I had an interesting run in with the local grunt at the car wash around the corner. I pulled the Galaxie into the bay and started to hose out the mountains of salt hiding in the wheel wells and under the car. The conversation when about like this: grunt - "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" dano - "This would be salt." grunt - "Where is it from? Why are you making a big ass mess for me to clean up?!" dano - "It rode on my car 500 miles back from Wendover, Utah. There won't be any mess either, salt dissolves with water." grunt - "Duh. I knew that." dano - "I'm sure you did." A horse trailer was leaving the bay next to mine and the kid left with his wheel barrow and shovel to clean up the inevitable mess. So who else has a salt story from speed week they'd like to share?
We were staying in a Motel in Reno in '98 and as we shut the car door a couple of big chunks of salt fell off from somewhere underneath the car. The people getting out of the car beside us asked if it was snow
Good thread, I have been curious as to first hand stories of how bad the salt is on your car. I am planning on making the trip for the first time in 2008 and wondered how bad it actually is on your car. I will not drive that far and not get a picture of my car on the salt. Will my car need to be dissasembled and cleaned or just hosed off real good? By then I will probably be ready to redo it anyway.
Hose it off with COLD water. Do not use a steam style pressure washer as it will evaporate the salt into steam, where the evaporated salt will penetrate all the little cracks and crevices of your car. You know what happens next.
aloha!! Just started the De Funking on my car... yuck and yuck I sprayed it down with some salt-away before the journey, and so far the salt has flaked off like dandruff. Got back and sprayed more salt-away on it and seems to work fine. Guess I'll really know how it works a few years from now, depending on, if the car rots away.
Poop! Ditto on the Salt-A-Way stuff. The cakes of salt just fell off the car as I was hosing it down. Excellent advise of Bob K on that one. Didn't think about not using hot water though.... Oh well, not like my car isn't rusty already.
Cword (N49 Racing team) had perhaps the best advice regarding the removal of salt from your car. Drive it for a few hours on the highway during a heavy rainstorm. The tires threw the salt all over the car, so the tires will also throw water in the same places the salt landed. When I drove my old '48 Chevy down in 2002 I drove through a nasty storm on the way home and there was no salt at all left on the truck.
I've been told the rental car places won't allow you to drive a rental car out onto the salt and they have GPS tracking to be sure they find out if you did.
The road going out to the pits was real bad in '99 and I got really salty that year. I had a guy ask me what color my car was...and he was serious. And headed back through the sieras a lady at a gas station asked me why I had "flocked" (like a christmas tree) my car...when I told her it was salt she gave me a look like I was trying to BS her. This picture is after the first day, it got worse as the week went on.
Salt drips out of our tow vehicles for MONTHS after each Bonneville trip. This is after liberal doses of SaltAway applied to the under carraige before the trip, a stop at the buggy wash in Wendover and picking up the truck with two fork lifts and spraying underneath once home. The BEST story was that of the Mormon Meteor... it was completely restored in the 60's, and they pulled LOTS of salt out of the nooks and crannies of the car. It went up for auction a few years back and the owner at that time said that there is still Salt to be found here and there in the car, after 70 years. :0 BTW, the buggy wash in Wendover scrapes up Salt that comes out of vehicles and returns it to the Flats. Pretty cool.
Knuckle and I flew to Seattle to drive his truck back (Thanks TonyBones!), anyway, we had to stop by the salt. We'd love to be there during Speed Week for sure, but we were there in January. Hmmmmm, not a speed freak to be found, 'cept us! I gotta go back!!
I've had rentals twice out to Bonneville, just stopped at the power wash before I turned them back in and never had a problem. I'm sure in the rental contract somewhere there is a statement about taking it off pavement. In October 2003 I went to the World Finals, to get to the course the first mile there was under several inches of water, the car had a light spray of salt, but not really any build up in the wheel wells..
Salt gets into places you can't imagine. We raced an all aluminum Sporster there in the early '80s, non streamlined. Managed to get the scoot good and clean after the races, but only gave the truck a quick hosein'. Replaced a bunch of the wireing within' a year, kept finding corroded connections starting with the headlights and ending at the firewall. Guess we should have taken a little more care with the truck?
I was a little dissapointed we didn't get much build up. Couldn't tell we were there. Got home washed the truck and ran a sprinkler UNDER the car for a couple of hours. Looks pretty good. Mark
After have been to the "SALT" a number of times with several vehicles; I learned a couple of things. 1. DO NOT PRESSURE WASH!! It disolves the salt and DRIVES it into all the cracks and crevises!! Especially FASTENERS! (nuts and bolts) 2. Spray the under side of your vehicle liberly with "Salt-A-Way" before you go. (or some use WD40) 3. Wait until you get home. You can kick off the BIG lumps - preferably before your just leaving the Salt (they need to keep ALL they can!); the hotels in Wendover frown on seeing lumps in their parking lots BTW! 4. Lay out a "soaker strip" on your driveway, and park your vehicle over it and let the gentle spray disolve the remainder. ONE NOTE: If your driveway DRAINS into public sewers, check to see if your breaking any envinronmental laws!! The salt from Bonneville is pretty mean stuff!
I was banging out some war wounds on Jim's Price's 195 mph S-10 for a fresh coat of paint a few weeks ago and chunks of salt kept fell from everywhere! I hope I didn't knock loose and sweep up too much of his ballest cuz he only managed 191 this year so far!
I even get rust spots soaking into the salt from stainless hub caps. It'll eat pits into paint if you let it sit there for a while. And it's horrible with anything electric...when you wash things down it desolves the salt and washes it into everything. Salt water is much more conductive than plain old water. I've lost a voltage regulator and two ignition switches after post B-ville cleanup. But I can't imagine any more "worth it" way to use a Hot Rod.
