I have a 1988 F 250 and a lot of rust on the body and a bit of rust on the frame. I am going to remove the body rust with a grinder and wire wheel, apply an epoxy primer, and then a few coats of black paint. I don't want it to look professional, all I want is to waterproof the metal and protect it from rust, for as cheap as possible, but well done. I also am going to coat the areas of the frame I can access from under the truck (since I have no way of removing the body) with UCP99 chassis saver. I am a complete novice when it comes to auto maintenance and repair, however I have a bit of mechanical apt. I am going to use a Milwaukee grinder with wire wheel to mechanically remove panel rust. Here are my steps (with questions):

1.)Remove rust with grinder (then should I sand it to get the remaining pits?)
2.) apply an epoxy primer (how many coats? what is a good brand, PPG, SPI, rust-oleum?)
3.) Remove factory paint panel by panel with grinder, and then prime and paint until entire truck is black
4.)Mildly grind (with wire wheel) accessible areas of undercarriage to remove loose rust
5.)apply degreaser to these areas
6.) Coat degreased areas with chassis saver (how many coats? what else can I paint down there?-axles? exhaust? shocks? etc.)

The goal is stop the rust and make the truck completely rust resistant (for as long as possible until I probably will halfta do it again). I purchased the truck in a location that is a temperate rainforest, and may be moving back there one day (lots of rain). In between steps 1 and 2, can I wash away rust dust with water? or air hose? or just sweep away with broom? I appreciate any help/suggestion. Is there anything I am missing? thanks

 

There is a couple of things you could try. If it's just surface rust - then Home Depot sells some kind of purple rust remover that I hear gets rid of rust quite well. Another one that I hear a lot of is por-15 which is one of the best in the industry for protecting from rust but I believe you want to be down to bare metal.