rust and cheap poor quality steel

[harry3]

holdens used to rust badly, right up to the first commodore then it seems commodores never rusted
my VL wagon, 23 years old has no visible rust apart from a bit around the front and back windows, its almost impossible to check the underfelt for dampness, but there seems to be no rust in the floor

one suggestion is that holden finally decided to use good quality steel, and that previous rust was due to cheap bad steel, rather than lack of proper rustproofing

[harry3]

perhaps no noe else here is old enough to remember how badly all holdens before the commodore rusted, other cars without a chassis frame such as the morris minor seldom ever rusted

[greenfoam]

Holden just got better at diping the bodys in protective coatings, The VB-VL are still not very good and will rust out the doors fairly quickly. Your car can't have spent all it's life outside if it hasn't fallen to bits most VL's have. They really stepped up the anti rust game with the VN, which is muuuch better than the VL and again with the VR or VS, somewhere around there they made them better again since the VN still had some window rust issues. But yes modern cars are better protected (they would want to be)

[Goon]

My VC had less rust then my VL but i never took off every price to find out.. hehe i guess its the owners too,depending how much they like there car and look after it...

I agree with the VN comment, my bros old VN had nothing and it was in the waether for ages doing nothing... now its at the dump doing nothing lol !!

[Reaper]

All mild steels will rust if they are not coated properly. It's true that the quality of steel has improved markedly not only over the last 30 years, but the last 100 however it is the paint and corrosion protection where gains in rust have been made. Paint technology has also raced ahead over the last 50 years where we went from the old "duco" to acrylic (read faded VN/P roof/bonnet/boot) to modern 2K enamels.

Reaper