Fluild Film Undercoating

[Husker]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this post but I haven't seen many people post opinions on this stuff so I'd thought I'd share. It seems to be more popular with the 4WD truck community than Subaru boards. I've been meaning to post this for a while but things keep getting away from me.

I live in a spot that gets a good amount of snow, is fairly humid and uses road brine like no one's business.  Even with religious washing you might get 7 or so years out of a car before it's structurally compromised. Enter Fluid Film. I'd heard of this stuff a while back and some folks swear by it as an undercoating. I generally shy away from such things but this seems to stay liquid and doesn't really dry/trap water like a rubberized compound. I've been using the small aerosol cans on nuts and bolts and it seemed to stand up to water intrusion quite well. So last fall I picked up a gallon bucket of the stuff off Amazon and decided to give it a shot. I did both my 2005 FXT and 1999 OBS (I only took photos of the FXT) and still had a little over half the can left.

The subject.



The tools needed. Highly recommend some sort of breathing protection as this stuff forms a haze pretty easily. I did it outside as it will form a film on a concrete floor that's rather slick and hard to get up.

It's about the consistency of latex paint. Maybe a little thicker. Went though an airless paint sprayer without thinning without too many issues. You might want to spring for an air powered sprayer or an airless sprayer with more oomph than I did.



Post cleaning of the underside but before I treated the rust spots with some Rust Reformer. I'm the third owner and the last guy didn't believe in washing it. My 99 had less subframe rot than this did.





After wire wheeling, treating and painting.

 

After spraying down the components (careful of the brakes):

 

 

I did this is late November of 2015. It's been a warm rainy winter so far. It smells sort of like a barnyard for a day or two (it's made from wool wax). Once it's settled it has a high flash point so I wasn't too careful around the exhaust. It just smokes off for a little bit.  After the first few days of driving the smell is gone. I didn't notice any dripping once it was applied too.  First the bad: it doesn't stay very long in spots that see a lot of heavy spray. You can forget about this stuff staying on wheel wells or the leading edge of your front control arms through a heavy rain. But it's simple to reapply I've just been touching up places that see a lot of wash with one of the aerosol cans. Now the good: they claim it doesn't cause rubber to swell so and so far I can confirm that. No damage to any bushings or boots I can see. It does creep and move around so you don't really need to get too crazy with the coating. It's pretty easy to coat up in the rocker panel drains with it. On the parts of the car that don't get constant 55mph+ rock/sand bombardment it's hung on like a champ. The rear sub frame, differential, transmission support and front sub frame parts are all still covered. It also seems to withstand being washed with a household hose and warm water (how I get the salt off).  Not sure it'd take the high PSI of a car wash under spray but the ones around here use recycled water anyway so I tend to avoid them and opt for a DIY approach. I love having a garage with a drain. Dirt does stick to it so I plan on washing it off in the spring.  Other rubbery undercoating stuff gets everywhere and makes the car a PITA to work on the underside of your car. Fluild Film does make everything greasier but it doesn't seem to be too big of a mess if you have to pull some parts off. I replaced my parking breaks last month without much trouble. I've got about 1100 miles on the stuff now I think and it's still hanging in there. From what I've read it does need to be reapplied yearly.

At any rate I'll try to get some updated photos and the season progresses. So far I'd say it's worth the effort. I know some folks like chain bar lube but I imagine this is probably a bit more environmentally friendly. Excluding water from your undercarriage parts should slow down the rust. The best test would be to do it on a brand new car and see if it remains clean. It's pretty easy to get up inside of parts and panels too.

Disclaimer: FF didn't pay me, I bought their stuff with my hard earned money. Posting this here for informational purposes only.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Husker

[987687]

FluidFilm is great stuff. for the last couple years I've been putting my cars on the lift every other month throughout the winter and re-applying the stuff. You can usually get good deals on 5 gallon buckets at hardware stores if you buy at the right time.

 

I wouldn't spray with anything besides the FF specified gun, that stuff is THICK. I can't imagine doing it laying on the ground would be a whole lot of fun..

[Husker]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. It didn't seem to popular in the Subaru world. People with body on frame trucks seem to use it more just from the Googling I did. The hardware stores around me only sell the aerosol cans unfortunately. :/

I didn't have too many problems out of the airless sprayer. It just took a little longer. As far as I can tell there wasn't anything special about the Fluid Flim gun vs a regular paint gun that runs off a compressor. I really need a bigger compressor before I can run one of those.  It wasn't too bad to do on the ground as it went pretty fast. The hardest part was cleaning the gunk off before hand.

I might be able to make it until March without a respray. It's still on there pretty good. Do you have any luck getting it to stick in the rear wheel wells or front control arms?

[987687]

FF leaves a thin layer on everything, so yea, it'll stick. Not a whole lot sticks to shiny parts, like control arm that aren't rusty yet. It's more important to get it inside the control arms where they rust. I think it also goes on a lot heavier with a pnumatic spray gun.

[Georg]

Absolutely great stuff FluidFilm. Especially for a car that already has some rusty spots as FF can actually stop further corrosion over many many years if re-applied regularly.

There are different viscosities on the market going from liquid up to a very tough gel.

 

I usually spray it once a year (NAS viscosity, slightly mixed with PermaFilm). For some spots I use the gel using a brush.

[Husker]

Photo updates off my 99 OBS. It and the FXT got FF at the same time with the same methods. This is ~1200 miles, ~2 months worth of wear through some very heavy rain (we had 20"+ from Nov-Jan) and a couple of snow storms now. Still beading water. Even in places where the film isn't visible you can still feel an oily coating. I see no need to reapply right now. I'll check it again at the end of Feb/early March.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Husker

[Husker]

Absolutely great stuff FluidFilm. Especially for a car that already has some rusty spots as FF can actually stop further corrosion over many many years if re-applied regularly.

There are different viscosities on the market going from liquid up to a very tough gel.

 

I usually spray it once a year (NAS viscosity, slightly mixed with PermaFilm). For some spots I use the gel using a brush.

 

I can't seem to find the NAS anywhere. Where do you buy yours? I just got the regular gallon pail off Amazon, it's slightly thicker than latex paint.

[Georg]

@Husker
We purchase it from a local dealer in Germany, but I doubt they are shipping to US

 

Hope you can find a US dealer here:                     http://www.fluid-film.com/shop/

 

Here's a nice overview on the different FF types:  http://fluidfilm.de/en/produkte/

[Husker]

@Husker

We purchase it from a local dealer in Germany, but I doubt they are shipping to US

 

Hope you can find a US dealer here:                     http://www.fluid-film.com/shop/

 

Here's a nice overview on the different FF types:  http://fluidfilm.de/en/produkte/

 

Ah I didn't see your location. I've looked on FF dealer page but none of the ones around me carry the NAS unfortunately. I'll keep looking for an online one though. I did just find a 5 gallon bucket of it on Amazon for $200 USD. That's a bit pricey and way more than I need.

[mikec03]

They sell the spray cans at autozone [although the people there don't know where they are located].

[bork]

I'm always experimenting with concoctions, & about a month ago tried a little bit of the rattle can FF on some rusty spots on the Honda. I think the 99 impreza wells maybe too far gone. So far the spots on Honda still look like its stuck. Told the family not to run thru car wash.