Using Fluid Film

There's a reason the military, bmw, and mercedes all prefer cosmoline....its a more permanent solution to rust.

 

One thing to think about with a less liquid substance is rust with rock dings. Here's a good comparison vid. I think crc is acting similar to cosmoline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWHF4NoNVk

 

As far as rock dings, yeah, you don't want a hard rubberized coating that can chip allowing moisture to seep in causing rust then spread causing more rust. Crc, which i don't know for sure if it is cosmoline....maybe something close aren't that type of coating...their a waxy type that won't chip. I travel a 2 mile dirt road back and forth with all sorts of mud, and loose gravel/rocks nearly every day. So far after 2 years 99% of the cosmoline coating i did hasn't been affected, but then again i'm not crawling over, or scraping on huge boulders, just some deep mud ruts time to time.

 

I believe Toyota will apply crc to the trouble spots on top and inside the frame in the rust belt. I haven't gotten my truck yet but I'll find out soon if that's true.

I've been using fluid film on my other vehicles for a couple years and it's working well. So I'll probably do a mix where I use FF on the easy to reach areas that need a lot of salt knocked off anyway.

Unfortunately the rust belt is getting rustier. They are using a higher concentration of salt than before, so the roads might as well be under the ocean at this point.

 

I got the undercoating from toyota, I think 800 dollars and lifetime touchups and warranty.

 

Is it actually by toyota, or something aftermarket this dealer is offering like a ceramic glass coat plan? I know when i purchased my truck back in 2020 i asked about rust prevention, best they could tell me there's a shop down the road that does undercoating. As far as what toyota has done themselves at the time was apply some rust inhibitor to a known internal trouble spot in the frame....i didn't ask what they use, but i took it upon myself to do the rest of the undercarriage. Back in 2020 from what the salesman i'd been dealing with claimed this rust issue they've been having was still an ongoing issue.

 

It was Waxoyl. they do the entire bottom and all the nooks and crannies.

 

All i saw when doing my undercarriage was some white stuff on a small area under the driver side door on the frame, otherwise just the black chassis paint throughout the undercarriage. I sprayed the rest of the frame in, and out real good till it was dripping in several areas.

 

Waxoyl seems like it's a mostly northeast company, at least that's what their website shows for centers. I was under the truck yesterday, and it seems like it's on there pretty good, it's slightly sticky to the touch.

 

There was nothing sticky on the chassis of my truck...just a thick coating of shinny black paint, as it was pretty fresh from the texas plant when i got it. I power washed the undercarriage well before spraying on the cosmoline...stuff dried on like a good glue. This waxoyl must be something newer that toyota is now using. I live in new england, and haven't heard of it used.

 

They're apparently a pretty old company, you can also get it in a can, just like fluidfilm. The application video on their website is at least from early to mid 2000s

 

I've heard of the product, just not being used by anyone that i know of. Imo, it was pretty expensive at the time and wasn't rated as good as other products in its class.

 

For what it's worth I saw on (2) other forums that the Repair Geek guy is a paid shill to hawk these products. If you look in the upper left of this video you will see tiny tiny letters "paid promotion". It said that he lives in the same town and is friendly with the management of Blaster. One day he is an expert in electronics and the next day in undercoating. I get a lot more reliable information from awesome forums like this than from those fake paid Youtube commercials disguised as unbiased reviews.. He was saying it lasts "up to 2 years" when it had only been out for a couple months.

 

So....is all this undercoating stuff mostly for people who live in the midwest or near the ocean? Would someone in a mountain state, road-salt-free and 500 miles from the nearest ocean need to do something about this?

I also saw a video that indicated that Toyota possible learned their lesson a few years back and is now using a much better frame alloy that minimizes the rust problem. True or false?

 

Nope

 

During spring break at the end of March, I drove over to Glacier Undercoating in Kalispell to have the 2009 Tacoma receive its first New Hampshire Oil Undercoating treatment, which AMD told me is "highly recommended" during a Saturday livestream. Guy, the owner of Glacier Undercoating told me when I delivered the truck March 29 that he's had a guy drive from Wyoming for this, and he's expecting another from Arizona this summer. NHOU is a sideline business (primary business is construction), so we discussed making their place easier to locate, so if you go, look for larger address numbers on Whitefish Stage Road. If you need a list of Kalispell area Uber drivers, let me know. https://nhoilundercoating.com/ My sister complimented me on that treatment when I arrived March 31st to help clean up the place, help move cattle, and sprinkle some of Mom's and Dad's ashes in areas they'd appreciated during their time on the ranch. Their era has ended, and a new era begins with the new buyers. It's spring! We had 6-8" snow on the ground Good Friday morning, only an inch at school 5 miles south, pretty much melted off a day later.

AMD, "The Car Care Nut" channel on YouTube, is a Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician and the go-to source for reviews (including the good and bad in his experience) on nearly every Toyota model, explaining the systems, and how to maintain them for DIY'ers.

 

Maybe he stayed overnight at a holiday inn at one time idk.
At any rate imo, if you live where its hot and dry...low humidity, its probably not needed for an undercoating. For the rest of in severe rust belt regions, or its wet alot, undercoating as such with these products is a really good idea

 

I used both Fluid Film and Woolswax today for comparison. The Fluid Film goes on thinner and has a tendency to drip unless it is applied lightly. The Woolswax seems to go on thicker and is less likely to run. I'm sure they are both good products but I would expect the Woolswax to last longer. I'll have to reapply in the fall but I wanted to stop the rust that had started from last winter. It was harder to get to all the places that needed it than I expected so it will be more work in the fall. The Woolswax can be thinned a little with vegetable oil to help with application.

 

No need to thin it, you can just warm it up before you spray it on, has the same effect.

 

So I always thought that fluid film was made in United States , but it appears that it is only "packaged" there, but made and shipped there from Germany. The company that manufactures Fluid film, and Perma Film, and Multi Film, is Hodt Korrosionsschutz http://fluidfilm.de/uber-uns/

Nobody is implying there is anything improper or deceptive. It's just kind of interesting because I used fluid film for a long time (before I switched to woolwax) and I always thought that it was made in California.

When you go online you can easily see the import records that Hodt Germany ships every month to Eureka Chemical.(33,000kg which is 75,000 Lbs.)

I asked about this on the Fluid Film page at the link below, but no response. I was hoping that the owner Gen Hess would reply.
https://www.plowsite.com/threads/where-is-fluid-film-made.183487/