I pulled my bed off for the purpose of draining my gas tank today and I realized just how badly everything needs a fresh coat of paint or undercoating.

What do you recommend I use to prepare the surface and re-apply the finish?

I'll be pressure-washing it later after I finish wire-brushing everything. Some spots are down to bare metal from the rotary cup brush I put into my air grinder, so it definantly needs some GOOD protection.

What is this POR15 I've heard about?
I want to do the job cheaply, but effectively. It needs to compliment the job under the hood when I get done with the swap.

Thanks for the advice or opinions!

 

POR-15....your frame will never rust again.....

 

Im just rattle canning mine

 

that is all i did to mine is rattle can Rustoleum......

Before:







After:

 

POR-15 from every person who's used, says the stuff is amazing. Works great. Only problem with it is it's expensive as hell.

I've actually been thinking about doing something like this lately as well, and I saw a product on Trucks last week called "ZeroRust". Done a little bit of research so far and it seems to be some decent stuff. 50 bucks a gallon as opposed to 130 bucks a gallon for POR-15. Think it might be worth it to at least try the stuff out.

 

POR-15 would probably be overkill for you. The stuff is like a brush-able powdercoat though... it's tough as nails. Honestly I bet you could do pretty well with just some regular rustoleum spray paint.

 

This spring I'm going to hose my frame with simple green and then use Eastwood Rust Encapsulator

I've read good things about it, and it is a hellavalot cheaper

 

once its down to bare metal just spray a primer coat or 2 and finish off with rattle can... paint it like you would a bare metal car... they both are metal, they both can rust... only difference is the thickness really.

 

what product will cut that undercoating from the factory?

 

also. anyone even THINKING about sandblasting sections of your undercarriage, i HIGHLY HIGHLY advise against it. you think u got squeaks now, just wait till u get granuals of sand into all the nooks and crannnys.....

 

Engine cleaner works good on the undercoating. I messed up and got some on it and it ate it down to bare metal in no time.

 

my buddy said wd40 and a wire wheel worked good gettin the factory undercoating off.. messy but it worked... also when its warm out side, grab a metal scraper and just dig into it a little bit and push... that will get a good amount off and then hit the rest with degreaser and a wire wheel.

 

Okay....sounds good. I'll be heading to Orielly's in a minute.

How many cans of undercoating should I get? I'm thinking 3 of each kind (primer/undercoat).

That should allow me to get a good double layer of primer on there before a double layer of coating. Does anything think I need more or less???

 

get a bit more, this way if u NEED more, u dont have to drive back up there. and if u dont need it, u can take it back and get your money back.

 

Good thinking, but I wish I had read this a little earlier. I got 6 cans total and it gave me two coats of primer, then two coats of undercoating.

Quite a significant Before and After job!

Before:


After:


Now that it's had time to dry, I'm headed back outside for the 3rd and final coat!

 

looks real good!

 

I stripped mine with all purpose and a wire brush then sprayed acid etching primer that accually bites into the metal then I used semigloss spray bomb and over that I used black chip guard.

 

that chip gaurd stuff looks pretty cool. is it a rubberized material or what

 

Looks much, much better.

 

Here are some shots, after I got the WHOLE truck cleaned up!

 

yeah sort of..

 

you should do you gas tank (or clean it) and the train horn base plate..... then its REALLY look clean...


Eric, you got any like, 'right now' shots? of how it looks after awhile? and, how does it clean up? is it easy to clean?

 

Man she is hurtin right now, I'm too ashamed to takes pictures of it untill I clean it up a bit. It cleans up real good, I usually take it to a car wash after off roading to get off the heavy stuff and pay extra for the chasis wash option and that alone makes the underneith look like new again.

 

by train horn do you mean the cone for the spare tire winch?

 

Ha ha....yeah that is the white plastic cone attached to the pulley crank of the spare tire winch. When you remove the spare tire lock under the tailgate and stick the jack poles in, that funnel makes certain the jack poles go into the pulley crank.