1950 Buick

[cooper2019]

Had to poll the starter on my Buick amd was concerned about all the crap that was on it, took me an hour of scrapeing to get down to metal, Question is did Buick put some sort of protective spray on the under body of there cars? I notice that there is also a lot of build up on the steering colum also. Any response would be enlightening.

 

[rocketraider]

My guess is it's 70 years of grease and dirt buildup since you were able to scrape it off. Undercoating tends to be tougher to remove. 

 

Not aware of any factory schutz sprayed on at any GM Division but it was often dealer applied. Undercoating was a high-profit dealer add-on. 

 

If you want the stuff gone be ready to spend hours on your back or standing under a lift removing it. Once the heaviest is gone pressure washing works wonders. But also consider that oily mess is preventing rust...

[GARY F]

What year Buick???

[Century Eight]

My 1950 Super that I bought with under 13 thousand miles on it 46 years ago had no undercoating.  Like Rocketraider said, its probably 71 years of grease.  If you are not scraping grease or crud, it would probably be rust..  I’d opt for the grease and crud.

 

You probably are benefitting from old oil leaks by the locations you mentioned.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Century Eight (see edit history)