Driving in the rain

[Runcharger]

Cleaning them nicely takes alot of time but that's the way it goes. If you restore them well and coat any metal properly there's no worries. If you have to restore it again in 50 years that's good it means you enjoyed it. What's not for me is owning something, looking at it and not driving it. Honestly I think I'd rather clean a car than stand around with my thumb up my arse at a car show for 6 hours.

 

[Cranky]

Cleaning them nicely takes alot of time but that's the way it goes. If you restore them well and coat any metal properly there's no worries. If you have to restore it again in 50 years that's good it means you enjoyed it. What's not for me is owning something, looking at it and not driving it. Honestly I think I'd rather clean a car than stand around with my thumb up my arse at a car show for 6 hours.

I did something like that with a couple of cars.....one needed to be 'freshened' up body and interior wise but the drive train was primo. That was a 71 340 Cuda and after owning it for over 15 years and driving it a lot, I decided to sell it when prices started climbing faster than a thief running up an escalator and it kinda freaked me out at how much a new grill was going for. I wanted to go drag racing again and figured the sales of two cars would really help with that plus was starting to not drive them so much because of them getting expensive. The other was a 70 383 Challenger that still looked new and had already quit driving it so much. Didn't plan on my wife seizing the opportunity to buy some furniture instead of me using it.....

 

[Billccm]

I am really surprised water leaks have not been mentioned. I have yet to a own a B Body Mopar that didn't have a rear back window and trunk leak when it rains.

I've seen over restored $120k B Body cars with an inch of water in the trunk and a wet package tray after a good rain.

In the engineering world we call this "guaranteed by design".

 

[YY1]

The design of a trough under the rear windshield that holds water, covered by a trim strip so you don't see it (possibly compounded by a vinyl top that absorbs it and makes sure it stays wet for days), and gets exacerbated if you raise the rear suspension or lower the front ?

 

[Triplegreen500]

I agree with the main tenet - "car wash" is clean water; road spray is crap. Dirt, oil, salt, sand, abrasives, whatever chemicals other vehicles have spilled/dripped on the roadway...

For comparison...

Would you drink out of your garden hose?

Would you drink out of the drainage ditch as its raining?

That said, I don't "wash" my (unrestored, original coatings/paint/seals) Charger with a hose, because of a) original (dried/cracking) weather seals, and b) the relatively-tattered vinyl roof (I don't want water collecting under there and starting / expanding roof rust, if possible). Just yesterday, I put a new engine harness on it and pulled it out of the garage for the first time since Carlisle. It had garage dust on it, of course, so a wet wash rag followed by a chamois to dry, and she's ready to go again.

ALL my other vehicles are rain-worthy, and wash-worthy (including motorcycles), but I do treat the Charger with kid gloves due to the seals. Eventually I may replace them, but (like my currently-inop wipers)...it's down at the bottom of the list because I try really hard not to get it "that" wet. And if I do get caught in the rain...that's what the Rain-X is for on the windshield.

 

[YY1]

Fortunately only one of mine had that issue.

...of course the most valuable one.

 

[beanhead]

My car doesn't have great paint, not every seal is 100%, no window de-fogger and the wipers are merely for looks, 600hp on barely-treaded M/T tires...so I try to keep it out of the rain.

The bigger issue for me though is how everyone ELSE drives in the rain.
There's been rainy days where I've passed 3 or 4 wrecks/fender benders just on the 5-mile trip to my shop, all caused by "I drive good in the rain" guy...

 

[Rusty knuckles]

I don't judge others for it. I just find it funny the mentality behind it. All that road grime is still there being kicked up by tires and aerodynamics. So sure the water would make more of it stick but it's still depositing on the car all be it at a slower rate. But I guess my perspective is different too because anytime I take my car out it's 2 miles of gravel road before I hit pavement. All that dust gets up into everything so I make it a point to hose off the underside of my cars at least once by the end of summer to flush the dust out. A good wet road is like the best power washer available for it. I don't make it a point to drive in the rain but I certainly don't become sick with worry when I do.

 

[68BabyBlue]

When Baby Blue got painted in 1985, and had minimal rust cut out and repaired, I did a redneck rustproof from front to back, inside the fenders, doors, and quarters, using a ton of motor oil and diesel fuel. Never intentionally drove the car in the rain after that, but I got caught more than a few times (I drove the car to Carlisle multiple years, and most weekends during the 80s.) When the current owner stripped the car down to bare metal 37 years later, the only sign of rust was in the rocker panels, which I wouldn't have been able to access without drilling. He is my age (70), so the sheet metal will probably outlast him, and he intends to drive the car.