That's probably if you rent in Salt Lake City. If you're from Kansas they ain't got a clue! Driving in a pouring rain at speed works well, and a good car wash with the undercar spray about twice helps for light salting. Otherwise, park your car in the drive and put a sprinkler under it. Keep moving the sprinkler every few hours, or leave it overnite.
Here's my salt removal and rental car story: At Speedweek '05 our rented Pontiac Sunbird died while parked at the starting line. The screwed up thing is we drove it all over Utah before we headed to Bonneville and never had any trouble. Saturday morning we went out to the pit area then drove to the starting line, when we tried to leave the damn thing would turn over, but it wouldn't start. We tried checking relays, fuses, you could hear the fuel pump... still no luck. So here we are in an Ecotech powered Sunturd within a mile or so of the GM Ecotech, SoCal team and the engineers that probably designed it. I didn't want to bother those guys since it was a rental... but I was pissed. This could easily turn into a rant- but I'll save that for another time. Since it was a rental, and if you read the little fine print on the contract- it says something about *nterprise is not responsible for damages that occur if the vehicle is taken off road (I can't remember the exact wording). I also thought maybe the GPS rumors are true and they know where I am. The only thing we could do is get the car off the flats and get it cleaned up so the rental company couldn't hold us liable for damages. We called the only wrecker service in Wendover- and their phone was disco'd. Our last resort was to call *nterprise. I guess Bob and Judy Sights saw that we were having trouble, and Bob offered to pull us out to the paved entrance road so we could wait for the wrecker that *nterprise was sending. They saved us... big time. Thanks again Bob and Judy! At least we would have a fighting chance- to get the car cleaned up. This leads me to the salt removal story. The wrecker driver showed up with a new car and I explained the situation. I offered him my last two cigarettes and all the cash my wife and I had between us ($25) and he happily agreed to clean the car up so they would never know. I can't remember his name- but dude if your out there- thank you! (it was a gold Sunturd). We never heard anything more about it. GPS or not- I took the replacement car out on the salt for the remainder of Speedweek.
In the mid-'90s, a biker I knew spent a week at Bonneville in his old Cadillac. On the way home, stopping for gas, he got out and shut the door, causing a brick of salt to fall out from under the car. The gas station attendant thought it was cocaine. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
I power washed the car pretty good yesterday. Running a sprinkler under it today and chunks the size of bricks are falling off from underneath. Amazing. ...here I was thinking I got it all at the car wash.
got the lakes -fever. One of my goals/dreams is to ship my Hot Rod to Calif and drive to Bonneville when it's done. Just to get some salt ON it. Paul
I find this one very funny. My buddy Oscar, who just happens to be Bill(Belly Tank Father)Burkes brother in-in-law and my then girl(Kenia)friend & I decide to take in the 50th Boneville Nats in 98 so we start out in my truck. Trailer has a problem in Hesperia so dumped it off @ my cousins drove my truck back & we attemp to continue in Oscar's Silverado, I say" isn't that a bearing noise". Oscars says"huh") We take the truck into my work & they write for a lower end inpsect=(GMPP). We then get a Free rental Windstar Mini Van with unltd use miles. Point that sucker in the direction of Wendover & head out to the salt (most comfortable trip there) Get out on the salt drive around 2 days. Salt caked all under the bottom of the van and we tracked in as well. "Must say Krusty Stuff!" So we leave on Monday afternoon & start our 10hr drive home. All along the way, salt is falling off in chunks (big ones). We decide to stop in Caliente Nevada to get gas & relieve ourselves & what do see off the side, but a do it yourself car wash. We do the complete Vacuum thing pull the van in the bay,set the sucker on wash & get to it! Followed it up with a hot wax job and bought some dressing for the skins. "Heck we were headed to Vegas Baby!" We needed to be styling! Got home the next morning, took the van back & they thanked us for the clean condition that we returned the van in. If they only knew. Next Story, I take my purple 34 out on the salt in 2k3 & my buddy Jerry who likes driving it breaks a belt on the way there. We're talking middle of nowhere. I chase down the group that were traveling with in our chase vehicle, get rope & Mc Gyver a belt & drive from Alamo to Ely on rope for a belt. I bought 2 just incase=Lol! Here we are @ the Salt and Jerry suggests oiling down the under carriage. I break out laughing as the car is already oiled down with motor oil. I had an intake leak as well as a breather that just spit as much oil out as you'd put in. On top of that the car is a glass body that wouldn't rust anyway. So when we got the car home. we did the ultimate wash job on her degreased her & looked for possible missed areas. One day I pull back the carpet and 2 big chunks of salt fall out. I laugh & become a true believer that "once out one the salt that stuff follows you home".
The salt will destroy everything that is ferrous or aluminum. It's amazing what can happen from 1 trip to the salt. A rental car would be my choice. I was surprised at the tow vehicles that were rusted up. After being there and seeing the end result, I understand why people don't replace their "Bonneville" vehicle. You'll here lots of stories but the bottom line is"how brave are you?"
I've had people cautiously ask me if it was salt. As if snow would exist in 100 degree weather.. Don’t be a sissy, salt isn’t going to hurt your car. I’ve had a bare metal car completely covered in salt twice and guess what happened…. Nothing. Just clean it afterwards. It will be fine. Doing little or nothing afterwards is where you will go wrong. btw: Salt doesn't evaporate. A simple fact that created the Salt Flats.
I was all over the salt in a rental car in 2005....... some rain washed the salt off and installed plenty of road dirt. We put plastic down on the car's floor to contain the salt from our shoes. Pulled the plastic and instant clean. LOL
Hahaha... I got some crazy looks / remarks too with it on my car and with what has dropped on the driveway.
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