I've been reading a bunch of posts here on this subject, and I think I've narrowed it down to a couple of potential approaches, but would like some final feedback/guidance.

Just picked up a '77 F150 Ranger with 169K miles and it was used quite a bit on a farm. Fairly well maintained vehicle, but there is a fair amount of surface rust in the bed and a good portion of the undercarriage. My deduction after closer inspection is that the previous owner hauled a lot of corn - and my guess is that all those years in the corn fields with their sugars and natural acids are what caused all this surface rust. There are a few pinholes and a few fingertip holes in the bed and one floor pan. Truck has never been wrecked.

OK, my plans are not to restore this to show condition, but I do want to halt any further rust damage. Have read the posts and literature on POR-15, Rustbullet, Eastwook RustEncapsulator (RE), ZeroRust, Ospho, etc. What I want to do is stop the undercarriage surface rust, and treat/paint the bed (truck has a fairly new dropin bedliner that I'll continue to use) while being cost effective, with ease of application and being as non-toxic as possible.

ZeroRust agent told me that their rust paint is a primer that should be covered with a regular paint. Their rust-conditioner product is primarily for rust prepping before applying the ZeroRust primer and cannot just be sprayed on the undercarriage as a single treatment. Based on my research it is my opinion that RustBullet and RE from Eastwood are superior to POR15 so that is off my list.

Eastwood tech support said I should just spray both the undercarriage and bed with Rust Encapsulator (RE) and leave it at that. He also said I could use a pump sprayer to apply it with a 10% (max 20%) reducer using laquer thinner. I like the sprayer idea for getting into areas that I can't reach well with a hand held HVLP gun.

I like the advertising promise of RustBullet that with 2 coats it will fill in a lot of the pitted metal in the bed (I don't like silver color though - and again I don't have the time a budget to go over with another paint coating). Haven't seen a lot of feedback here on that product and it appears to be the most expensive (excluding the multi-application cost model shown for POR15).

However, after reading a number of posts about Ospho (phosphoric acid), I'm wondering if the best approach would be to do just Ospho to my whole undercarriage (note - I will have all those wiring harnesses and cables under there that I won't be able to completely avoid), and then do Ospho plus RE in the bed? Can Ospho be applied with one of those sprayers or must it be done with a brush? Or should I do/try the Eastwood RE for both bed and undercarriage (as well as the sprayer method to apply)? Or, something else that meets the budget plus time plus ease of use/safety concerns?

Thanks,
daggerNC

 

Yikes, I guess this is the wrong time of year to ask questions about this????

 

Ospho is a liquid (like water) and can be sprayed and is actually easier to spray rather than brush on. Its a rust converter, so still needs to be covered with some kind of paint.

 

Thanks Carlene for the input. I've read in other threads on ospho that it reported says on the label that it does not need to be topcoated?? What about the approach I'm thinking about above? I guess if ospho absolutely needs to be topcoated even when applied to the undercarriage then maybe I should just do the rust conversion paint approach?

 

I am qurious, after you spot the rust, you grind it to bare metal. What about seams and places liek that that you cant grind down to abre metal? How would a guy go about fixinf that in the bed of a truck..??

 

preppypyro - I'm no expert on this, but as I'm not planning on doing a complete frame off resto on this truck, I won't be attempting to halt all rust forever (just 99% of it ). Even so, with these chemical treatments ID'd above, one would not grind it to bare metal after spotting it - defeats the purpose for the most part. Some of these chemical coatings and paints convert iron oxide to iron phosphate, and thus eliminates the rust (therefore no need to grind). One of the other advantages, or so I've been reading, about these liquid chemical products is that due to their liquid nature, they flow and soak into areas and attack the rust where one may not be able to see or reach (assuming sufficient enough of product is applied, etc). This could help with your seams question.

 

Been doing some more reading, and I see some references to phosphoric based rust converters are effective on metal, but might be damaging to good paint and also non metal materials like wiring looms, gaskets, etc. I need to treat a large portion of my daily driver truck, so am I correct that Ospho, etc. should not be used? Now I'm not so sure what my alternatives are - one possibility I stumbled on is a product called Evapo-Rust (completely benign to anything other than rust). Others?

 

After reading your long question (??) and shortage of replies, I think you need to shorten your question ....

Lets shorten up the scenario a bit when doing restore work. You will have one or two variations , when doing frames and their rusty parts. Some take the bodies off and get the frames sandblasted ,that is the easiest and best way. But that is for the true restoration enthusiat that has extra cash and a higher expectations of the finish product. Some do as you and I have done, and do the frame restore with the body on, which presents a harder and more laborious technique. ..

