Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Terry
VB to VL rusted as bad as Falcon XF-EL, although not quite as bad as XD-XE.
Holden changed their assembly procedures at VN & from then onwards were markedly better in the rust department than the equivalent Ford.
Find any VN-VS these days, it might have dead trim & some of the electrics & mechanicals, but their bodies do seem have stood the test of time. Have a look in wrecking yards, it's quite noticeable.
You're are correct about the enthusiast market, Ford took a 10-12 year break from anything remotely resembling a performance car, while HDT & HSV had a field day. This shows up in desirability & resale values of cars of that era.
Dr Terry
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The biggest rust buckets were the XA-B-C Falcons shocking even from new such was starting.
I thought from VB Commodore they were using a much better steel, only the windscreen became a problem area after the old one was pulled out and took the paint off, then the problems kicked off !
Then again back in the 1960's to say 1980 we had highways that were the type that you had to get 2 wheels off onto the dirt when a car came the other way, so the left side coped a lot of mud etc and many % people did not bother to wash their cars well or parked them outside.
More Dirt roads as well years ago and dirt gets in the bottom of the doors and then rain and due from sitting out side makes more rust and the bottom of the doors would block up, i would have to poke a stick up the drain holes many a time as you would hear water splashing when shutting the door.
Look at how wide the roads are now ! no chipped windscreen once a month anymore nowadays.
I just believe that people back from before 1990's did not look after a car as well as some do nowadays.
I think more people have learnt to look after their car nowadays because you have to Radiator coolant for one or else ! many more know this nowadays ! before such was no an issue !
So i hear people claim that the VL 3.0L was a crap engine ? i reject that and put such down to not servicing them correctly and not bleeding the radiator is a big mistake many made.
Falcons got better with rust from XD on and were the much the same to the end, maybe a bit better.
But i believe that the steel from 1972 to 77 with ford and Valiant was that Holden got first dibs regarding steel and Ford came 2ed but had to import some times and Valiant's came 3rd so they had to get steel imported at times and this was old crap steel that was melted down to make new steel, but within this was small % of rust that was within the brew, even tho they had skimmed off all of the crud from the top ! Am i correct for them years, maybe they got the art work better regards such. The VB Commodores got a new formula for steel they claim and coating and a smash repair dude i know well said that welding this steel was harder than before.