been biting my tongue on this thread but can't hold back any more. either nobuddy here lived in the rust-belt, or you're too young (or too old) to remember rusty Studes before we all got busy glueing them together.
NOTHING American rusted worse than a 53-66 Stude. I can barely remember our '50, but seems to me it held up pretty well. But the '55 President hardtop was an education. I can remember its annual trip to the dealer to have the front & rear fenders patched and the heater tube replaced. and not when it was an old car - we got rid of it in the Fall of '61 and it only had 50,000 miles on it. That's when we got one of the first GT Hawks in Cleveland.....can still hear the salesman going on about the "perfected" rustproofing. It was totally rusted out (front & rear fenders, trunk floor & rockers) by Spring of '63......think it only had the body redone twice because my parents were so disgusted - 'specially when the seats split. Got rid of it for a '66 Riviera - and got $200 trade-in.
While I'm raving:
Mopar - Plydodges were always tinnie......DeChryslers were built like tanks until '57 when they all went to hell. Then when they went to unibodies - wow. Had a girlfriend with an early Duster......sure spent a lot of time looking for metal to relocate everthing dangling loose under the hood onto.
FoMoCo......average or above. They had problems with the frame torque boxes in '65;;;;every now and then you'd see one going down the street dragging the side rails on the ground......but that was when they were 10+ years old. They were weird with their unibodies........when they were on 3 year body cycles for the T-Bird and Continental, the first two years would be loaded with rustproofing on all the inner panels......then none on the 3rd year of the body.
Packards.......probably better than average - nobuddy took care of them when they stopped making them......front fenders on the '56 were apparently designed by Stude, tho.
Hudsons.....couldn't make them rust.......'51-'55 Kaisers, too.
Nash/Ramblers.......always seemed to hold up well, until the front suspension came flying thru the hood when the aprons rusted thru!
And in case anyone is still reading this - remember FIATS???? Probably the only major brand that rivaled Stude for tin worm. About the only ones that didn't rust were the ones consumed by fire when the fuel lines broke because the engines bounced around so much.
There used to be a cute little 950 Spyder in our neighborhood.......always parked in the same spot down the street. This was when it was only a couple years old......the body appeared pristine. Then I noticed that it never moved......a couple months went by and the tires started going flat.....I kept wondering why it was being neglected.......until I noticed that the entire floor.....seats, tunnel and all .....were on the ground under the car!
now I'll shut up.