I know Tata cheaped out with the nickel coating on the steel used in the underbody and it rusts pretty easily. My R is immaculate underneath right now and I want to keep it that way but Chicago winters and salt take a toll on our cars. I’m not going to drive the car when it’s deep snow or if there’s fresh salt out but I’m not one to not drive my car so I’ll be using it in the winter when I can. Are there any recommended products for our cars?

 

I coated our underbody braces with POR-15, three years ago. POR = Paints Over Rust

https://www.por15.com/

was just underneath today (doing the annual oil change) and they still look great!

Here's a testimonial: Had an auto body guy complain that when restoring old cars, POR is very difficult to remove.

 

Restoring antique cars is what I do. Rarely use anything like POR15 because we actually lose points for it. Someday, F-types will be ridiculously expensive like the E-types, someone will want to restore your F-type and will be cursing whoever put the POR15 on there. It is difficult to remove for sure.

But in the antique car restoration world, the objective is to make everything look like it just rolled off the assembly line. Unfortunately, there are lots of surfaces under many old cars that were left bare metal or plated with some sort of "sacrificial" element like zinc. Since we can't paint these surfaces, even clear coats are detectable by the judges and will result in point deductions, what we do after we've restored the original finish (either bare or appropriate plating), is we treat the part with a penetrating oil. I like Gibbs brand but there's lots of choices. Just test an inconspicuous spot first as some of them contain solvent carriers that are strong enough to damage some types of sacrificial plating. I had to redo a fresh manganese phosphate finish once after trying the Gibbs on it and had to revert to good ole WD40. Granted, classic cars don't get driven in the snow and rain anymore, but parts so treated generally resist rust for two or three years when only driven in good weather here in Texas. If driven in the rain and snow, I suspect it would just need reapplied much more frequently, but its really not hard to do. Just use a disposable brush and brush on all the bare metal under the car and let it soak in. I don't suggest actually spraying it directly from the can as the overspray can actually damage some paints and rubbers if it gets on something incompatible. Spray a little into a cup and use something like a small, disposable acid brush so you have control to get it where you want it and reach into the crevasses. I haven't looked under an F-type, but I suspect there's probably not a lot whole lot of bare metal under such a modern car so I wouldn't expect it to take more than a couple hours.

Just from a judging standpoint, preserving the original natural finishes is the best strategy for long-term value appreciation. Many top dollar collectors would generally rather have a light coating of surface rust on for example an original control arm than to have either my restored part or a painted part. The big money is in the obsessive-compulsiveness. I've watched ebay auctions where people bid up to $600 for a single small original 5/16" bolt for a 67 Corvette because it had the correct head markings and I've watched judges go crazy over unrestored cars with crackly original lacquer paint that looked like a jigsaw puzzle. Its that crazy. So I bet if you get under there and coat all the bare metal with penetrating oil at the beginning of every winter or rainy season and wash the salt and accumulated debris out of all the nooks and crannys at the end of the season, it may not be the best way to prevent rust, but it may be the best way to preserve value.

And while you're under there, take a paintbrush and a jar of black rustoleum paint and touch up any painted parts that have chips.

 

Reviving this thread out of concern of future rust on my 2024 F-Type. This paranoia comes from living in the north east where we over salt our roads during Winter and my Nissan beater rusted out after 12 years, I'm hoping to get twice as long of use with my F-Type.

Has anybody done rust treatments on the newer model F-Types?

 

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I feel like I’ve read several times that the newest variants likes ours don’t have the same cross member rusting issues underneath like the older F-Types do. Updated parts/coatings were used eventually from what I remember reading.

I rust proof my winter driven cars for sure, but I would hate to do that to my F-type given how messy it is. Fortunately mine is only summer driven.

 

Indeed, I made the mistake of restoring a car that had been rustproofed when new with that thick, black tar-like undercoating. Never again! Too many hours work. I won't touch them. Learned my lesson the hard way, the VERY hard way. Its such a pain in the behind to remove that its not worth it, maybe if it were a half million dollar plus car, one-of-one kind of thing, but not a production line Jaguar. Its bad enough that the stuff looks just awful after 50 years (probably looked pretty tacky when new too), but they also drill holes and spray it inside cavities where it can be a nuisance even where you can't see it. The stuff isn't always 100% effective. It slows down the decay but inevitably there's often still a few places that need cutting and welding and I've discovered that it CAN catch fire if you don't completely remove it from a safe enough distance away from the repair area. That may not always even be possible with limited access to many nooks and crannies. And besides the restoration challenges it adds, if you don't remove it, then the car has very limited collector value. Big money collectors tend to want cars that they can brag about how original and pristine everything is.

Once a car has been treated with that stuff like an ordinary winter beater, it might as well remain a mere "driver quality" car for as long as it runs. But that's not to say that rust-treatments are always the wrong thing to do. A car is bought to be driven and is a poor investment in any case. If you want to get more years of fun out of it, then it may be worth considering. There is really nothing wrong with "driving the wheels off it" or "driving it into the ground" as they say. We can't and shouldn't save them all. We just want to save a few. When you are done with it, i.e. its mechanically totaled, just make sure to sign the Jaguar forum donor card so that before the tarred and feathered chassis is crushed, whatever northern plastic, rubber and vinyl parts are left can go to save a rust-free Texas-toasted body shell.

 

OK, next time I get my F-Type services I'll ask the mechanic to inspect for rust and take photos too. If there is a hint of rust I'll research into prevention as there is a lot of products out there.

For backstory I spent over $7k (USD) on PPF installation, tint, and ceramic coat when I bought my F-Type as I want it to be with me for a very very long time.