Anyone Fluid-Film Their Frame Yet?

[SkiDooNick700]

I'm thinking of applying this to my wheels on my SLT.  Any thoughts?  One of my wheels has a very small area of some damage from salt.

[Yondu]

16 hours ago, carkhz316 said:

The factory wax coating only seems to get a winter or two before it starts falling off anyway. Who cares that an undercoat softens it. It least theres less time that the frame is exposed to the elements that way.

That picture is a good reason for me to never use Fluid Film.

[NWI Denali]

19 hours ago, bbarde2 said:

2016 Silverado + Fluid Film application about a month ago + a few car washes + a few days of salted snowy roads. It definitely softens the factory 2016 undercoating. I am going to apply in those spots again.

Yikes

[crushNchowda]

I dunno guys if the frame was bare, anodized, or galvanized I think fluid film is a good idea, otherwise I think its much more prudent to reapply the same stuff that they came w/ from the factory, combining 2 very different chemical coatings on metal is never a good idea, especially when theres no way of full removing one or the other.

 

Also - the pic in this thread of the FF stripping the factory wax is also more than enough incentive for me NOT to try it lol

[pickmeup]

If that fluid film made its way inside boxed frame thru factory holes it will strip the coating off inside the boxed frame would assume . 

[carkhz316]

20 hours ago, Yondu said:

That picture is a good reason for me to never use Fluid Film.

So the alternative is to do nothing and watch the crappy factory wax flake off in a year or two anyway, exposing bare metal to the elements? I bought my '12 in 2015 from MO, (I live in MN) and 3 winters later 80% of that wax is gone and in it's place the beginning of rust. I wash it weekly, even in the winter and it still has done that. I would think that if FF was bad, it wouldn't be so popular, even in this thread.

[Yondu]

3 minutes ago, carkhz316 said:

So the alternative is to do nothing and watch the crappy factory wax flake off in a year or two anyway, exposing bare metal to the elements? I bought my '12 in 2015 from MO, (I live in MN) and 3 winters later 80% of that wax is gone and in it's place the beginning of rust. I wash it weekly, even in the winter and it still has done that. I would think that if FF was bad, it wouldn't be so popular, even in this thread.

Look what fluid film did to the frame, it took all the wax coating off. Now it just looks like garbage and you have exposed metal with dirty oil on it.  I would just buy the replacement wax and just touch it up every so often. I live in MN as well and when I was looking at used trucks before buying my new one, the 2015 and 2016 still looked new underneath. it makes me think that not all of them have the coating flake off but I'm sure some do.

[Yondu]

52 minutes ago, pickmeup said:

If that fluid film made its way inside boxed frame thru factory holes it will strip the coating off inside the boxed frame would assume . 

Good point, now you created a situation where it's going to rot from the inside out where the factory wax would have probably last a lifetime inside there

[carkhz316]

I suppose if one kept up with the wax coating from brand new, it would make better sense. This is my first experience with FF, so perhaps my opinions will change with time, but I figured with my truck, at least, I don't have much to loose.

[aseibel]

1 hour ago, carkhz316 said:

I would think that if FF was bad, it wouldn't be so popular, even in this thread.

Fluid film is not bad. It does its job well, which is to protect bare metal. The problem is that it is not designed to be applied over the existing wax coating.

[Gmman]

Hello, I'm new here but a long time reader. I have been using NH oil undercoating on my 2017 HD.

[carkhz316]

11 hours ago, aseibel said:

Fluid film is not bad. It does its job well, which is to protect bare metal. The problem is that it is not designed to be applied over the existing wax coating.

Well it can be sprayed over whatever, but the warning straight from FF is that it CAN soften factory undercoating, not that it absolutely will. In the case of NWI Denali, it looks like it didn't exactly work out, however, I did my truck a month ago and have since washed it a couple times and the remaining wax coat is holding on just the same as it has. It seems to be hit or miss what it removes. Bottom line is that one has to pick one or the other to keep any rusting at bay.

[Nanotech Environmental]

From what I've seen and experienced, typical undercoatings such as FF, Krown, 'Dripless' oil etc. get cleaned off due to normal driving and have to be re-applied once or even 2x a year. Many of them are also sticky, so attract dirt, which compromises them over time.
Re-spraying every year can get expensive and also can leave a window of time open where the vehicle can be vulnerable to rust forming, usually late winter, early spring.

If you could buy a really good, effective product for the underside of a vehicle, that you applied once when the vehicle is new, didn't harm the frame wax & that didn't come off from salt spray, washing, etc., & lasted for years, would you buy it? 

[Stronger800]

I gave $1100 (leap of faith) to have my last new truck under coated with this AutoArmor stuff that was black and dried  -hard-, almost like spray in bedliner, not like rubberized soft undercoating at all.  They warranted the truck against surface rust for 100k and against "perforation" for ten years.  I know surface rust and  perforation of the body do not apply to this thread, but, I'll say that I had that truck (in NY) for  113k  for over 6 years and when I just traded it in, it had Zero rust on the frame.  There were a few spots on the bottom of the box and along the seems on the bottom of the cab where it was starting to flake/peel off though.  My truck sold off the front line of the dealers used truck lineup, in 6 days, for 21k.  It was priced the same as two similar ones that he had, that were newer, but not as clean.   Without hesitation I would give $1100 to do it again, but the local shop that use to apply that product for the dealer closed up and  the new shops here Krown/Ziebart, Im hearing mixed reviews on at best.  I have another truck, 4 years old, that I have been hitting with fluid film twice a year.  It's taken me about $45 to do it (total) and it is rust free as well, but, only 45k on it.   I just bought a case of the nox-Rust stuff and am going to try the yearly re-application of wax thing on the frame (I just put two cans on it, month old truck, washed and dried it over night in garage) and then I -carefully- applied fluid film to the inner body panels and such.    

[bbarde2]

Updated Pics and some more detail:

• The only area that had the factory wax blown off was where the high pressure car wash could directly hit the frame, just under the rockers. 
• I went under the truck and checked everything else - the underside was surprisingly well coated with FF. It "stayed" decently.
• I sprayed another pint of FF on the exposed frame and more of the underbody.
• If you look at the pic I posted earlier the bare metal was beading water. What is interesting about this is that the FF was applied over the waxy factory undercoating. This waxy undercoating was blown off by high pressure car washing yet the water was beading on the bare metal. This means that the FF did wick its way to the metal and was protecting it somewhat.

This 2016 GM truck had rust on most of the welds and most sharp edges. It spent one winter in the NE with heavily salted roads. The weld rust is due to having really shitty wax undercoating from the factory that is pretty easily removed by normal washing and harsh winter conditions. Yes, welds rust.  These rusty areas have not grown since application of FF. So I think that FF does work but it will need to be re-applied. Mostly it makes me feel like I have done something to protect the truck against the horrible salty roads. We will see in about a year how it looks.