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2CV Restoration - Cars for sale What we do Special grease rust protection

Special grease rust protection

The 2CVs design doesn't prevent the car from rusting so an appropriate rust protection treatment is crucial. In the past all common rust protection materials have proven not to work on the 2CV. Most of these materials are wax based. This works well on other cars however the 2CV is different. The whole design is very different from any other car in this world. Especially the frame is in need of a good rust protection. The internal structure catches water and dirt from the road and keeps it for a while. If there is no appropriate layer of rust protection the frame is doomed. Wax is the standard material for rust protection but the wax will not creep between the spot-welded panels. There will only be a layer on top and over the corners. This is good for a while but all wax-based materials will dry out after some years. When the frame now flexes while driving, the wax will develop tiny little cracks. Water will be sucked through these cracks due to the capillary effect. Once the water is under the wax it can't evaporate. So the trapped water's only job is to work on disintegrating the frame. This is particularly bad in winter when the water contains a fair amount of salt from the road. But how can the 2CV with its unique structure be protected? With grease! Oil and grease repel water and work as a perfect rust protection. This is well known in the metal processing industry. Milling machines for instance are not painted - when the day's work is done the machine is cleaned and oiled. The oil works as a rust protection. We use the same basics to protect the 2CV from rusting. However not just any oil is good as a rust protection. It needs to be an acid free oil and grease that is designed for rust protection. We have chosen very fluid oil that is intended to protect and lubricate steel cables on bridges and ships. This oil is so fluid that it creeps everywhere. It easily creeps between the spot welded panels - it boldly goes where no wax has been before! But this oil alone would dry out over some years. This is why I mix it with liquid grease. Once the grease is applied the solvent evaporates and leave a sticky greasy film to give extra rust protection and hold the oil in place. We apply this grease also on the underbody. The solvents in the grease dissolve the surface of the rubber based undercoat. The grease than creates with the undercoat a very sticky protection layer that can't be washed off. We also spray this grease into the rocker panels, the A B and C-poles and the front and rear bulkheads. We have over 10 years of experience with this grease protection. The cars treated with grease didn't show any signs of rust on the frame or other treated parts. See the slideshow (20 photos, 21-34KB) of rust protection.

Rust protection

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