Got rust? (not body related)

[Mike6158]

I ran through how I installed (almost) my Yellowbox in another thread. The Yellowbox project splintered into a few more. I'm not quite done with this one either but close enough to post

I pulled the center console for a Yellowbox install and found this. There are 3 brackets that are easily removed so I pulled them out.

Isn't rust pretty :/ NO... it isn't. Here's how I fixed it. I used a product called Evaporust. You can get it Walmart. I used 1.5 gallons and wish I would have had two. I got by with what I had. I heated it in a 1 gallon pyrex measuring cup. I use those for when I mix chemicals for film. I heated it to about 130°. It'll work without heat but it works faster when it's warmed up. Soak time was about 3 hours. I let it sit in the sun to slow down the cooling and hopefully cause some convection currents. I might have over thought that last one.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the parts soaking but I do have the results. This is right after rinsing. I took some light steel wool to it to rough the surface for paint after this photo

Here it is in the paint shop. I have a very well equipped paint shop that also doubles as a trash can. The paint I used is the finest lawn furniture paint that Walmart sells. The only way anyone will ever see it is if they pull the console out. Since I'm likely to do that one day I spared no expense on the paint. Ok... maybe I spared a little... or a lot. Ok so I already had it...

 

[LBridges]

Nice trash can lid! J/K, I ordered carpet from Australia so I will soon be pulling mine as well. May be time for me to stock up on rattle cans, especially since I only live 4 blocks off the ocean

 

[Mike6158]

Excuse me?! That's a high tech paint booth

I didn't use 1/2 of the can to paint all three brackets with 2 coats. I didn't have any metric bolts so I lightly threaded 1/4" standard bolts into the holes to keep paint out of the threads. They didn't go far

 

[take123]

Wow this is nice. I notice my center console metal plate is also crusty. I'm wondering why this metal piece under the center console area is so crusted, it's uncoated and sitting in a cramped area? Maybe previous owner I bought from spilled drinks under it and it just sat there.

I also notice my black metal colored guide rail for the front seats are starting to show some rust powdering up in some crevices, and the unpainted metal tubing underneath the seats are starting to have rust powder on them (maybe the heating coils cause accelerated rust?). I'm wondering if people see this normally when the overall chassis and engine looks good underneathe the body, or maybe previous owner swapped the seats to fix the leather and got a crusty seat...

The other parts of my car's chassis look clean and I check also under the front floor matt, the metal looks clean. But I haven't lifted all the carpet to check the condition so not 100% sure.

 

[excessive]

Looks great. I find it strange that there was no coating on those peices from the factory, but I guess Toyota assumed no one would see them. All the metal under the dash is the same way

 

[Mike NXP]

Wow you've got more motivation that me, that's for sure. I saw that when wiring my rear switches and promptly ignored it and sealed it back up.

 

[Pucker5]

So I removed my console when I took out the disc changer. I used the factory changer mounting bracket to mount my 4 channel mid/highs amp upright and also was quite curious why that plate was kindy rusty (I still see more silver but rust nontheless)

at the time I didn’t think anything becuase compared to the underside of my truck it was brand new. Anyways, safe to assume it’s the same moisture that rusts the body floor area near the gas tank when you lift you rear seats up

 

[tahoejoe]

I love Evaporust.
Soak all my rusty bolts in it on a hotplate overnight.

Here is a video where they put the whole car frame in a pool of Evaporust.