.....Hey, I am looking for ideas/feedback on how to slow down undercarriage rust. I know a guy who services excavation equipment. the back of his truck is always covered with diesel spills, so much so that it has seeped through the bed down to the undercarriage. It has coated everything, and even here in upstate NY the frame & bed is rust free. I am asking, doe's anyone have their own tricks that they would be willing to share? (Thats the Ideas part). Now for the feedback part. I thought of mixing diesel & boiled linseed oil in a garden sprayer, and coating the undercarriage once or twice a year. (Thats the feedback part ). Wadayathink ?

 

how bad is the rust right now do you have holes or is it just the surface?

 

Its hard to describe, No holes,floorboards are all strong with rust around every spot weld-seam and floor perforation. All lines have rust, but don't yet need to be replaced. Frame is solid but has signs of rust flake around spring mounts. Truck just got new rear spring mounts. Its like this, it has 127,000 on it and runs good. I would like to get a bunch more miles over the next 4 years and still have something left to sell without replacing parking cables,fuel lines,rear tank, and brake lines. Well I will have to do a couple of lines. Just looking to hear back from some people who have more creative ideas than mine. Unless mine is the best out there.

 

well on my truck which had minamal rust i use a wire disk on a power drill and sanded down the frame (as much as i could get to without pulling the cab) i then used rustolem primer on the frame and let it sit for a couple days washed it let it dry and the at advance auto they have what is like a rubberized spray that i covered the frame and all other metal that i could get to including the underside of the body and bed.

 

Alright 17fordguy, Thats what I'm talking about. I bet your truck came out nice. Every vehicle should be as lucky. As a kid I knew a older guy who, while on his family vacations would first thing in the morning, before his family got up- hand rub chassis grease on the frame of his Monte'. That old guy love his car.


1993 F-150 Extended Cab
4X4 5.0 5 spd. F150-Oz

 

i sanded mine down, it was a little easier since i had the bed off. but i sanded it all down and then put about 3 coats of rustoleum paint on the frame, floorboards, underneath the bed, etc. so my frame is blue in the back, black on the inside of the rails and silver in the front, since thats the paint i had laying around. Its been a year and a half now, no rust coming through yet.

 

Grinder w a wire wheel . Then 3 coats of rustioum gloss black. Being it is oil based paint, it is more resistant to oils, grease, and gas
<a href="http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/diesel_brad/?action=view&current=000_0656.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/diesel_brad/000_0656.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

........Thats good and all, And Damwow that looks nice , But I have a 76 El Camino ( on chassis low budget ) restoration. Plus a technology's job that makes me read AND think till my head hurt, 2 kids, and a MF CRAZY wife that suck time up like a 1974 Lincoln Town Car sucks gas....... Is this not F.T.E ???? Is there no silver bullet ???? No? How bouts Old tricks, mixtures, concoction's ? HELP.

 

I cant really think of much of a better solution than whats already been posted. i didnt pull the body off mine, and i still painted it. Then a few months later i had the bed off, so i painted whatever parts i missed back there. its easier to paint with the entire body off like dieselbrad posted, but you dont necessarily have to.

 

My old 78 project I stripped it down, pressure washed it, osphoed it, and painted it. . .looked great years ago and still does sitting in my backyard :P

If I were you, I would take a wire brush and hammer and get as much loose rust off as possible and paint it with oil. . .maybe your next oil change take the used oil and a cheap paint brush (or sprayer) and go at it. More of a utilitarian approachs but it's basically free as long as you are changing your oil

If I ever tear down my '87 for full restoration I'm going to knock the frame down into it's component pieces and have it sand blasted then galvanized then bolt it back together

Should last longer than me

 

..... Used motor oil and left over oil bas paint that I probably have in my paint locker, thats a good idea . I'll experiment with something like that. I think that it should be able to set up enough as to eventually stop running at the same time remain tacky. Okay, let me get started on this . I'm still open to other ideas, maybe some trick that Grandpa used back in the day Or some new material used in industrial applications ?



1993 F-150 Extended Cab
5.0 4X4 American Iron
127,000

 

sanding or any other way of removing he rust and painting is by far the best way to keep the rust away,but if you do that and still drive the truck daily and in the winter,your still going to want to undercoat it with something.the truck I just bought has been undercoated since new,and where the undercoating is still intact the paint is still on the frame,the truck sat for four year and a few places its gone and there is light surface rust,I have used just about every variation of undercoating that I can think of,but one I like is some used oil,thinned with diesel,its easy to spray and works great.even just straight used oil works good if you have a gun to spray it.if you have some scale on your frame,spray some diesel on it and let it sit for a couple weeks while you drive the truck,the scale will just fall off.and then spray something under the whole truck after that.you'd be surprised how good it looks after a month of the used oil/diesel sitting on everything,and the best part is it keeps the rust away.

 

Up here in the Great Salty North we have companies that apply spray undercoatings, the one I like is called Krown rust control, the coating is fairly light but it never dries and continually creeps.. even up vertical panels. 1 application cost around $100 and they spray inside the fender panels and the complete undercarriage, and yes it stops further rust.

 

a gallon or two of cheap truck bed coating under there will do wonders for you.

 

your right conanski that crown is nice stuff,I had someone come into the shop a couple years back trying to sell it in rattle cans for pennitrating oil,best stuff I ever used,but pricey.I am going to try rust check this year,friend of mine gave me a 5 gallon can of it,so I figure that should do my old truck for a few years.