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Undercarriage rust removal

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Old 11-08-2016, 05:11 PM
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Undercarriage rust removal

I





Just bought a white 1987 four runner five speed with the 22 RE. Got it for a decent price, considering the interior is in great shape and she runs really well. Being from Colorado, and with its age, it has some minor surface rust on the frame, axles, some steering components. There is also some Rust spots on the rear quarter panel's that I have a good idea about how I'm going to address.

As far as taking care of the minor surface rust on the frame and other components , my idea was to take a wire brush to it, and then apply something like some flat black rust oleum primer from a spray can. I have also looked into applying POR15.

does anybody have some tips, tricks, suggestions? most of the rust removal threads are on cars that have some pretty severe cases of rust. My goal for this car is to take what is an excellent frame with some superficial rust, remove that rust, and prevent rot.

Last edited by Sam Latone; 11-08-2016 at 05:13 PM.
Old 11-08-2016, 11:53 PM
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Red face

People seem to love this new fluid film .to keep our Tacoma Frames from rusting

I hope your planning to wire brush with a die grinder or 4" grinder by hand it will be a long project
Old 11-09-2016, 08:23 AM
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Yeah we will probably use the wire brush for tough spots and wire wheel on the large stuff. Planning on wire preparing, using a prep solution, primer, paint, and finally fluid film.

Now im thinking how do I remove crap from inside the frame?
Old 11-13-2016, 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Sam Latone
Yeah we will probably use the wire brush for tough spots and wire wheel on the large stuff. Planning on wire preparing, using a prep solution, primer, paint, and finally fluid film.
Hi Sam,
I recently use POR-15 on my windshield pinch weld and learned that wire wheel is not enough to remove loose, brown rust; It merely glazes it, making you think you've hit bare metal. So I had to use a fine grinding wheel to grid down all loose rust (tiny ones in my Dremel-style kit worked for my small area).

Last edited by RAD4Runner; 11-14-2016 at 04:22 PM.
Old 11-14-2016, 05:55 AM
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You can't remove rust from my understanding if it's deeper than a surface rust. If you could, why would people cut metal off and re-weld new pieces? The "damage" has been done, so to say.

Products like Fluid Film (Which I'm familiar with as I've coated my 4runner with it, I can't comment on POR15 but you can Google it) *prevent* further rust growth, not get 'rid' of it.

Last edited by amalik; 11-14-2016 at 05:56 AM.
Old 11-14-2016, 09:10 AM
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Originally Posted by amalik
You can't remove rust from my understanding if it's deeper than a surface rust. If you could, why would people cut metal off....
That's from your understanding, but based on my experience (perrhaps I'm Superman- LOL!), I was able to

PO is talking about "minor surface rust".

If it doesn't penetrate the metal and it's not structural, it's surface rust; no need to cut off the metal.

Last edited by RAD4Runner; 11-14-2016 at 09:21 AM.
Old 11-14-2016, 02:24 PM
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Originally Posted by RAD4Runner
That's from your understanding, but based on my experience (perrhaps I'm Superman- LOL!), I was able to

PO is talking about "minor surface rust".

If it doesn't penetrate the metal and it's not structural, it's surface rust; no need to cut off the metal.
Yeah minor surface rust isn't a big deal & OP might be good to go.

Many of our East Coast brethren are cursed with a lot worse than that.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...8847_thumb.jpg
Old 11-14-2016, 04:21 PM
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Originally Posted by amalik
....Many of our East Coast brethren are cursed with a lot worse than that.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...8847_thumb.jpg
yeah, salted road.
Old 11-14-2016, 05:41 PM
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Slightly off topic: Does anyone have experience with "Rust Converters" like Rustoleum Rust Reformer? https://www.ncptt.nps.gov/blog/compa...st-converters/ Apparently there are several flavors of rust converters, but they all have an acid base (like Tannic Acid) which appears to alter the oxidation state of the iron oxide (rust). They all claim to convert the rust to something paintable, and to inhibit further rusting (though that might be due to a combined polymer, like 2-Butoxyethanol).

"Fluid Film" appears to be nothing more than Lanolin. I've used that in a marine environment as an aluminum/stainless steel anti-sieze, but I have no sense of how it would protect metal any more than wax would. And you cannot paint over it (or apply body filler).
Old 11-14-2016, 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by scope103
Slightly off topic: Does anyone have experience with "Rust Converters" like Rustoleum Rust Reformer?.
I tried Permatex rust converter. Some areas like top of my tailgate lasted so far. However, when I tried it on my windshield pinch-weld, it rusted again (pic here). Maybe it was poor prep on my part.
This time, I used the popular POR-15 which claims to like to be applied to rusted metal. However, I actually removed all loose rust this time - so it's applied to bare metal, and I used the starter kit prep. We'll see how long it lasts.
Old 11-25-2016, 12:57 PM
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Por 15 is a great product. I had an oil pan speckled with pin head sized rust holes where the oil/water had sat for years, the oil pan was made from unobtainium and no choice but to fix. Prepped and coated with Por15 and good for another 50 years!
Would I use it on a frame? No way, waste of time and money, unless you want to remove everything that is fastened to the frame, then prep and coat. Even if you do all that what about the inside of the frame?
Products like Fluid Film go on easy and with some effort can be applied to the inside, plus penetrate. However must be reapplied every year or so
Me personally will use Fluid Film.

Only my opinion, not to be confused with wisdom or knowledge. Jim
Old 11-25-2016, 03:02 PM
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Originally Posted by amalik
Yeah minor surface rust isn't a big deal & OP might be good to go.

Many of our East Coast brethren are cursed with a lot worse than that.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...8847_thumb.jpg
LOL, as one if your east coast brethren, I feel that pain (jeep frame looks about like that, and has no floor boards to speak of.

Originally Posted by Sam Latone
Yeah we will probably use the wire brush for tough spots and wire wheel on the large stuff. Planning on wire preparing, using a prep solution, primer, paint, and finally fluid film.

Now im thinking how do I remove crap from inside the frame?
I was thinking about trying this stuff (Eastwood site seems to be down, black Friday related maybe?)

Also, I am about to drop $ and do the same thing you're thinking with the frame, with this stuff http://zero-rust.com/index.php

They paint oil rigs with it, hopefully ought to do the trick when combined with regular underbody washing in the winter
Old 12-03-2016, 05:48 PM
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Update guys...works been slow but I was able to hose out the inside of the frame, after drilling some 1/2 inch holes in the bottom of the frame rail for drainage. I then used some of Eastwoods internal frame coating. Use the green stuff so you can see your coverage. It covers the inside of the frame excellently. Posting more about it in my build thread titled "dreamcatcher"
Old 12-04-2016, 05:29 AM
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Good to hear the inside frame coating is working well, post some pics up if you can and let us know how it goes, I'm considering doing the same thing to mine



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