of even fresh cosmoline is no fun.

Robert

[Ithaca Gunner]

I think it would work well, as long as you let the vehicle set for a day or so for the cosmoline to gum up.

I have only applied real cosmoline once, when we replaced the gun port shield on my second ship. It came out of the gallon can real thin, almost like varnish, but thickened/ gummed up in a short time once applied with a brush.

Cleanup of even fresh cosmoline is no fun.

Robert

They sell a cleaner for it. How well it works...

Only one place actually under the truck I want to use it on, the cab pan, and it's a miserable thing the way it's made. I would do well with something that creeps and gets in cracks, corners, and under things. Other parts I'd like to spray the inside metal.

[Texas by God]

Diesel and dirt roads is a West Texas undercoating.

[samari46]

There used to be an undercoating called Zeibart smelled just like Alox 2138f. Maybe find out what dealers are using for an undercoat today and what the ingreidents are. Frank

[Shopdog]

I found this under an 1837 house that we did major preservation work on. The province of the place put this can in the late 1940's.

I've been using "pea sized" amounts on machine rebuilds/restoration since finding it in the late 80's. We mainly use it on parts of machines that are left,"in the white". It is a kissing cousin to cosmolene,found through research. Also through that research;

Wool wax is another product that is in this circle of friends(Type L,cosmolene). WW is still available,almost said widely. Not commenting on these as auto "under coaters" but can say they have some real uses on equipment.

The Type L is the bees knees on machines. You use the tiniest amt,and then it gets "buffed" out to where you can't even feel it. Think sweaty hands,or salt water area machine shops. That's where this product comes from. It would work fine on firearms,but I use that rennesance wax for those,this stays with the machines.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Fifteen years in the automotive collision business has taught me rubberized undercoating has fallen out of favor as a rust preventive because it doesn't work well in that capacity and is is sold mostly as a sound deadner add-on these days. In time it chips, cracks, peels and holds water and road chemicals where it does actually causing rust. We didn't even do it at the Toyota dealership body shop I worked for, we sent it out. Our bread and butter was collision, and we were usually backed up. Our favorite customer was a pair of plain clothes deputies assigned to the county D.A. office as chasers and warrant servers. We could count on them bringing their 97' 4-Runner in at least twice a year for front end work, or replacement. They had no qualms on using it as a ram to stop a fugitive flight and even rammed a get-away car once at a robbery.

Anyway, with the price on new, or even used trucks these days, I want to hold on to mine as long as I can, and Cosmoline may be the answer for extending the life of the body. It seems cheap enough.

[alamogunr]

There used to be an undercoating called Zeibart smelled just like Alox 2138f. Maybe find out what dealers are using for an undercoat today and what the ingreidents are. Frank

I think that Zeibart was Alox 606-XX, supplied in various solvent cuts. It is also the base for Lee Tumble lube. Smells almost like Alox 2138f and Alox 350. I've got some of both and use it in NRA 50-50.

[waksupi]

If you are looking for a protective coating for the underside of your vehicle, I would highly advise you take a look at fluid film applied via a garden sprayer.

I used Fluid Film on guns in a wet environment, still had rust to deal with.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I used Fluid Film on guns in a wet environment, still had rust to deal with.

I never heard of that stuff. Looks pricier than Cosmoline though. Cosmoline does have a low melting point, 135 degrees as I remember from the site. That might be a downside with the old mil-spec stuff.

[Rick Hodges]

I live in an area where Zeibart was all the rage. It was expensive and messy and vehicles "treated" with it rusted out just as bad as untreated (although sometimes in different places). It trapped moisture and road salt under it so it couldn't dry out. It just pinned wet road salt slurry to work on the metal from the inside out.
The most successful rust treatment was an outfit that pumped Texaco grease into every cavity. It was expensive, the car/truck dripped grease and oil every warm day in summer, but it did seem to work markedly better at preventing rust. Probably because it never solidified and redistributed itself if nicked. Had a friend who did his new 74 Ford PU, it was still rust free when it was stolen in 1986. (That is really saying something for a Michigan truck of that era that was driven daily and kept outside). Tom had more pairs of pants stained with that grease from getting in and out of that truck. It dripped right up to the day it was stolen.

[alamogunr]

I forgot to mention that I had a 1968 Dodge Charger treated by Zeibart. I was transferred to Tennessee about 6 summer months later. Drove the car until needed a family vehicle after about 5 years in TN. If it stayed in Tennessee, it should still be around somewhere. The way that car drove though, I doubt it survived.

[Frosty Boolit]

I don't get too attached to vehicles. The galvanized bodies in cars now last as long as the drivetrains even in salty areas.