my ranger is white and every time I wash the truck I find little rust spots down the side of the truck, these are small tiny specs that I can usually rub off but it takes hours and I am really tired of it

I was told this comes from brake dust? is there a good cleaner out there that will clean this off?

I am going to add mud flaps and possable brake dust shields to stop this, anybody else with this problem and how did you solve it?

 

a claybar will take the rust specs off easy. i get em on my hood and everywhere else on the car, white makes it so easy to see after its clean, so i doubt its brake dust. just give it a solid wax after the claybar and see what that does

 

thanks, I'll try the claybar

 

For a more permanent solution you may want to consider Ceramic brake pads. They put out significantly less brake dust.

 

I was told its called rail dust, Clay bar would be your best bet. A simonize coating is suppose to prevent it on a new vehicle

 

I was just scrolling through and saw this. My white f150 gets these same terrible rust spots during winter here from all of the salt. The theory is that it is hot brake material hitting the paint and sticking while salt rusts it right away. Never had problems in Oregon with white trucks and no salt.

Each spring I have to spend a solid day or two with cleaner wax rubbing them out by hand, it's miserable. Doesn't seem to matter how much I wash, wax etc, winter here kills it.
This winter the idiots here have salted more in a month or so than all of last winter it seems, and it shows on the truck. It makes me sick! I spent the last two days solid cleaning the truck. About two hours with a sprinkler underneath rinsing, washed it twice and the rest of the time in the garage.
This time I found that cleaner wax barely did anything, I had to pick up rubbing compound (couldn't find a clay bar anywhere here which didn't surprise me). The rubbing compound is more abrasive but works quicker. I tried using am orbital buffer with it but it only took off the easy spots, still had to remove most by hand. Then followed with a hand application of gold class wax. Wait a pain, and it's still winter. lol

So I'm hoping to hear if anyone else had better advice. My neighbor saw me working on it the last two days and just told me to bring it to the body shop he works at, and he would hook me up. I don't know if they use rubbing compound with a rotary buffer or what, I wouldn't try that because I'd surely kill the paint...

 

what your neighbor is prolly gonna do is wetsand and buff all of the spots out

 

Brian you should have said something i have some clay bar laying around. That is probably what I would use. Body shops have all kinds of crazy chemicals stuff you couldnt imagine putting on your paint.

 

I'll have to ask my neighbor what he uses at the shop.

I had a clay bar, maybe I do still but I couldn't find it. I wasn't planning on working on it now anyway. You know how you get started on something small and then get all obsessive about it.... Well maybe it's just me?

I'll get a clay bar when it's closer to spring and see how well it works with rust. The only thing I've used one for is hard water spots after my wife let some kids wash her car and didn't tell me. They must have used dish soap on all of the cars, because it stripped all of the wax off, and she parked next to a sprinkler for like two weeks. Not good.

What is even more depressing is how the underside of my truck looks. I flush it out frequently, but when I really get it clean I know it needs attention. It isn't terrible yet but if I don't do something it will be. Some parts around a couple of the body mounts look pretty nasty and are flaking off. I don't know if I should use POR on everything that has rust and then just paint the whole underside or what, but I guess that is for another thread. This is something I would totally rather pay someone else to do, but nobody ever puts as much effort into someone else' rig.

Oh and the front end needs repainted already. Apparently the dealership that I bought it from had a quick back yard spray job done on the front end (hate when they do that!) and it started chipping right away. This winter has been really hard on it though. The painted bumper has several spots that got down to the metal since the last wash and rusted, and the plastic sections are all chipped. They actually look like they were all previously filled with putty and it finally let go. I would like to linex the bumpers and rocker panels in a matching white or dark shadow gray, but I seem to remember a ridiculous quote for doing that.

It's funny though, when I talk to people around here it is like they had no idea that some places do not salt the roads in winter. They would be shocked to see some old vehicles in mint condition in other states. I have had my truck in a couple of different shops and asked them what they do to keep the underside of their trucks clean, and they all tell me that mine looks super clean! lol. Not to me. If I found this truck sitting on a dealer's lot in Oregon and crawled underneath, I wouldn't have even considered it because everything else is so much cleaner.

 

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4)

That's the thing though. IMO your truck Is really clean frame wise. The further you go north the worse it is. Just try to remember it won't stay perfect forever. That's why they make new ones everyday.

Just give it a good wash once a week and it will last 10-15 before rust completely takes over.

 

Yeah I know it isn't bad, but it's all relative. My first car was 15 years old and nearly spotless underneath, with 190k miles on it. Even the paint and clearcoat was in great condition. I sold my Ranger when it was almost 10 years old, lived right on the beach, then left it covered in mud all the time and it was cleaner than my f150 is now.

Oh well, I always tell myself I'm going to keep my truck 5-10 years but obviously that hasn't happened yet. My main concern is going to be resale value when I move back to Oregon, if I try to get rid of it in a few years.