Driving, Rust prevention and trailering - moving to Canada

Hi folks, Rust never sleeps as they say. My 2001 996 C2 is a southern car w 99k miles. My mother is aging and I've got to relocate to NS Canada to live with her and help with the day to day. I'm going to trailer my car on a U-Haul car trailer behind a U-Haul 15 footer. I'm determined to drive her for pleasure regularly even in winter, barring deep snow and blizzards or mega cold. I've already got new vredestein winter tires being mounted on my old 17 twists, I'll be taking them in the U-Haul. I'm pretty sure my car will fit in the old wooden carriage house. It's dirt floor so I'll have to do a major rodent removal and prevention. The big concern is rust. Other than washing the brine and salt residue off regularly, what do you northerners and Canadians recommend for treatment? There is a Krown near the homestead in Middleton https://www.krown.com/en/passenger-vehicles/. ​​​​​thoughts on having this done? Do it myself? What do I use and where on the car? Fastenings of course, all the suspension attachments. Take the fender liners off and coat wheel wells? Bumpers off and any fasteners there? AC and radiator attachments? Door sills? And those black things in front of the rear wheels, jack points, motor mounts, transmission mounts, and on and on. If I can trust Krown or similar to do it right, it's probably worth it? I don't want to park it, but if you can convince me that no matter what I do rust will happen, I might. As usual I'm indecisive... Thanks for reading.

I am a fan of Fluid Film . It is an over the counter waxy/oily aerosol product that can be sprayed on metal or aluminum . It is very effective against corrosion . Good luck with the move . Take a sweater 😁

Agree with 996C438. Fluid Film is available in small and large cans and good to prevent rust. There are some shops that can spray this on the car. I'd be more worried about rodents. They love these cars and lots of places to make a home. Use glue traps on a dirt floor. You may have to cover the whole perimeter.

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Thanks for the tips. I will use traps, and in addition if possible I'll have a floor poured, so I can get the car in the air in the garage. Money is tight as usual.

Alrighty, So here are my recommendations: I recommend doing a WoolWax/FluidFilm undercoat once a year and that'll help keep the salt and muck off everything. I like Woolwax better, and I've tried a lot of different undercoatings on different cars. Depending on your level of ridiculousness, you could POR-15 any exposed components, do the rust-preventative coatings, and topcoat and it'll be good basically forever. As for winter storage, the generals still apply: cover your tailpipes so rodents don't make it in (I used tinfoil and rubber bands), put bars of Irish Spring bar soap (poke holes in the boxes) and place in the cabin and trunk, I never did engine), and pump your tires up. Ideally, if it gets to -40 in NS (I'm not sure, I'm in Alberta), then you don't want the tires to freeze to any floor, so put a barrier between them. All I can say is: Canadian Tire's Rubberized Ashpault undercoating is basically indestructible. You could coat the wheel wells, and then Woolwax on top, or just Woolwax. On my truck, I scraped down, rust converted, then rubberized coating, then Woolwax, and it's been perfect for 3 years. -Matt

T2 here on this forum has been driving his 996 turbo year-round in New England for over 20 years, to the tune of 660,000 miles. I asked him what he did/does to keep it from rusting away and his reply was, essentially, he takes it to a body shop every spring to get anything that look suspicious attended to. The really bad actor in corroding cars (and bridges and anything else metal) is the magnesium chloride slurry that gets dumped on the roads pre-storm. MgCl is far more corrosive than regular salt (sodium chloride, NaCl). Since it's easier to apply and lasts longer once applied lots of it is used. MgCl is not as efficient when temperatures are very low, like 20F or lower, so it doesn't get used much up here in Massachusetts. Down in New Jersey (for example) they use it everywhere, the temperature there tends to be a little warmer in the high 20's where MgCl is most efficient. So depending on the winters where you are relocating you may not have to deal with MgCl.

This community is the best. Thank you all!

Yep they did a "test" of the magnesium chloride right by where I live, it was like every tiny pore on the paint of my jeep rusted within a week. Hours of buffing and touchup, still have a tone of recovery work on it to do.

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What he said. You can make ramps to park it on out of 1 inch thick rigid foam board insulation. Pink or blue, they�re the same. Cut a 48 inch wide sheet into three 16 inch wide strips. That will give you two 12 foot long ramps. Bevel one edge and then drive the car on to them. The foam crushes just enough to create little cradles for the tires to sit in. Cheap and super effective 👍