Just wondering what condition your D is in. From the outside, mine looks supreme! But underneath the beautiful body, looks nasty! I'm thinking of going to a body shop to have the rust grinded out and recoated with a durable undercoating, something like Rhino liner.

This is how she looks from the outside:




This is how it looks in the undercarriage:

 

not sure what year yours is, but my 2002 has no body rust whatsoever, and only very minor (normal) rust underneath with the exception of my trailer hitch receiver, it has become a yearly thing to paint it and slow down the rust (iv just about given up on stopping the rust)

 

What wax are you using M Shark? Looks really good!

IndyDurango

 

Replace that muffler with a Stainless Steel one and put it up on a lift and spray it down with some Por-15. Great product and I've used mine for my undercarriage and it looks like a brand new undercarriage that has undercarriage coating.

 

Here's a quote from a previous post about my car detailing.

Hey guys! what's up? Thought I'd check back at this old post. Anyway, I just wanna share some detailing tips I use.

Here's a guy who uses the same process and products I do. I don't have any pictures of my cars so I'll just post his link to showcase the before and after pics. The Harley a few posts down really showcase the power of a polisher.

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-det...m5-harley.html

Basically this is my detail process which I have included links to the products. Have fun!

1. Clay - Mother's or Meguiar's sourced over the counter from Auto Palace will suffice.

2. Meguair's 105, orange light cutting pad. You will want to make a few passes over the panel with even, but slightly firm pressure on the paint, and then move on to the next panel. Figure 3-5 passes per panel depending upon level of correction required will be enough.
http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-......-compound.html

3. Meguiar's 205, white polishing pad, apply in the same manner as above.
http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-finishing-polish.html

**4. Optimum Finishing Polish, applied with a black finishing pad
http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-final-polish.html

**5. Optimum Opti-Seal, apply by rubbing into the paint until it disappears.
http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-opti-seal.html

If you do a lot of off roading, you can start with a yellow cutting pad for #2. The clearcoat on our Durangos is so thin it easily gets swirls just by everyday use. I can't imagine how horrid it would be when off roading.

Enjoy creating your works of art!

 

What exhaust would you recommend? I don't want anything loud, something close to stock as it can be. I already have a really loud E46 M3. lol . Anyway, I'd like to have this professionally done initially and I'll just retouch any rust spots that appear every now and then.

So my D is a lot rustier than normal? I used to live in the northeast (New Hampshire) and drove this thing thru floods, ice, mud, salt, you name it.

 

idk if yours is that much worse than normal, but definitely worse than mine, and this here would explain why if you were anything less than meticulous about washing the undercarriage off after this and every spring (im in NJ and my area doesnt flood, but the undercarriage gets rinsed off every spring).

 

During the winters, I recall driving thru car washes at least every month. I hate a dirty ride. And I'm pretty meticulous about cleaning. Just take a look at the first 2 pics. Even after 9 years and with 145K miles, she still looks new!

I'm just wondering if this is common with US made vehicles, our trucks in particular, coz before I had the Durango, I had an Audi A4 that took me thru the crazy winters. It was a lot harder to clean the undercarriage, but it never developed a ton of rust you see with my D.

 

Mine is pretty rusty too. Matter of fact, most of the components that I changed in the past year are already dusted with rust (e.g., front drive shaft, CV shaft, brake drums, etc). My muffler also looks like yours. The combination of salt in the winter and humidity in the summer is tough on metal. I'd say your undercarriage is closer to the norm. With that said, the body of my D doesn't have any rust either.

 

I've got nothing like that at all. Here in Oregon, it does rain alot, but they don't salt the roads in the Winter. That, and I have a Mountain range between me and the Coast. Salt is a killer on rigs, whether it be from the roads in the Winter, or the air from the coast.