Fly and Drive Southern Cars

I live in the Rust Belt. I am feeling adventurous enough to attempt my first fly nd drive (or buss and ride)

Real simple..i have two questions:

1) How far south at a minimum do i have to go to get good "rust free southern car?" Are there good or bad areas? Areas to avoid? Go west or south or? Besides atlanta any other good hot spots haha

2) Once i bring it up here what can i do to prolong its rust free condition as long s possible? (regular washings and make sure debris is cleared from critical areas are obvious) What about coatings or under coating or all that? Whats the suggestion here...

Thanks for your help with all this

I've seen really clean cars as close as southern PA. I can't accurately answer your question on how far south to go, but I can tell you that keeping a car clean and oiling it (Rust Check, Krown etc) makes a MASSIVE difference. I have a friend that bought a Chevette deep in the rust belt, oiled it annually, and it NEVER showed any rust - even after 18 years. It was super messy to work on, and dirty underneath, but we never had any rusty hardware to worry about.

My next DD will be a car that is either: from outside of the rust-belt, never winter driven, or new. Fighting a rusty car is a losing battle, and a PITA.

Generally Northern rust is caused by them salting the roads in the Winter. When looking for a car stay away from states that use salt. CO is ok even though it snows a lot---- they don't use salt to melt snow. Generally South of the Mason-Dixon line is where you want to look.

FL--- inland cars are fine--- stay clear of coastal cars (salt spray will rust them from top down) Also, interiors tend to be trashed due to the brutal sun.

GA, SC, AL, TN, NC, VA--- All good states. Very little snow (salt), sun isn't as bad so interiors hold up better. Throw LA and MS in there too-- but watch for flood damage.

West---- maybe the best place to find rust-free cars. Be prepared to replace entire interior though, as the dry climate and sun trash dashboards, steering wheels, etc.

To avoid long-term rust--- hand wash at least once a week thoroughly. (including underside) Pay attention to imperfections and fix as they appear. For undercarriages, POR-15 is your friend. Do-it yourself spray booths are ok for a quickie, but nothing beats a hand-wash to really get to know your car.

clean, clean, clean------ makes your car faster too!

i dont care where you go you can find clean cars and you can find rotted cars. it all maters where they were parked and cared for. i am just saying dont be surprised if you hop a plane and find out that rust free car is really just another rotted car in a different way

1. Look in the back of any 90s chevy owners manual, there's a convenient salt map.

2. Dont drive it anytime between the first salting of the roads and the first heavy spring rain.

I too have been giving a lot of thought to this (while equally giving a lot of hate to rust.)
The answers seems to be, "follow your map."
Coming out of Cleveland, the best way south is down I-77. Skip through WV (to get far enough south) and I would focus on the CL cities of:
SW Virginia and the main city of Wytheville (this is about a 6hr drive south of CLE)
Roanoke, VA (1 more hr to the east)
Winston Salem Greensboro (about 1.5hrs south of Wytheville)
Tri-Cities TN will get you the cities of Kingsport, Johnson City, Bristol (about 1.5 hrs west of Wytheville)
Knoxville, TN; Asheville, NC and Charlotte NC all end up being about 8-8.5 hours from CLE.
Of course, there is Atlanta if you want to continue down.

So, this route has a 6 hr minimum but an 8 hr max. This will allow for you and a friend to travel down and even get back same day if needed. Certainly can be done with one nights stay. Pull out of CLE at 6am and set up some afternoon appts to see cars. Even if those cars in different towns, the cities are typically 1.5 hrs away from each other if you follow a course. See more the second morning and drive back.
If you need someone to make that run with you, I am sure I would be up for that.
My plan is a drive to buy. If you are open to fly to buy then you world gets much larger.

Having lived in Georgia my whole life ( so far), I can say that there are a dwindling number of 'rust-free' cars from the 60s/70s/80s. But unlike the salt belt, they are still here... It's very humid here, and old Chevys rust so quickly you can hear them on a quiet night. Later stuff, 90s -on fares much better due, I guess, to better manufacture.

The southwest seems to have better rust-free preservation than we do here, at least for sheet metal and chassis. The same can not be said of interior materials which tend t die a quick, crackly death out west.

I had good luck in VA (northwest of DC) when I bought my E36. If you can find something that was garaged on a regular basis and south of PA, I think you can have some good luck in avoiding rust.

If you're driving in the rust belt, the best prevention (as others have said) is to not drive it once the roads are salted. If you must drive it, washing it at least every other week (including the undercarriage) should help.

I know a few guys from a local Mustang club who do commercial plowing with their trucks. I asked them what they used, and they recommended Fluid Film: http://www.fluid-film.com/

When I lived in the greater Washington DC area, road salt had aged the suspension and undercarriage of our daily-driven MKIV Jetta TDI so badly that at four years old it looked like a 70's car underneath.

i suggest looking in cities with higher-than-average per capita incomes. find out what are the money suburbs and shop there. cars will have been better maintained and perhaps even garage kept.

I live not far from you. I can tell you I've found that in general, cars from Columbus are noticeably cleaner than in northern Ohio. As previously stated, specific cars will vary regardless of where you are shopping, but I'll say that Columbus is about the minimum distance to start seeing a difference. From there you can go as far south as you want, but it comes down to how much salt is used in that area, how rust-prone the car you are looking for is, how common the car is, and has the car always been in that area. I've found really clean cars in Kentucky and Tenn., but bought my last car in Florida. I always start my search locally. When that doesn't work, I go to Columbus or southern Ohio. If that turns up nothing, I usually go straight to NC, since I have friends and family I can stay with there.

Ohio River for me, which is north of my current locale. One of the big things around here is the fact is that when they call for bad weather, everyone runs out gets the bread and milk, runs home and waits for the white death to fall. When snow does fall, they stay home, more times then not. Also the 4-season car that sits OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME has a far better chance of having less rust then the one in a garage attached to the home.

My CL searches are hovered around East and Lexington KY, Huntington and Charleston WV, TriCities, and Knoxville TN. I also will skip on down to Asheville NC, but I hate front plate states, and upstate SC.

I agree with bravenrace. Cincinnati cars tend to be way less rusty than Cleveland cars. Of course, I've also noticed Lexington cars ( I visit the area semi-regularly) are usually considerably better than Cincinnati cars. They still use salt there, just not as often, or as much.

If you want to just make a day trip with a friend, rather than a fly-n-drive, I'd aim for Lexington or Louisville. Probably won't be as nice as TN or GA, but a lot easier to hop down there and look at multiple cars in one day.

spo lots of washing and oiling the car.

i assume a garden sprayer and motor oil will suffice?

Given the mobile nature of cars, don't assume because it's here in TN that it's clean. My 2004 truck is rotting in the cab corners. Bought it in TN and Carfax showed that it spent two seasons in the rust belt when it was new, and was then transplanted here.

I agree that TN, GA are pretty rust free, but make sure that the car lived here.