Help with rust, SLC, Utah (1 Viewer)

[Tighe]

Howdy all. I visited my folks in Utah over the holiday and noticed my Dad’s LX470 has a bit of rust appearing on the underside of the doors. Similar situation on the tailgate. The underside of the truck looks clean at a glance, likely attributable to weekly washes that include the underside.

Anyway, I don’t live in UT, and he’s past the DIY stage of life, so I am looking for recommendations for where he could take the truck to have this remedied.

Thanks!
Tighe

 

[excessive]

its unusual for 100s to rust there, i am guessing the drains in the doors are blocked by something? at the very least spray some fluid film up in there to stop the rust from getting any worse

 

[roadsalt]

I just dealt with this on my lx470. If it’s the same, you need to pry off the lower door panel cover. The built in metal clips are likely your culprit. Be prepared to 3M erased wheel off the old glue gasket, reglue the broken nylon clips back where they belong, and 3M double sided tape the edges of the panel back on. If my car wasn’t so dark I’d have the same marks.

 

[Tighe]

Thank you both!

 

[kevgentile]

Fairly common on the LX's. I have a rust free Georgia truck with the same rust stains on the bottom edge of the door trim. I sprayed some ospho in the gaps to slow it down until I can address it.

 

[saucebox]

I smashed mine up pretty good once, and was recommended a shop called Van Goes (Van Goghs?). It's been a few years, but that was in Murray, just a little bit south of SLC proper. I didn't shop around, and I have nothing negative to say about them...the damage was fixed to my satisfaction.

 

[Tighe]

Appreciate the Ospho recommendation, as well as the shop in Murray. This website is the best...

 

[augustwest]

I have the exact same rust stains on my white LX. Appreciate the tips!

 

[Tighe]

I the exact same rust stains on my white LX. Appreciate the tips!

Wow, perfect timing. I actually JUST addressed this on my dad's LX this past weekend and was planning to update this thread. I'll walk you through my process.

I did reach out to Ospho and sent them some photos and a description of what I was looking for, and they actually did not recommend their product for this application. Their response was, "You can try to clean the stains but to address the rust, it would need to be sanded, treated, primed, and painted. Ospho is a rust treatment. Will not work without sealing it."

I was not planning on sealing anything, so I chose Fluid Film instead. I assume I'll have to do this once every season or two.

I used WD-40 and a rag to remove the existing rust stains. I found liberal amounts of WD-40 were needed, and it worked best if I sprayed it directly on the rusted area (instead of onto the rag) and then I left it alone to soak for a few minutes. Then a little more WD, followed with some elbow grease got ALL of the rust stains off the underside of the door, the rocker panel, and the lower tailgate weepholes. Per @roadsalt's post above, the clips inside the cladding are still there and presumably are still rusty, so after cleaning up what was visible I sprayed liberal amounts of Fluid Film inside the doors. Using the included straw, the FF could be sprayed through the weepholes in the bottom of the door. I sprayed a lot, stopping only when the FF started leaking out of weepholes. Of course I didn't take any followup photos, but I can request some from my dad if that would be helpful.

 

[augustwest]

Wow, perfect timing. I actually JUST addressed this on my dad's LX this past weekend and was planning to update this thread. I'll walk you through my process.

I did reach out to Ospho and sent them some photos and a description of what I was looking for, and they actually did not recommend their product for this application. Their response was, "You can try to clean the stains but to address the rust, it would need to be sanded, treated, primed, and painted. Ospho is a rust treatment. Will not work without sealing it."

I was not planning on sealing anything, so I chose Fluid Film instead. I assume I'll have to do this once every season or two.

I used WD-40 and a rag to remove the existing rust stains. I found liberal amounts of WD-40 were needed, and it worked best if I sprayed it directly on the rusted area (instead of onto the rag) and then I left it alone to soak for a few minutes. Then a little more WD, followed with some elbow grease got ALL of the rust stains off the underside of the door, the rocker panel, and the lower tailgate weepholes. Per @roadsalt's post above, the clips inside the cladding are still there and presumably are still rusty, so after cleaning up what was visible I sprayed liberal amounts of Fluid Film inside the doors. Using the included straw, the FF could be sprayed throuh the weepholes in the bottom of the door. I sprayed a lot, stopping only when it started leaking out of weepholes. Of course I didn't take any followup photos, but I can request some from my dad if that would be helpful.

Excellent. I will try this. Thanks for the write up!