<VV> Dumb Question (Now Salt Air, etc.)

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Hi Cecil,

I would say that salt air, is salt air and will create a problem almost 
anywhere.  I think that the general idea is that the accumulation of salt air, 
winter conditions with road salt, snow, slush etc. and generally high humidity 
conditions all year in some states causes more of a problem than other states 
with fewer of these issues.  When I lived in Minnesota, people would use the fact 
that the car was a "Dakota car" as a selling point because they used cinders 
instead of salt on the roads.

California is a fairly big state and as a percentage, relatively little of 
the land area is close enough to the ocean to have a salt air issue.  I would 
say that FL has approximately the same shore front but less land area.  In 
addition, there is a relatively short rain season here after which we experience 
close to desert conditions.  All in all, I would say that CA cars are held up as 
a standard because of the relatively benign conditions and the fact that 
there are probably a lot more CA cars than there are AZ, NV, NM cars, etc.  FL 
cars don't experience road salt, snow, etc. but they do experience year round 
humidity and/or rain.  Also, I hear that approximately 50% of the cars in FL 
belong or used to belong to relocated Snow Birds and have seen significant road 
salt.  Is that correct?  Just kidding.

I am the proud owner of a Canadian (now Californian) Corsa.  However, the PO 
promised me that it came from a part of Canada that never saw any snow and 
therefore saw no road salt.  I wonder what part of Canada that was.  Kidding 
aside, I bring this up because we should all be aware that cars tend to migrate 
almost as much as people over the 40 or so years of their lives.  A car located 
in CA doesn't necessarily mean that it is a "CA car."  You might assume that 
an LA built vehicle might have lived its entire life here but there is no 
guarantee.  In addition, there are some areas of CA that see significant snow every 
year and are fairly humid year round.  The point being that wherever the car 
is presently or was built, you should always check the usual areas of the car 
for rust and rot damage.  You never know.

Doc
'60 Vette; '61 Rampside; '64 Spyder; '65 Greenbrier; '66 Corsa; '67 Nova SS; 
'68 Camaro ragtop
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 5/23/2005 2:17:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:


> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 16:00:33 -0400
> From: "Ewell Mills" <emills5 at cfl.rr.com>
> Subject: <VV> Dumb Question
> To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Message-ID: <000a01c55fd2$14c67b10$0200a8c0 at yourw92p4bhlzg>
> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
>     Why is it that cars that come from Arizona or California are always 
> considered to be the most rust free vehicles around, and the ones from the East 
> coast turn into rust buckets if near enough the ocean. I can understand any 
> state that uses salt on the roads due to inclimate weather causing rust. (Been 
> there...done that).  Why is East coast salt air more corrosive than West 
> coast salt air.  I can understand Arizona with their extremely dry climate and no 
> ocean, but why California.  I live within a few miles of the Atlantic ocean, 
> and rust is always a problem.
> 
> Cecil Mills
> Cocoa, Fl.