Salt!

philw696

philw696

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Having driven 680 kilometres yesterday in my Porsche Boxster S to Belgium not one pothole on my Journey.
You can certainly clean the whole underside of your car but a two post lift is needed.
When I take my cars for the French MOT they always comment on how clean my cars are.
 
Felonious Crud

Felonious Crud

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philw696 said:
When I take my cars for the French MOT they always comment on how clean my cars are.
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Yeah, but you're in France. If it's not full of chicken shite, some actual chickens and half a pig it's as clean as an operating theatre, relatively.
 
Nibby

Nibby

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philw696 said:
Having driven 680 kilometres yesterday in my Porsche Boxster S to Belgium not one pothole on my Journey.
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Anywhere here Phil where lorries are toing and froing is making matters worse than they already are. I went over one yesterday in Exning in the dark, shook the car.
Actually I think anyone making suspension parts must be making a fortune.
 
philw696

philw696

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Nibby said:
Anywhere here Phil where lorries are toing and froing is making matters worse than they already are. I went over one yesterday in Exning in the dark, shook the car.
Actually I think anyone making suspension parts must be making a fortune.
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Really feel for you guys but I haven't changed a broken coil spring since 2014 when I was doing them weekly back then.
Why has Highway maintenance got so bad I wonder ?
 
G

Gooner

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philw696 said:
Really feel for you guys but I haven't changed a broken coil spring since 2014 when I was doing them weekly back then.
Why has Highway maintenance got so bad I wonder ?
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As FC says, money.

More specifically:

- Less maintenance of roads as surfaces start to wear
- use of thinner SMA with a low binder content rather than traditional thicker HRA or higher binder content SMA (like in Germany) for road surfaces
- I suspect less skilled application combined with short term thinking by councils and their providers

This site has a lot of information if anyone is really interested. Sadly the gentleman who ran it has not updated it since 2016 but he seems to have been predicting the current state of affairs since 2001. His main point seems to be that there are lots of different surfacing and maintenance options that can work but they require really skilled and thoughtful application to get right. I suspect we now just have a lowest common denominator approach to road surfaces in this country, with neither the councils or the providers knowledgeable enough or interested enough to get it right.

Highways maintenance, asphalt, macadam, bitumen, bituminous mixtures, surface dressing, slurry seal, road pavement design, skid resistance, road markings, aggregate, winter maintenance

web.archive.org web.archive.org
 
boomerang

boomerang

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We have a UK 3200 for parts here. Must say that I am quite impressed by the differences between a same age milage/year car from NL/DE compared to this one. Subframes very rusty, aluminium suspension parts severely oxidated, every nut or bolt is rusty. Especially the AC condensor is bad, the net is completely rotted. Salt must have done a great job.
Overall bodywork however is very good.
Maserati did a good job there. It are the bolted on parts that have suffered the most.
 
RodTungsten

RodTungsten

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Oops! An innocent post highlighting the issue with clouds of dry salt on the M40 seems to have put a stick in a hornet’s nest.

As we have perhaps several more years of good driving we take all opportunities for a blast and then clean as required. Same with the DS - I could spend time and money turning it into a garage queen but I would rather it turn its wheels regularly.
 
lozcb

lozcb

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No need to have a bun fight over semantics ............handbags at fifty paces is far more civilised :whistle: just saying
 
F

flexwing

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Salt is a killer! It plays havoc with cast alloy parts like gearbox casings etc. I've seen 20 year old 911s with immaculate chassis and bodywork but anything alloy is a real mess. A local chap can soda blast but not sure how you can retain the finish. I've seen an even older Japanese import BMW 740 and it literally looked like new underneath. I would seriously consider an import in future.
 
boomerang

boomerang

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A few years ago I imported a 2002 500SL from Japan with 36k kilometers.
Underneath the car looked like a two years old one.
No rusty bolts, real clean aluminium parts, better than every example I’ve seen from Dutch, even five years younger cars.
Still, imported cars, even from Japan, are harder to trade here.

Would it be a good idea to clear coat aluminium parts when you ever take them off for a reason?
 
DLax69

DLax69

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4,301
boomerang said:
A few years ago I imported a 2002 500SL from Japan with 36k kilometers.
Underneath the car looked like a two years old one.
No rusty bolts, real clean aluminium parts, better than every example I’ve seen from Dutch, even five years younger cars.
Still, imported cars, even from Japan, are harder to trade here.

Would it be a good idea to clear coat aluminium parts when you ever take them off for a reason?
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...or talk to my buddy with the paint gun from Harbor Freight.
 
Soenvious

Soenvious

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DLax69 said:
...or talk to my buddy with the paint gun from Harbor Freight.
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Had to take my car out today and can't believe how much salt is still on the roads. When I got home the tyre treads were white with powder. Ah well out with the bucket and sponge...
 
Ryandoc

Ryandoc

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flexwing said:
Salt is a killer! It plays havoc with cast alloy parts like gearbox casings etc. I've seen 20 year old 911s with immaculate chassis and bodywork but anything alloy is a real mess. A local chap can soda blast but not sure how you can retain the finish. I've seen an even older Japanese import BMW 740 and it literally looked like new underneath. I would seriously consider an import in future.
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Assume you mean aluminium alloys here. Offshore oil industry, horrific stuff. Tried to be banned (this isn’t marine grade) but too hard because for some major items like valve actuators it’s the only choice. But if there’s an option to go stainless then every time.

I’ve bounced off the worlds biggest stillies trying to remove a round aluminium allow cover that hadn’t been greased up. Never moved, hacksaw job. And then you also get the folk who use copper slip on it rather than the likes of molykote.
 
lozcb

lozcb

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c4sman said:

First part of vid relevant to UK salt and what it’s doing to Aston subframes
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Not surprisingly enlightening, good watch :clap:, most owners I know on here have a personal relationship with their car , every time its ever in the workshop up on a ramp i take the opportunity to have a good look underneath ................something one cant do generally at the main dealers
 
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