smier
1/2 ton status
The biggest issue we face in the northeast is the salt, especially that liquid crap they spray on the roads before the storms hit. It just gets up into every crack and crevice. The tailpan, crossmembers, and inside of the rockers get a constant spray of stone chips, dirt, salt, mud, etc.,etc... Guess where most people never wash, and most car washes don't touch? The undercarriage, so all those open crossmembers and tailpans get chipped and coated with rust promoting debris and after a few years of neglect, they start to rust. I hate undercoating and bedlining underneath a vehicle unless it's brand new. Undercoat an older vehicle and you will probably seal any damage from view until it's too late to see it. On my '91, I sand any surface rust down to bare metal, Zinc primer it, and then paint it. Then if it comes back I can see it. It's worked really well. My friend who restores cars and replaced my rockers and taipan on mine uses the zinc based stuff and it's held up well even a spot that was never painted on the quarter panel over 2 years ago hasn't rusted yet. However, this will be my blazers final winter as my winter beater, I like it too much to see it ruined, and I'm in it too much financially to destroy it. That's the only way to really save it... The funny thing is, I bought this thing 6 years ago for $1300 as my winter beater and fell in love with it. I was at the same place you are now 3 years ago. It was either junk it because it wouldn't pass inspection, or fix it... So I guess it comes down to if you really want this blazer or not, because the rust issue isn't going to get better, and it's amazing how quickly they go if you wait to do anything about it.
