When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
New-to-me 2003 E250 extended body cargo van, has the typical inside floor surface rust due condensation, photos here:
None of this is much more severe than heavy surface rust, the entire floor is affected to some degree even under the areas still covered with the body color. If it matters there's about 70 sq ft of area to cover/treat.
Having read up some on the POR-15 and its amazing abilities I'm looking for input from those who've used that or something similar to stop this sort of rust. My plan is to treat or remove the existing rust then cover the floor with treated plywood and carpet.
If anyone has advice how to prepare this floor and what materials & steps would give me the best long lasting results I'd love to hear it. I don't have access to spray equipment so would like to approach this as something brushed on if possible.
Sand it down, put some Ospho or Metal Ready (POR's rust inhibitor) on, then brush on POR-15 or similar product. POR brushes on nicely and even though you'll see the brush marks when its wet, it'll dry smooth. Be sure to wear a mask and have plenty of ventilation because the stuff's pretty toxic.
Thanks Carlene! I will post a few in-process photos and my steps along the way-----hopefully they'll be useful to others. As it turns out one of my customers sells POR products so I had a decent hook up, probably saved a good $50 and will have plenty of cleaner and metal prep left over. Ordered it on a Wednesday, arrived Thursday and a close-by friend let me pick it all up at his place---about 17 miles closer!
So far the worst part is waiting in between steps---I'll have dragged this out over three days when its finished.
POR 15 is great. Post some pics when you lay it down. Any horror stories seem to be from people who do not follow the proper procedures so make sure you do everything the right way. Good luck!
Okay so all is done----not a chore I hope to do anytime soon again!
First step was rust removal by way of my trusty Milwaukee 5” grinder with wire brush wheel. This was just surface rust so this part was easy but at 72 square feet it took a while, wanted to get as much clean metal as possible. Swept and blew all the dust away and prepared for the next step.
Marine Clean degreaser, mixed three cups (24 oz.) in a gallon of water, sloping it on straight out of a plastic jug----nothing hi-tech or subtle about this step. Using a few virgin clean shop towels to spread it out, making sure it covered every bit of bare metal. Following directions I left it sit, watching to make sure it didn’t dry too quickly. It was horribly hot but since humidity was a bit high it was a good 30 minutes before rinsing. Flooding the entire area a few times to make sure it had been rinsed away I let the van sit for the rest of the day, blowing standing water out of little pockets that might not dry very well. Closed it up for the night---some of this work is just plain b-o-r-i-n-g !
(I will note this Marine Clean is some VERY slick or slippery stuff, especially when its on your hands--it took me at least three attempts to remove it. Dial soap is useless, heavy duty pop-up hand scrubs almost as ineffective but finally Go-Jo painters hand cleaner removed it. This was quite interesting as a material---never experienced something this clingy, have to wonder if that’s not part of its cleaning properties on metal? I could have probably diluted the Marine Clean a bit more but first time I didn’t want to err on the wrong side of clean.)
Next morning applied the Metal-Ready, watching the clock and how quickly it was drying---wanted to keep to the recommendations of keeping wet for at least 20-30 minutes in order to work properly. Using a spray bottle I applied about ¾ of a quart to fully and thoroughly cover the entire area, the remaining kept to reapply if drying time was too quick. Time for another rinse so used a new green Scotch-Brite pad scoured all bare metal, scuffing the still-good factory paint too. Using more clean shop towels mopped away standing water but left the van to sit the full day, doors open to air and sun.
Next day humidity was 71% @ 7:00am, above what POR suggests for applying the POR-15 coating. All metal inside the van was bone dry, no overnight condensation so I thought it would be okay to proceed. If I read the directions correctly high humidity could possibly cause a slightly textured finished appearance which was not a concern---this will be covered with a plywood floor. The silver material has a lot of solids which naturally settled on the bottom of the can---too bad this stuff isn’t supposed to be shaken, all that stirring wears a guy out! It never seemed to thoroughly mix which I guessed was just the high solids content, appearing to separate when it really wasn’t.. Poured some into a roller tray, used a 3” trim roller and started in. Found it helpful to keep a small paint brush handy filling in those little spots and areas the roller couldn’t reach.
(I should mention I was kneeling on a piece of clean cardboard to not contaminate the already clean & prepped metal.)
The first coat laid down fairly well with a slight appearance of metallic particles separating out again---attributed this possibly to the humidity being so high. Running the roller over these areas once again seemed to fix or cure this condition---must have set up just enough to keep everything in proper suspension? Overall the material was leveling out quite nicely despite being hand applied.
Waited about 3 hours, did the fingerprint test and found it was almost completely dry which seems to go against POR-15’s recommendations for applying second coats. Immediately applied the second coat, this one going a lot quicker and using a lot less material—very much as I anticipated. I was slightly concerned my material was covering so much area, well beyond the 2 coats/50 sq ft/quart POR-15 suggested. When all finished I’d covered nearly 144 sq/ft with just one quart; not sure if the silver color’s high solids affected this? What’s down has fully covered all areas so I’m not concerned with everything being properly coated.
So the after photos:
There are a few other areas that need to be done but the floor will be covered in 3/4“ plywood so this was the first step in order to begin that process. Next I’ll do the side step well, just a bit of surface rust there. I’ll be pulling both front seats to check under that matting, take care of anything there too. Additional side wall insulation will be added which should nearly eliminate the dreaded condensation which caused this originally.
I’m far from an expert on POR-15 application but now that I’m familiar with it there’s no hesitation to recommend it!
Thanks for reading, comments or questions are always welcome.
Personally I'd not use any sheet metal from JC Whitney, no offense to them. What I would do is find a scrap yard willing to cut out that same section and graft it into your project. That would be a better quality end result IMHO.
If you go that route there are a number of primers for that sort of repair, those intended to restore or establish a tight seal against the elements. They're vital if you want your repair to last.
After those have been applied the POR-15 or similar could be used to good effect. Not sure if you intend to repaint the entire cab but the POR-15 works well under most all auto paint materials just fine.
If this is going to be a long term truck I'd make sure there are no body or windshield leaks which may have led to that floor rust, take care of them first.
As I mention in the post originally the OEM padded mats are a huge problem so keep that in mind too.
Updating this for those who might face the same rust under OEM mats..........
These photos are of the front area after pulling the mat:
The same methods used for the rear/cargo area were employed here as well.
As an idea to better insulate and kill road & engine noise after the POR-15 was cured out a single layer or foil-backed radiant barrier insulation was glued to the metal floor. Because I used a light coat 100% coverage 3M adhesive I am confident condensation is stopped which in turn will stop rust from forming.
Since that insulation is not more than 1/4" as first applied there were no issues re-fitting seats or the OEM rubber pad, complete with the sponge-like padding still in place.
This can and probably does happen to any vehicle living in a 4 season climate. Sadly it goes unnoticed or undetected until or unless there is a need to remove carpeting or padding.
Nice lookin work JWA! I'll be having to do this to mine as well if I don't do a fiberglass shell instead. I know there are rust holes up by the doghouse, but right now I'm more concerned about gettin my engine problem resolved first.
05-18-2012, 03:21 PM
