Cruiser rust

[superjuice]

Took some before and after pictures of the rust on my truck. I live in the Northeast and the salt is relentless. First i power washed everything at close range, then I wire bushed and sanded all the spots a could reach. Followed that with permatex rust inhibitor, and a few coats of rustoliuem black semi-gloss. Probably took about 12 hours in just prep work and 6 in painting. After a few weeks I fogged the entire undercarriage with a product called corrosion-x. So far so good, i will take another round of pics after this winter. I know threads are useless without pics so...

My truck


My rust


My fix

 

[superjuice]

rear rust


rear fix

 

[superjuice]

last one

 

[3sacrwd]

You call that rust? You should see underneath my cruiser....ha,ha. Nice job. I think that I need to do that next summer, as my Cruiser is rusting a slow death. Where did you get the rust inhibitor? Did you use a wire wheel?

 

[jhanley]

nice job, looks amazing.

 

[superjuice]

Yup, wire wheels, wire brushes, sanding sponge, and elbow grease.
whole set was $3 harbor freight

I used a spray rust treatment due to the difficulty of reaching all infected areas.
$6 a can - i used 6
Obviously this is a shortcut to doing it correctly but at least it might keep the rust at bay for awhile.
My main hope is that now the corrosion-x stuff will keep the rust from coming back.

I put it on with this. $6 harbor freight


you can get the corrosion-x from a few vendors, I got mine from E-tackle in mass but buycorrosionx.com has a good price of $82 a gallon. I used about half of it and did EVERYTHING! frame rails, engine, indercarriage, wheel wells, and just about everything i could see. I wont know untill spring if this worked but i will post my findings good or bad.

 

[arndog123]

Looks 100% better. Great job.

 

[OB-1]

Looks great! Keep us updated on how it holds up.

 

[bruff]

Nice work. I might have to think about the corrosion-X stuff as a preventative. Let us know the results down the road.

 

[Grench]

Hmmm....

Corrosion-X eh? Do you mask it before you fog it or ???

 

[bobdhead39]

Looks really good. I think I will be doing this as I have the same thing going on underneath. Did you do all of this is one sitting? Or over a weekend? Can the corrosion x can go over paint without issue?

 

[Altaf]

Wow that's a drastic improvement! I just soak the undercarriage with a bottle of WD-40 every couple of months but the protection isn't nearly as good. I assume you have access to a lift to do a thorough job like that.

 

[PACNW96]

Nice work....looks great.

 

[SBFJ60FIG]

I am inspired...maybe however not too action, this year. But fo sho...110% better, looks great!

 

[Chaldaean]

Nice work! This is the #1 job that I think my rigs needs the most and also the #1 job that I have absolutely zero interest in tackling.

 

[SBFJ60FIG]

Nice work! This is the #1 job that I think my rigs needs the most and also the #1 job that I have absolutely zero interest in tackling.

I have like 6.84% interest in doing this...but know nearly 100% that it should be done...like it or not. It will be a sucky project...but will wait until next spring/summer.

 

[OGBeno]

I'll be honest with both the OP and to others who have "rust belt" rigs: The only real way to stop and mitigate the encroachment of rust is to literally take everything apart, clean, galvanize and repaint, or, barring this ability, buy new parts.

During my rebuild of a Florida/Ohio truck, I spent a good $400 or so just on hardware--nuts, bolts, washers, brackets, etc. This was just on the front end.

I know Kirk on MUD has taken all of his underside axle housings, all of the metal stuff apart, sand blasted them, coated them and then POR'ed everything. This was during a 3 or so year rebuild of his 1994 80 series. Dealing with rust is serious $$$$ any thing else is merely a stop-gap measure and the rust is going to come back through very soon, especially if you live in the NE or anywhere they use chemicals/salt on the road surfaces.

When I was living in OH, during the winter when I did drive the rig, I would wash the underside after every use (it wasn't my DD) and a couple of times during the winter I would go underneath the rig and use some cheap 30 weight from Wally World and coat the whole underside with a paint brush and a rag. Hours of oil dripping on me was worth it in the end since I now live in NM and rust is not an issue. Though the areas that did get screwed by rust are to this day still rusting away.


Rust is a "virus" that has no cure because of its natural affliction to interact with metals--no matter.
Good luck.
-o-

 

[tromz]

Funny i'm goin in to do the same thing next week . Try living at the beach and see what happens Hopfully i'll compile all the pics of the "cancer" cure.Time for my dd to get TLC

 

[tromz]

Oh another .02 everything shall surrender to mother nature in the end!!!

 

[SBFJ60FIG]

Yes yes yes, but doing something I feel will slow the problem. Not cure it...I actually try not to drive my rig in the winter, and really try to keep it parked as much as possible.