One needs to remember that the frame (or bed) and all of its hundreds of attached pieces need to be CLEAN. Then one can see where the rust is or weakened paint is . Then , remember that if it has good (stuck well to the part) paint on the metal body part, that paint just needs to be scuffed with sandpaper to give the old paint a mechanical "tooth" for the new paint to adhere to...


Then, when we get to bare metal parts, we just need to recongnize that it will be in one of two conditions , after cleaning it and inspecting it thouroughly. Either it wil be rusty, and in need of a rust convertor ( if metal is ever REAL bad , replace it ) or good metal that just needs to be scuffed , so the primer will adhere to it...


So, as you have found out, there is no need in putting rust convertors on paint, not good. Just put rust convertors on rusty metal and even clean metal that has say, rust "pits" in it. Some rust convertors are also good adhesion promoters on clean metal. In your situation you have a bed that has good paint and bare rusty metal both showing, just like mine did. Treat the two situations as two seperate entities. Clean, and clean, remove all loose rust with a scraper or motorized wire brush, then clean and clean, scuff the bare metal, scuff the good paint, clean, clean, convert the rusty parts with your convertor, ( I really liked the Picklex 20 and Osphos because it makes a great adhesion promoter on clean bare metal too ) , then prime the whole bed as one unit with your primer , then follow with finish coat/s.


On the frame, you will not have to deal with existing paint ( unless someone has been there before) which makes the process a bit easier ( except the laying on the back working upward for 100 hours or more part) . Clean, clean, and just put on the Picklex . ospos, Encapsulator or RB, whatever, then finish coat with the color of your choice. I used Eastwoods Corroless ( its called encapsulator now) primer on my frame , with their black chassis paint as a finish coat and put it all on with a brush. ...

It can be sprayed, but I found the frame painting with the whole truck still sitting on it, very time consuming and tiresome, so I had to do it in weekly shifts. Plus I was not wanting to keep cleaning a spray gun all the time. The Encaps is a great system, it loves to stick to rust. I was too tired to scuff all of the encaps like the instructions on the can of primer said too, before I put the finish on, now I have some little chips of finish coming off, because I broke the "tooth" rule. ..


Just remember it is a huge job to do a frame, I will never do another one. I have pics of mine in my gallery. good luck to you. Whoa, I typed a whole page too, and I said to shorten it up ! all jmo

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Hey Greg - thanks for the guidance. Due to time, money and priorities, this '77 will not be with me forever and thus I don't have plans for a more "restoration" type of approach. The purpose is to have a daily driver while I finish putting my '66 F100 back together, then the '77 gets sold. That said, I don't like seeing any rust on this '77 and want to prevent as much as is reasonably possible, with minimal time/expense, any further deterioration, and in fact improve it some. The next owner of this truck will have a better truck than I got. I guess that's just me.

So, I'd like to spray something all over the frame and undercarriage to halt any further surface rusting, and plug a few pinholes and fingernail sized holes I've found. What seems ideal to me is a chemical liquid that can be sprayed all over everything including wire harnesses, connectors, grommets, bushings, etc. and not damage those. It would be nice if that was all I had to do there (neutralize/eliminate all current rust and prevent/retard any new rust formation). Then, I plan on using one of the 1-step paint on rust converters in the bed to stop any further deterioration there and then put the bedliner back in.

So that's what I'd LIKE to be able to do, just don't know if it is an OK approach, or if the right products exist to do it. For example, I was about to spray Phos-acid all over the place under the truck, but looks like thats a no-no. Now I see this Evapo-Rust is suppose to be benign to everything except rust so sounds right, but maybe I'll get feedback that it takes hours for it to work and you just can't keep the undercarriage wet enough and consistent enough, etc? Eastwood tech support said I should just do the whole undercarriage in their rust encapsulator, but that will be very hard to do and get it everywhere it needs to go, etc. (and not too sure about impacts to non-metal items) Maybe the feedback here will be use ospho with a paint brush and don't touch anything with good paint or non metal..... This is the value of a forum like this with so many others with experience superior to mine in this area. Thanks again!

 

A bit of an update. After almost ordering ospho, then Evapo-Rust, then Picklex 20 and maybe RustGuy, and some more reading and asking questions, I've decided to go with Zero-Rust black for the undercarriage and Zero-Rust White for the truck bed. Couldn't chance the potential damage the acids-based products (like Ospho and Rustguy) might do to my wiring harnesses, hoses, gormets, etc, and thought Picklex was the right answer (very good product though) but when I talked to them they said there is no protection once the first water hits it and washes it off, I decided to go the rust-conversion paint route. Not exactly sure when I'll be able to do it based on time and weather, but will post my application results for those interested.

Also talked to the Oxisolv people and they indicated that the type of surface rust I have on the topside with good paint will work (remove rust stain, not damage any good paint) if I follow their instructions, so I have a gallon of their gel product for that.

Thanks again all for the inputs.