I am new to classic cars I was wondering where "rust free" cars come from? I mean which states are the best for picking up classic cars?
South and west, more so west, away from the coasts. You pretty much have to get out of where they use road salt, so some of the upper western states are okay too. I mean, I was in South Carolina and went to a junkyard and the stuff in there made stuff people fix up here look like junk.
I have two new Dearborn Deuce quarter panels here in Arizona that have sat in our shop for 9 years with zero oil or coating and ZERO surface rust. Of course, our humidity is usually single digit.... In Colorado, even where it snows at bunch, the humidity is usually low, tin survives pretty well if it isnt touching the ground.
Arizona and the High Desert area of California are the best places to get rust-free sheet metal. When we see a car with rust out here, it's actually becomes a spectacle and everybody wants to come and look at it. I'm totally serious.
Not most of Texas. Gulf coast humidity murders things in Houston. You have a chance at finding decent stuff around Amarillo in the fairly dry Texas panhandle though.
Don't rule out the more rural northern states and the plains states that don't use salt in Winter. My car came from North Dakota and has very little rust. The Dakotas, Western Minnesota, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas are all good hunting areas. Now remember the population that was there in the 40's and 50's was not like California, Nevada or Arizona. These were farm families that bought trucks and low end 2 and 4 door sedans. And there were not nearly as many people either. However, there are still good pieces to find. Happy hunting.
We can only give out such information after you earn the right to know the secret handshake. Only new cars are truly rust free.
Are you talked a project that has been sitting for decades or a driver? So many cars from the south have been brought up to the north that I would say that for drivers or better it does not matter, you need to inspect the car. For projects the same is also partially true. Two years ago I found a fairly solid 63 Ford that had been stored indoors for decades. An Iowa car since day one. If you don't know how to inspect a car find someone that does. Good luck. Carmak Riverside, Iowa
In arkansas there is minerals and salts in the soil. lots of gravel dirt roads. if not washed regularly they can rust out pretty ouickly.
I think in all fairness that someone should tell the O.P. the story on dryer climate car sheet metal. Such as the fact that the scortching hot sun destroys all of the weatherstripping rubber,then when it does rain the water goes to the lowest parts of the car and thats where the vehicles rot out. I"ve always had to replace floor pans and some rockers in western cars. Not all of them but just sayin. Still I will admit the rust belt cars take the real hit on metal replacement. Oldmics
Every state in the lower 48 has rusty and rust free cars ... Depends on the car and where the car spent its' life, when & how it was driven, how it was stored .... Increasingly, the cars sold from known ' rust free ' states have been brought in from rust states .... Kick the tires or get plenty of current pictures. Jim
Oklahoma and Kansas yield surprisingly clean cars if they haven't sat in tall weeds for years and years. I'm from Northeast Ohio originally so to me pretty much ALL states have rust-free cars by comparison, except maybe Michigan.
First rule -NEVER ASSUME! Just because a car currently resides in a lower rust area, don't believe without inspection that it spent all its life there. Once I got really, really screwed on an "original black plate California car". The lower half had rusted out and was patched with old Missouri and Arkansas license plates. jack vines
I agree on where they came from. These cars are old and have been moved around a lot. Just because there is an old car in Arizona doesn't mean it didn't spend a lot of its life somewhere else.
From years of perusing ads and websites I nominate Colorado for having rust free old cars at low prices. California too is good, and has more convertibles hardtops imports and fancier cars, but they are in demand there and prices can be fancier too, for a decent car. Southwest, good, in fact the south in general. I know there are rusty cars in the south but you don't have to buy them. There are well preserved rust free cars too, if you are willing to pay the price. What would be a rare gem of a well preserved, garage kept, low mile, one owner car for big $$$$$ bucks in the northeast would be a run of the mill, decent old car in other sections of the country.
When we lived in Pennsylvania a guy moved there from Texas and started working at our company, we became friends. His clutch went out on his old Ford pickup and I offered to help him change it. All I could do was lay under his truck and stare at the pristine sheet metal and rustfree frame and suspension...........I was in disbelief that an old truck could be that clean underneath. When I was removing bolts and nuts I would break them loose with a breaker bar and then actually be able to unscrew them the rest of the way with my fingers ! They weren't frozen by rust like what I was used to. The only surface rust on the whole truck was inside the bed, from hauling pecans or some other nuts, he said, and even it was just a light coating of rust. I really envy you guys who live in those rustfree States. Don We bought this one out of Missouri And this one from Montana. and both are really solid.
I have actually had to explain to folks just "what that is" on the minor quarter rust on the wagon! Then it's "Oh, that's too bad; are you going to have to junk it?"! Non car people drive me nuts!!!
Just because it's the desert doesn't necessarily mean the cars will be rust free if left outside for years. Many low lying areas have large concentrations of alkali in the soil, which will rust a car out anywhere two panels overlap. ---John
The Jalopy Journal
