My buddy Ben in New Jersey has bought his last few cars from down here in Texas and had me bring them north to him. Cars are really no cheaper down here, and in some cases are more expensive, but since most are rust-free it's worth it on a car of interest....or if I come across a deal. I love a road trip myself so don't mind running them up.

A few years ago I came across a clean black 91 Camaro RS T-top, not a spec of rust, but just a 3.1 V6 and automatic. Ben bought it and paid me to do some minor stuff to it, and then had me bring it to him and bought me a $100 plane ticket home. He only used it as a sunny day toy to keep it nice.

THAT was one of the best trips I ever took, delivering that car to him. Went in the fall, late September. Got 30mpg, cruise control on, radio up, and had the T-tops off the entire trip from Texas to New Jersey. Left Texas in the low 90's and arrived in New Jersey in the upper 60's. Got to watch the grass turn from green to tan and leaves change colors as I drove from south to north, gorgeous drive.

He loved that RS, gutless or not, it made a great toy, and being rust-free, when he sold it a few years later he made a good profit.

ANYWAY Ben had me bring him a 2001 Ford Explorer Limited from down here in Austin about two years ago. He's not a Ford guy, but the truck belonged to one of my co-workers, who sold it for what the dealer was going to give him on a trade-in, in other words, we got it for next to nothing.

It had under 100K miles on it, was 4WD, and was one if the most loaded Explorers I ever saw, from leather to sunroof to trip computer. It had been garaged and lady driven. It was NICE. Ben wanted it for a daily driver, especially for the winter months. Same deal, I drive it up and he buys me a plane ticket home.

Before I left he had me put new tires on it and do a tune-up. Being me, I detailed it to the hilt too, and even re-painted the slightly sun-faded roof rack. Truck looked new when I was done, it was pretty much perfect. I sent him the title and he FedEx'd me some Jersey plates and the registration. See pics below from the day before I headed north with it:








Now here is the point of my long-winded story. He was really happy with the truck when he got it, and drove it from late summer through fall with zero issues. BUT Ben said the first time he drove it in the snow he came out the next day and was AMAZED to see the tail pipe covered with rust. What had been shiny metal was now brown.

About a month later he got under the truck to change the oil and was shocked to see a lot surface rust under the truck. When it went up there, the underside was spotless, the truck had been in Central Texas since new.

He came to find out that vehicles shipped south do not get the same undercoating vehicles destined for points north get. I really didn't believe when building a vehicle the destination was even known, but he was told that either at the factory or at the dealer most cars shipped to salty climates get additional and different undercoating. He'd taken the Exploder to a local Ford dealer and was told this.

Still sounds far-fetched to me, but the underside of his truck and even under the hood has a lot of surface rust on it now, and it's only been up there through two winters. Kinda scary...

Something to think about!

-Mike

Mike I think about every time you post a CL link

Which is why if I ever do bring up a rust free TX car it'll be a May-November only car.

I kinda believe it. My marshmallow was a southern car, and it was gorgeous underneath when I brought it home. One and a half winters up here, and the underside is rusty and scaly and really a shame to look at...

I am a believer in what you say. The four cars that I have, they are from: Arizona, Tennessee, Florida and a never been used in the winter NH wagon.

Tom

One other south-to-north oddity, Ben loves to salvage yard when he comes down to Texas for our yearly motorcycle riding week. He keeps a bike at my house just to ride when he visits.

ANYWAY some years back he was restoring 3rd gen F-bodies, and we lucked into not one but two non-cracked dash pads at Pick-N-Pull in San Antonio. He was thrilled.

I got a call that following fall. The first really cold night they had, when he came out the next day, the Texas dashpad he'd put on his Iroc-Z had cracked. He's put the other dash in his basement, and he swapped it onto the Iroc. Within a month it cracked too.

Anyone want to explain that to me???

-Mike

When plastic gets cold it becomes brittle, and when there are temp swings, especially above freezing to below freezing during the early/late winter it can cause the plastic to crack.

I'm used to sun-cracked dashboards and interiors here. We have to use window tint, sun shades and Son of a Gun on interior parts or they burn up. But when cracks start normally they start small and grow over time.

Still seems odd that one day they were not there, the next they were on those Camaro dashboards.

Oh well, that's just always stuck in my mind. Ha!

-Mike

You should see what cold does to glass. Back when I had my Grand Am, one morning I noticed a rock chip. Ignoring it since I was late for school, I put the defroster on and hit it with some deicing washer fluid to clear the frost. The second the heat hit the chip it turned into a crack that went from A pillar to A pillar.

And on wagon tempered rear glass it causes it to shatter.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

How do you know?

Different undercoating for cars being shipped to different area's??

thats a new one,. definitely an urbine legind.

nick

Mike,

I was told long ago that the fastest way to make you plastic dash crack to pieces in the cold is to armor all it during the summer. It looks nice, but it bonds to the plastic as a micro thin shell that isn't flexable, like a hardener - and when the plastic needs to contract in the cold, it can't unless it breaks.

Think of it like how paint on bumpers have to have a flex agent added to them or the paint busts if there's a minor incident - or how hardened steel will break instead of bend, etc.

If your armor all'd dash never sees those temps, it never breaks. Either way, I've always cleaned off my dashes with a mild cleaning agent, like lysol wipes, or baby buttwipes, or something that'll clean it but not coat it.

Hopefully that's not also an urban legend, but it made sense.

If I don't use some kind of protectant down here the dashboards get SUPER dry, fade, and crack. I've been told Son of a Gun is much better than Armour All.

Such fun

the problem with armorall is that most people don't read the fine print on the bottles. Most spray it on smear it over the surface and walk away..... you have to wipe it down and pick up the residue with a clean dry cloth a few mintues after you've smeared it on....otherwise it will act like baby oil used as sunscrean it will actually cook the surface layer of the vinyl dash and that's why they become brittle and crack with temperature changes.