Anyone do oil undercoating themselves?

Can you use a paint spray gun for used motor oil, or is the oil too thick?

What do you add to the oil to help it bond to the truck?

 

Oil undercoating is bad for the environment and has no point.

 

Possibly there is a biodegradable undercoating oil. IIRC the army uses some kind of undercoating oil like that. Ever see a car with a leaky seal that sprays oil back underneath? Seems like nothing in the path of the oil will rust. But I suspect it is a major dirt magnet.

 

In the early 70's I had a '65 rambler conv with a bad front seal. It must have been leaking forever as there was no rust what so ever where it was oily. It did not act as a dirt magnet. I think there was enough oil flow to keep the dirt from sticking. It leaked about a quart/1000 miles.

 

35 years ago I lived in Germany for a little over two years. The German who ran the service station where I traded, washed my two year old volkswagen every few weeks. For 7 DMarks, which was about $1.75 at the time, he would scrub that car all over, under the hood and underneath. Then he would slide the seats out and put his wife to work with soap and a scrub brush in the interior.

When Winter time came, he sprayed used motor oil underneath and about half way through the winter he would scrub it all out and do it again, then in the Spring when HE said that it was time, he would put it on the lift and scrub it like crazy underneath to remove all the oil.

I put 54,000 miles on that car in 26 months and then the Army shipped it back to the US when I got out and came home to go to college. I drove the car about another year after that and the car was about 5 or 6 years old when I sold it in Texas.

In spite of two harsh winters of hard driving on salt treated roads and autobahn there was no rust on that car that I could find anywhere.

He used an apparatus that looked more like an old fashioned pump bug sprayer to get the oil on there.

As far as this being bad for the environment, I'm trying my best to figure out how. You're probably talking about no more than a quart of used oil that will mostly be washed away during the winter on the road. The roads are made of asphalt which is even a lower grade product derived from crude oil than is the motor oil that is being put on the road in MINUTE quantities.

Being a landowner I consider myself a steward of the environment and take the responsibility very seriously. What I don't do, however, is take my care of the environment to the extremes.

There are many environmental extremists that take this way too far to the point that you would think that a few drops of oil is a barrel full of toxic chlorine gas. We ALL need to be environmentally conscious while maintaining some semblance of reasonableness.

Have a great day,
Doc

 

I can't believe that anyone today would think that coating the underside of a car with oil is a good idea. That oil will come off in the rain and make its way into creeks, streams, and the ground. A leak is one thing but deliberately placing oil where it would get washed off is irresponsible. There are many good products available to protect your truck from the elements. I dislike tree huggers but stupid ideas like this give credence to their irrational rhetoric.

 

Blue Ranger,

Whatever your personal beliefs, you don't have to resort to calling someone "stupid."

I don't live in snow country any more, so I am not aware of other products. If there are such products, then that's fine. Had there been such products in Germany 35 years ago, I'm sure that my friend at the service station would have used them.

You don't have to resort to calling any of us "stupid." In fact, when you do so I think that it calls your own judgement and intelligence into question.

Have a great day,
Doc

 

first of all ranger, the oil is not soluble in water, so the idea that the rain will wash it off is a bit far fetched( think of trying to move the oil off your garage floor with nothing but a hose). Second of all, oil in the amount that these guys are talking about isn't really going to hurt anybody. Maybe if it was the new craze that cought on for cars, But I highly doubt this. The fact remains that many people don't know enough to think of doing something like this, and that many more don't care.

 

First off I never called anyone here stupid. The fact that you have linked my opinion of an idea to your self is quite ridiculous.
Secondly oil does wash off smooth surfaces in water.

 

As far as small amounts of oil are concerned. If 4 million cars put 1 quart of oil into the environment, that is 1 million gallons. Do you remember Exxon Valdez.
I am no tree hugger, but you do have to use some common sense. You don't drain your oil onto the ground when you change it, I hope.
I don't remember how many cars are in the US, but is well over 100 million.

 

Well as I said originally, there is environmental consciousness and there is environmental extremism.

When you call someones idea "stupid" it is only natural for that person to take that as an implication of their own lack of intelligence. If you want to consider such an implication "ridiculous" then there again, you are again making accusations. I am not the one that came up with the idea in this thread, I only commented on it.

Even if 4 million cars had a quart of oil underneath them, a small portion would find its way to the road. Consider that over the untold number of square miles of road bed and it would be an immeasurable amount of oil per square foot. Of that, nothing more than an immeasurable amount would make its way more than a few feet past the edge of the road.

Have a great day and find a way to chill out,
Doc

 

MBdiagman, I believe you are the one that needs to chill. As I am not the same poster as previous and nowhere in my post is the word stupid. Please do not put words in my mouth that I did not say.
I am also only making a comment. That is that using oil as an undercoat is a bad idea.
If this would become a common practice, it would not be a little problem with the millions of cars on the road.
You stated that that this was done to your car twice a year. Where did what little bit of oil that was left on you car go when the guy cleaned your car. What little was left on the vehicle. No matter whether it was along the road or down the drain, all of that little bit of oil went into the environment.
Also, there is more to oil than just oil, just as there is more to gasoline than gasoline. I do not know all the chemicals that are in oil. Do you? Are they all safe? Do you know all of the answers so you can assure all of use that doing this is safe.

 

kingfish51, I do not believe that MBDiagman was addressing you or your post. If you check the times on the two posts, it appears he was formulating his reply to the previous post and your post got in between. In any case it keeps things less confusing if we address the person we're replying to by name or use the quote feature.

To everyone: This is a great topic. But let's not get personal about it. We can disagree with an opinion and do so respectfully. If someone's opinion differs from our own it doesn't mean any disrespect.

 

Horsepuller, sorry if I got out of line. I was just going by the numbers in his post that were what I used.
It just bugs me when someone states it is just a little bit. I used to have a neighbor that changed his oil by letting it drain on the ground. His comment was it is just a lttle bit. This is in an area where everyone is on well water.
Again, if I went over the line I apologize.

 

Thank you all for your comments and input.

I have known about oil undercoating for some time, and I too was surprised that it was still a common practice. All you have to do is drive around most northern New England states and you will see lots of little garages advertising oil undercoating.

The main reasons Oil Undercoating is preferred are:

-Cost at about $30.00-$120.00 a year it is cheap and affordable for a working class
person who NEEDS his or her car/truck.

-Most other undercoats I have seen tend to blister and make a cavity for road salt and water to reside and form rust.

Oil is VERY NASTY stuff, but in small amounts used carefully it can stop/slow rust.

Please continue to make comments. The F.T.E. is a great web site, maybe one of the best Automobile forums!!

People that use it bring many opinions to light and help us understand our options better.