Undercoating

[DesertRose]

Hey ya'll new to Ih8mud

Just bought an immaculate 1988 FJ62 . Came from 20 + years in the Arizona and New mexico Desert- It is rust free except for some on the exhaust piping

Question : I just shipped the truck back East, and it will reside in the Northern Virginia area. We have mild winters, and i was wondering if it made any sense to have a protective undercoating applied to the undercarriage . VA salts their roads when it snows, and it only snows 6-10 times a winter.

The truck is 21 years old. Need to know if this would make sense or just be an utter waste of $$$

 

[RockDoc]

Rust-proofing is a must if you want it to last in good condition.

 

[DesertRose]

Thanks for the reply RockDoc. How much would this cost? And who should a i trust to perform the work?

Thanks Again!

 

[Zack1978]

Well I think that most would agree that the rubberized undercoating causes more harm than good. The best situation is to park the rust free 62 in the winter, remember the number of rust free examples are few are far between.

With that said if you must drive it in the winter, giving the truck an "oil" bath seems to be the way to go. In Canada you can have a place called Krown do an oil treatment, but it is not allowed in the US, I think the EPA frowns upon it. But you can apply a product called Fluid Film to the entire underside to keep the rust at bay. And remember to put some fluid film inside the frame rails. Some people have also done an oil bath with used motor oil, I guess that could work as well.


Zack

 

[RockDoc]

Someone should have some good suggestions. Up here (Canada) a business known as Krown seems to have a good reputation (more a rust-proof oily coating than an undercoating I believe), or Ziebart which I think does more of an rock-guard type undercoating. I've taken to doing some myself with Fluid Film (wool wax base). I'd go for something that stays waxy and "wet" rather than something that cures and can peel away a bit and trap salty water between the coating and the metal it's supposed to protect.

What ever you do, make sure that the insides of your panels (doors, quarters, tailgate and hatch, rocker panels) get some treatment in addition to the underside of the truck. These trucks usually turn butt ugly with rust before they get anywhere near structurally compromised.

 

[Spike Strip]

Yes, you want a rust-proofing done.

One of my 60s is from New York city, the 1st 10 years of its life. PO had the rust proofing done and it made a world of difference on the amt of rust.

 

[tag3]

I use the usual oil leak method of undercoating. Complete underside of truck is coated with a nice shiny oil slick.

 

[Joe Egolf]

My cruiser underside was nicely painted red when I got it ,I park it for the winter but I still applied 5 spray cans of fluid film in addition to the oil from, sometimes leaky, lifter side plate and blow by pipe. .I also applied Fluid Film into door bottoms etc etc where rust loves to thrive

 

[Zack1978]

Someone should have some good suggestions. Up here (Canada) a business known as Krown seems to have a good reputation (more a rust-proof oily coating than an undercoating I believe), or Ziebart which I think does more of an rock-guard type undercoating. I've taken to doing some myself with Fluid Film (wool wax base). I'd go for something that stays waxy and "wet" rather than something that cures and can peel away a bit and trap salty water between the coating and the metal it's supposed to protect.

What ever you do, make sure that the insides of your panels (doors, quarters, tailgate and hatch, rocker panels) get some treatment in addition to the underside of the truck. These trucks usually turn butt ugly with rust before they get anywhere near structurally compromised.

Great minds think alike....And we posted within one minute of each other.


Zack

 

[cruiser guy]

hey mine is from arizona too did yours come with the big a$$ cracks in the dash?

 

[DesertRose]

oh yes indeed- we have one large crack that is now covered up with some lame dashboard protector- is that a common trait among Desert LC's?

 

[MutleyFJ62]

The heat and UV rays kill the dash, although mine is still ok. Down here I live on the coast, about 3 mins walk from the beach and the rust can be pretty aggressive. I use a 50/50 mix of used sump oil and diesel and spray it on the underside and drown the door and quarter panels with it. HTH

 

[DesertRose]

Thats some good advice- thanks everybody for your help!

 

[cruiser guy]

The cracking I think is common in hot dry climates

 

[JeffJ60]

Just to continue this thread... I have never done the spray oil thing in the past (life pre-cruiser). Does it render the car a total mess to work on?

Anyone ever do the three-step process of a rust converter the handle the existing stuff, followed by something like procyon from LDS (which is a hard, transparent film with 1500 hours of salt spray resistance), followed by something like the LDS-3 waxy, self-healing stuff?

I want the prevent rust as well, but I do not want to create a sludge-fest everytime I want to get under the truck.

Thoughts?

 

[Freewheel]

Things do get a bit messy under the truck, but it's not too bad - just don't put gallons on. One side benefit is that all your nuts and bolts stay lubed and won't seize.

On the subject of what to put on the truck. Mutleys suggestion of diesel and sump oil is cost effective, but I wouldn't be able to drive in a truck that stank inside of raw diesel. My local Krown dealer is booked till Christmas, so I'm going to have to go at it with Fluid Film, which is non toxic and smells like a slightly sugary wet sheep. Krown is great, no smell at all.

And the reason I get concerned about smell is a result of the time I painted the inside of the doors with a concoction of chainsaw bar oil, grease and gear oil. It worked great, but ran and dripped, when it got hot and almost suffocated me with that heavy gear oil smell.

I would like to try the lds-3, but it doesn't seem easy to find around here. I've tried Proform Waxy protectant, but it smelled like harsh chemicals and didn't really last very long.

 

[RockDoc]

In western Canada, you can get LPS (not LDS ) from Gregg Distributors.

A week or two ago I used an undercoating gun to shoot the underside of my truck with a mix of 2/3 Fluid Film and 1/3 mineral spirits. I picked up a gallon bucket of Fluid Film a couple years ago, and a little give a lot of coverage if you aren't putting it on to the point of dripping. I actually really like the smell of the stuff