I know the Swedes are notorious for their steel. Can any one explain why some classic saabs are rust buckets and why the volvo 240's I see on the road are rust free. Are they made of different compounds. Your insight is very appreciated in my curiosity. thanks much
IMHO, rust is mainly the result of three key things:
- whether or not roads in the area get 'salted' in winter time,
- whether the exterior of the car has been properly cared for all it's life,
- the type of body configuration.
For the third one, C900's with the sedan-style body have a fairly nasty habits of getting rust under the lower corners of the rear windscreen, and where the extruded aluminium 'tail panel' bolts to the steelwork of the car body since the seals for the rear light housings don't keep water out once they start to harden and shrink. All C900's have a habit of getting rust around the bottom corners of the front windscreen because of the way the structure and window rubbers trap dirt which in turn causes moisture to stay there.
Another 'classic' place for rust is the left side rear bulkhead between the outer and inner steel panels since that's where the power antenna usually goes and unless the little drain lip right at the bottom just inside the space under the false floor is always kept unblocked, water pools in there and due to panel joins, rust eats away from the inside.
Here in Australia there's no such thing as 'salting' of roads in winter even in the few parts of the country where it snows during winter.
Biggest cause of rust is lack of care for exterior of the car during it's life and unfortunately it's not always possible to stop rust as there's only so much of the car body that can be repaired with panel and structural element renewal.
I would bet that Ovlov's of the same era have just as much rust problems where panels join and water can become trapped.
Craig.