The biggest problem is underneath from rocks thrown up by your own tires. For the last new car I bought, and the last one I'll ever buy, a '93 Dodge Dynasty, I taped off the bottoms of the doors and went wild with rustproofing. The black rubberized stuff is meant for the bottom where rocks will hit it. The clear goes inside door panels. I even did the inside floor after removing the seats and carpeting. There's 14 quarts of rustproofing in that car instead of the normal 2 quarts.
As for the front of your car, you'll notice the bumper is made of rubber. The paint will flex a little so you're not likely to have a chipping problem. Worry more about having mud flaps, and rustproof the bottoms of the rocker boxes behind the mudflaps where the rocks will fly up. My daily driver is a rusty trusty '88 Grand Caravan. It had mudflaps since new, but both rocker boxes rusted out just behind the front doors, right where the rocks hit from the front tires. There's really no chips in the bumper cover or hood.
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Sunday, July 24th, 2011 AT 6:58 AM
