Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have been used to tailor surface properties of different metal surfaces. Typically SAMs can be bound to surface hydroxyls of a thin oxide layer that forms on the surface of a less noble metal and dominates its properties. The effects of SAMs with different anchoring groups and chain lengths regarding wettability, corrosion resistance and homogeneity of the layer were studied in detail. Alkyl carbonic and phosphonic acids were selected to create a hydrophobic layer on the surface of stainless steel ASIS 316L and on carbon steel N80. SAMs were fofmed by dip-coating of the samples in an organic acid ethanolic solution. Sum frequency generation (SFG) analysis together with contact angle and electrochemical measurements were carried out to explore correlations between tailored wettability, corrosion resistance, and layer homogeneity on one side, and the chain length, anchor group, concentration and immersion time on the other side. The homogeneity of the layers as well as the resulting surface hydrophobicity increased with an increase of the immersion time, the contact angle reached a maximum (ca. 120) for an immersion time of approximately 2 days. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.