So in my previous post we were talking about Rust control/undercoating options. To be honest I had already made up my mind on what I was going to do but wanted Oppo’s feedback. Which thank you to all who contributed.
What did I go with?
Krown Rust Control (I’ll get to the “Control” later). Specifically Laserline featuring Krown. It was a garage on the west side of Ohio. The owner was awesome who has done everything from small cars to Fire Trucks. Overall the process took close to 3 hours but we were BSing for some of it.
What is it?
One thing that better helped understand the process and answer alot of my questions was South Main Auto’s videos on Krown. I would suggest heavily if you are considering it watch his videos. Just as a side note, what they are using is T40. Krown has since updated to T45.
Part 1 (Questionnaire episode)
Part 2 (Spray down of his Tundra)
One thing that is stress in the first film is that Krown does not claim it can totally prevent rust but it can slow it down to what ever is slower than a crawl. Why they state Rust Control. The Owner basically said unless its Stainless or Al, its going to rust.
Why did I choose it?
One of the deciding factors was the salt neutralizer as seen above. Very much like soap but has a wax base and its job is to pull the salt deposits off the car. Since I drove about an hour from my place and it had snowed the day before, it had the normal white salt band around the bottom of the car. So I knew to have a good bond, the salt had to come off.
And to be honest some of was just wanting to try Krown. Of course there are reviews, consumer testimonies, and videos but none with real follow up (which I will do in spring). Plus it helped that it is a Canadian compay that is starting to spread to the US. So if it works for Canada it must work for us
I had also considered Fluid film, which is lanolin oil, but I hate the smell. I am very particular on how my cars smell. I have never used air fresheners for multiple reasons. Mainly so I can smell if something is off (i.e. oil burn, gas, and so on). I had used the Fluid Film before to compare to Seafoam Deep-Creep and noticed the smell. Long story short Seafoam is 10x better penetrating oil.
I am glad to report other than the spray burning off the exhaust (which lasted a week, week and a half) there isnt any residue or left over smell in the cabin. Even though it looks like it would be everywhere and have an oily or slick. Nothing, supposedly since its eco-friendly it is just absorbed by the fibers.
So to get my option on what it is and not to go into detail because we could go deep into the Chemistry, I think the stuff is a mixture of evapo rust and Seafoam’s Deepcreep. The Spray has some sort of hydrocarbons as a base layer but it also might have a chelating agent. (Basically forms a bond with something to make it water-soluble complex).
The main reason why I think this one of the is the spray is that it will dissolve/clean up some of the surface rust as the GX did have small amounts of surface rust that have cleaned up since the spray. Krown also bost that it is “environmentally-friendly” and chelating agent’s are known to be. But something has to stick to the metal and penetrate it, so some kind of oil base i.e. hydro carbons.
What would I change?
What I didn’t like was the drilling into the door wells. I know its needed and it was done professionally but I have always been wary of drilling into steel. Plastic is whatever, easily replaced but drilling into steel could weaken integrity of frame and other paranoid stuff. There are ways around having the car drilled but They did use black grommets and since having it done I haven’t even noticed, helps to have a black car.
Also having it sprayed in late summer. Everything works better when its not freezing outside. Granted it is fine to spray this stuff in the winter and is still guaranteed, but the owner said its preferred to do it with temps above 45F so the spray can bond better.
Overall
I think it was worth it, just look above. The experience was great overall, the owner was super knowledgeable and upfront about the process. I had thought about doing it my self but I don’t have access to a lift. And I wanted it done after seeing what the salt had done to my k1500, I wanted to make sure it would not happen again.