I bought 5 cans of Permatex Rustproofing from the local auto parts store, and sprayed the underside of my truck, wheel wells, inside fenders, under the bed, floorboards, frame, ect.... It came out looking great. I've done this before on a few of my other vehicles over the years and it seems to help keep rust away.

 

my trucks 7 years old and i'm in MN if you wash your truck at least once a week (especially in the winter) there really is no need to add rust proofing. the newer vehicles have a beter quality of metals. but, i guess a litle extra protection can't hurt!

 

It doesn't cost much (3.99 a can x 5 cans, so about $20..) but it covers up a lot of metal. I was surprised to find out the front wheel wells are mostly plastic, which won't rust, but some of the other parts might. Even the gas tank is some sort of composite material, (which I like !!) But the whole idea is just to put another layer of something/anything between metal and water and road salt.....the wheel wells came out looking nice as any rusty brown parts there are now black....I remember doing this to an old Suburban I had, it didn't rust out too bad...so it helped.

 

Living in Nova Scotia (pretty much a little bit of land sticking out into the Atlantic) salt on the roads and in the air is a way of life. Rustproofing/undercoating every year is the only way to keep a vehicle from rusting out from the insides. This place is one of the hardest on vehicles and if you don't undercoat you'll have rust bubbles in 2 years.

 

Here in Ohio, they use road salt heavily during the winter months, and that eats up a car in no time, if you don't wash it off. Luckily, my truck has very little rust on it, just a little on the inside seem on the bottom of the tailgate. I also plan to put on a good solid coat of wax before winter.

 

Salt in ohio and MI eat cars alive...

 

When Chuck Norris goes to ohio and MI he eats cars alive...

 

A few years ago, I had 1978 Silverado 1500 that never had any rustproofing done to it, above the rear wheel wells was gone, I mean the side of the bed was completely rotted out...(that's why I got the truck so cheap.....) after a couple of winters with no rustproofing, and very little washing, there was very little metal left....I ended up patching the sides of the bed with duct tape then painting over that....it looked pretty half-assed, but better than just the huge rust holes.....so now I want to protect my newer Ranger against rust, with the rustproofing stuff...


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I am of the opinion that the black, tar like undercoating can trap moisture behind it and can promote rusting. The oily/waxy rustproofing stuff that is sprayed inside of the rocker panels, doors, fenders, underside of the box etc. is IMO a better way to rustproof a vehicle. Rust Check is one brand name, Eastwood has two types as well. You can spray with an undercoating gun or use spray cans (Canadian Tire has them). You may have to drill access holes to get inside some panels. You should re-apply once a year.
...Terry

 

I just want to keep the salt off and away from the metal, a good layer of the tar like stuff should do the trick. As far as trapping moisture, everything was power washed yesterday, and dried out all day yesterday and today, so I don't think there was any moisture to trap. It all appeared to be very dry. It was in the high 80's to 90's today....

As far as drilling holes and spraying in more stuff, I'm not planning on going that far with it. My main concern is the wheel wells and rocker panels, and those places got a good coating on them today.

I would have loved to put the truck up on a lift to do it, but I don't have a lift available to me. So it was crawling on the ground and wiggling under the truck to get to as many spots as I could reach. Five cans was about right for what I wanted to do.

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I second that . Found my first rust hole on the lip of my drivers side fender
Oh well I guess she aint new anymore

 

We spray STRAIGHT sodium chloride on the streets in Ohio. My frame looks like ****. I REALLY want to por-15 the frame.

 

^^^^Me too, and the inside of my tailgate, and doors jams...

 

best advice given^^ I wash mine on a weekly basis all year and i have NO signs of rust. 90K miles. My dad has done the same thing with his 98 F150 since new and it has minimal rust. No rust proofing on it ever.

oh and that is partially why i went with a flareside. rust? whats rust?

 

wish i had the time to do that

 

all it takes is 6 min at the spray yourself car wash. sometime 8 min.

i am sure you waste that much time every day.

 

^^^^Bingo, couldn't have said it better myself...

If someone can't put forth 10 minutes worth of effort a WEEK to keep there truck in decent shape, somethings wrong...

 

ohio pre-salts the roads, so its even worse. especially Dublin, they use an ***-load of salt, its crazy. Im gonna wash my truck every week, even wax it before the winter season.

 

Today I fixed the rust on the bottom of the tailgate inside bottom seam. There was just a little bit of rust starting to happen there, so I hit it with some fine steel wool, got the rust off, then touched it up with some touch-up paint I had specially mixed to match my paint. I went to the Ford dealer, and they said it was "Arizona Beige" but didn't have any in stock...so I went to an automotive paint store, and they mixed it up for me, after getting a color code from the VIN number. Apparently there's a few shades of "Arizona Beige" available. The paint they mixed turned out to be pretty good match. So now that's fixed.

 

The problem with the thick tar like stuff is that if there is surface rust already it can and will indeed keep rusting.

There is this stuff that converts rust that is supposed to be the cats meow, here is a link to a forum that discusses it:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/arc...-159588--.html

I'm planning to clean/degrease the heck out of the bottom of my newish truck before its first full winter and spray some of this converter stuff on wherever there already is surface rust (only need to wire brush it to get the big flakes off), and then protect it with either just some flat black rust paint like tremclad or some decent thick undercoating.

Otherwise, if I don't find the time, I'm with the Overkill-F1 who suggested the waxy oily stuff to get it through the season. Thanks for the tip on the spray cans from C Tire.

 

Well, that's the thing, there wasn't any rust on the wheel wells and rocker panels. So I feel they are now more protected against road salt and stone chips than they were before. There is some surface rust on the frame, but it was probably rusty the day it was built.

I did see some stuff that was around $50 a quart that is supposed to stop rust, but that's out of my budget and scope of what I wanted to do.

 

Fluid Film http://www.eurekafluidfilm.com/ is what our Dept. of Highways uses on all their plows/spreaders.

Another good one is Corrosion Free, basically the same as rust check but vegetable oil based.

 

The Permatex stuff I used dries to a black rubberized coating....this makes sense to me and has worked in the past for me.


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I read somewhere on this forum that a guy brushed on vinegar let it dry and hosed off the white powdery residue and let dry 24, then took a small paint brush and painted his frame with used motor oil. Has anybody ever done this. Seems like it would neutralize the rust any help is appreciated.

 

^ the thing with using motor oil is not only is it not environmentally friendly because it's going to come off but it's messy.... EVERYTHING is going to stick to the oil.. which I get, that's what is preventing water getting to the metal. But ever work on something that is covered in grease and oil? It's a total PITA. I'd much rather work on something clean or at least not covered in oil and grease.

Personally I think if you are going to go into the point of doing this you might as well do it right to some extent.

I just did this and currently in the process of putting the truck back together.

I wire brushed most of the scale off. Then actually fixed some holes I had in the rear tire carrier. Then cleaned it multiple times, with a degreaser, and all purpose cleaner, then with Dawn dish soap. Let dry for a couple days in the garage with the fans going. Then used chassis saver paint.

I'll take new pictures but pretty much the entire frame, control arms, bed, and anything else I could use the gallon of paint on I did.

-Nigel