The Demonstrator got driven in all kinds of weather from '69 to '73. Lucky for me, because it got all new sheet metal as a result, then didn't see rain for the next five decades. Until I drove it to Carlisle. I spent several days with the hair dryer afterwards, not like I have a lot else to compete with my time in retirement. I also oiled the panels before the trip.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Driving them gets them dirty.... Twenty years ago every time I drove the car for a 500 mile road trip I'd spend a few hours cleaning the bottom of the car...
.
These days I'll drive it 5000 miles before spending a few hours cleaning the bottom of the car... But when I do I jack it up, pull the wheels & use a bug sprayer filled with cleaner, then hit it with assorted brushes & finally pressure wash the whole bottom of the car.... Then wash the rest of the car...

It has over 100K miles since I restored it & at least 4K of those miles it was raining...

Hell one year I was heading home from Famosa Dragstrip, it was pouring rain & a truck somewhere up ahead was loosing it's load of live turkeys... Every few miles there was a dead turkey in the road... When I got home I had the car up on jack stands while it was still raining pressure washing the bottom of the car to get all the feathers & turkey gore off the bottom of the car

It seems like every time I go to southern California it rains, either heading south or returning north.... Or both... That's not gonna stop me from going places...

One time we had organized one of our cruises & it was raining before we left the first meeting spot.. A few people bailed but most remained... Including two guys in Cobra Roadsters with no tops and a guy in a 65 Corvette also with no top.... It absolutely poured that day, everyone & everything got wet... But we all had a great time & still laugh about it.... That drive was eight years ago and not a single one of the cars has rusted away....

 

[440 4 speed]

I am really surprised water leaks have not been mentioned. I have yet to a own a B Body Mopar that didn't have a rear back window and trunk leak when it rains.

I've seen over restored $120k B Body cars with an inch of water in the trunk and a wet package tray after a good rain.

In the engineering world we call this "guaranteed by design".

I can take a picture of our 67 Charger that we bought in 1970. Body is quite rusty , and it has sat outside for at least 18 years, absolutely no leakage in the rear window and trunk seal.
Some of the parts cars also have good trunk floors and have been sitting out side since the late 80’s early 90’s.
Just got lucky I guess. The car I am working on now has original trunk pan. Put the rear window in with a good gasket, and have to deal with a few places that leak.

 

[440 4 speed]

Have not washed a car since 1991.

DriWash Solutions - Distributor of DRI WASH 'n GUARD

Can’t find a DriWash dealer in our area anymore. I mainly use it to clean our outdoor hot tub.

 

[moparedtn]

Has mine been in the rain? Sure.
Do I like driving Fred in the rain? Hell no, of course not.
Dang thing is a handful on those old BFG's; *** end won't stay under him.
Besides, who wants to have all that elbow grease go to waste, not to mention nasty
water getting forced into all sorts of nooks and crannies?
Heck, I don't even understand the question - who drives anything in the rain, preferably?

 

[Kern Dog]

My car doesn't have great paint.

Looks good to me.

 

[YY1]

68-70 and 71-74 are WAY more susceptible to rear window ledge rust out than 66/67.

 

[maxwedgechar]

In 1985, when I bought Max, the second owner told me that part of the deal was that the car had to be stored inside. One day, coming home from a show, it rained. That Monday I said something to the second owner and he went “Apoplectic”! How could you drive it in the rain and on and on….. But, But it’s a car built to drive in the rain, but, but…. Max’s trans is a manual shift TorqueFlite. After a while I lost drive, another story for another time. I could still drive it in First and Second. There used to be a reunion for the old Allentown-Vargo Track in November. This is 2019, my friend lives 5 miles from where the track used to be, where the reunions were held. I get Max on the trailer Friday night and at my friend’s place on Saturday morning and it’s 40 degrees and Max doesn’t like it below 50. He wouldn’t start and then the starter went bad, so no Max at the show. I take the car home and since it won’t start it stayed on the trailer, for 2 weeks, in the rain and probably for the first time in 50 years, the snow! After fighting with the starter to no avail, I got him off the trailer, into the garage to deal with the starter another day.

 

[beanhead]

Looks good to me.

View attachment 1525629

Ha thanks for the memories Greg! Looks pretty good at that distance! That was maybe 5 years back? Before the first stroker build when I was running the steelie&RWL look.

 

[440 4 speed]

68-70 and 71-74 are WAY more susceptible to rear window ledge rust out than 66/67.

Didn’t realize that. Used to joke and say 66-7’s rusted from the bottom up, 68-70’s from the top down. Just remembered, in 1974 one of my mother’s former students came back to visit from Ontario with her husband. He was an OPP. They had a 70 Coronet 500 2dr htp. About 30,000 miles. He couldn’t believe how little rust our 67 had with about 60,000 miles. He showed me the rust holes at the top of the a pillar under the vinyl roof.

 

[Kern Dog]

Ha thanks for the memories Greg! Looks pretty good at that distance! That was maybe 5 years back? Before the first stroker build when I was running the steelie&RWL look.

I took that picture at the San Joaquin show many years ago.

 

[Kern Dog]

I hear guys talk about how they don't use water to wash their cars and I shake my head in disappointment.
These cars are not biodegradable.
I wouldn't want to own a car so fragile that washing it with soap and water results in damage.