Salt Lake

Anyone that went to Bonneville this past August had to drive through "Great Salt Lake" at the end of road. Initially it was only about 3" deep where you had to enter the salt and proceed to the race area. Coming out on about the 3rd day you had to drive through about 12" of salty brine. There was about a 2 acre lake at the entrance to the salt. If you strayed from the usual route you were in 3' of water. Some were stuck out there.

Five months later my clutch wouldn't release. Teardown showed why. The scatter shield did not have a drain hole. About a gallon or two of brine was trapped inside. Rust and corrosion followed until the clutch disc stuck to the flywheel and wouldn't release. The flywheel is now bead blasted and reground. New clutch and hydraulic release bearing to follow. I assume I'm not the only one that incurred damage this year from that salty lake. I'm not taking the roadster back there. The panel truck is easier to clean up. Hopefully the lake will be dried up this coming August. This year was the first time I had seen that problem. I don't know whose truck it is in the lake photo but this was typical. My fan was throwing salt water in all directions.

 

anybody who drives thru that shit dont value their ride much. its bad enough driving on it when the water is below the salt. like a bath in battery acid.

 

Salt is nasty stuff . . . probably the single worst thing you can drive through that you can drive through.

When I was in CA and knew guys that were building streamliners and other salt cars, you should see what they did when they came home. The entire car - down to the last bolt - was stripped down, washed and cleaned. The salt gets into everything and ruins stuff from the inside out. If you take a hotrod on the salt, you need to be prepared to tear it apart and clean/wash it from one end to the other. Even with all of that, you'll never get all the salt out of it. Almost any tubing that has a hole in it is worth worrying about - gets rusted from the inside and you'll never see it.

I still want to build a salt car and go back to the salt - but it won't be a street hotrod that I'm not willing to tear down to the ground when I get back home.