RUST Front axle de-rusted many pix

[foama]

Mine is not even five years old, and it is a f*!king pita and a shame for any automaker how quickly the axles rust away!
This car is hosed off underneath at least a few times a year, including during and after winter.
Starting year two, after every winter it is thoroughly inspected underneath. Axle rust thoroughly brushed or sanded away, undercoated with corrosion primer, and finally given two layers of enamel.
A year after the last treatment, it looks almost like before!

I remember in 1975 there was a shortage of sheet metal, and VW, Alfa Romeo and a few other makers bought cheap sheet metal from communist East Germany. The cars that were made of that stuff rusted through after round about two years. I had one one those cars and the windshield fell out in year three, the outside metal of the doors flapping in the wind, rusted off all around the seams. The police took it off the road permanently although the bi-yearly safety inspection certificate was still valid for more than a year.
The underlying problem being the steel contained scrap metal, and was too hurriedly made, not being heated long enough in the blast furnace during manufacture. The ordered amounts had to be hurridly produced in time, and making good steel takes time! This resulted in an unusually high oxygen content within the inferior steel. The oxygen coming from the rust contained within the recycled material, too quickly made for getting rid of (firing off) the oxygen. That particular steel was proven to rust in a vacuum chamber. I don't know if this is the problem here, but a year after the last treatment, it looks almost like before! Just getting the front axle perfectly done took the whole day! The rear axle can only be worse.

Tools for the job included a grinder wioth a steel brush attachment, manual steel brushes, sandpaper, a spray can of corrosion inhibiting undercoating, a can of black enamel.



The following pix show the extent of rust that was to be seen at the end of this winter. Prior to that, the same de-rusting job was done the year before!

















The actual car body was cavity-waxed from day one, and is 100% OK.

The rusty exhaust is next.

The painted front axle below:





The exhaust looking rusty two pictures above was done and now looks like this:




EDIT:

After treatment as above, both axles were painted over with the same sort of paint as used for painting steel bridges or ocean-going steel ships. That sort of paint has a much higher viscosity than rattle-can paint, and consequently results in a much thicker layer. After the (salty) winter, both axles look freshly painted and perfectly rust free.


For rear axle see:

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...-axle-many-pix