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I would agree. treat it from the outside and inside and go with it.
The only exception I could see to that is it you're planning on a high dollar paint job.
Not to high jack but...what would be the best way to treat the inside? I have the same issue as well as the underside of the roof under the drip rail although the rail seems solid.
I'm the last guy to give advice about rust repair because I won't but anything with rust. but I have seen guys deal with minor rust by cleaning it up and hitting it with Ospho or something similar then painting it. one of these was 25 years ago and it still looks the same. this is a garaged vehicle in a dry climate though.
So I cleaned it up a bit today with a needle scaler. Looks like I have a couple of very small holes. The lower horizontal joint looked swollen a bit so I cleaned the seam sealer out of it. I'll try and prep it up a bit, reseal it and treat the rest from behind. The holes, I think I will cut out as minimal as possible and replace with new metal, treat the rust by neutralizing it and when I'm done that spray some cavity wax in behind everything I can reach and hope for the best! Any suggestions? Am I wasting my time trying to replace the holes with new metal? I'm sure there's other areas that are probably negligible but that is all I could detect. Don't want to get too carried away. Not a professional at this but would like to try and do what I can.
This is the amount of rust from viewing the backside. Pretty normal for these trucks. Anyone have experience treating with cavity wax? I have used clear Por 15 in some door cavities in past. Not as rusty as this but seemed to work pretty good by encapsulating everything. I figured UV rays won't effect it much there.
I don't think you're ever wasting time if you're getting rid of rust. my only thought is how much damage do you want to do to your paint if you're not going to repaint real soon ? if you're planning a paint job right away then by all means get it out of there now.
The wax has to help, why not use it there's no down side. my rigs are all rust free but I hit everywhere I can with 3M wax just to make sure they stay that way.
If they really are pin holes and not much larger, I’d suggest drilling them out with an 1/8” drill bit and a sought countersink. A bit larger wouldn’t hurt. The point is to access clean metal. Then fill them in with a welder. Paint or coat as you see fit.
I was thinking of replacing the holes with fresh metal but I was concerned that really there is no 'good' metal to cut out to as you can tell by the pic, and, I didn't want to remove too much since this is a structural area that I don't think I want to tackle. You can't patch in metal if there is rust on the other side, can you?
I was thinking of replacing the holes with fresh metal but I was concerned that really there is no 'good' metal to cut out to as you can tell by the pic, and, I didn't want to remove too much since this is a structural area that I don't think I want to tackle. You can't patch in metal if there is rust on the other side, can you?
it depends on how deep the rust is. If you have pin holes, it’s getting bad but there might be enough good metal to work with. Hard to say over the Internet.
the one thing I will say is that JB Weld is definitely not the solution to your problem. You would seriously be better off by just applying paint and otherwise leaving it as is. You would be creating a place for moisture to accumulate with that stuff. At best it is a temporary fix for more appropriate applications.
If you look at my #6 post it shows a pic of the area on the backside of the door jamb near where the holes are. This to me looks far too rusty to have a new piece installed and fresh metal to bite into. I can't reach back there to clean up the metal. Am I wrong on this assumption? I haven't got enough experience in welding with rust to know this. I can certainly try, and take my chances but this is why we ask on these forums and hopefully you experienced guys let us know. Thanks for any advice!
Let me start by saying I have always been a big fan of your truck! It actually gave me motivation to restore my 79 F350 4x4 SC back a few years ago just because I loved the look of yours!
IMO--It's difficult to make that assessment without actually seeing the rusty metal in person. But if I were to guess, I would say there's a good chance that any welding in that area will blowout the metal. It just doesn't appear that the rusty metal will support much. But that's just a guess! I would first try to save what's there for as long as you can!
You "might" consider a couple of other options:
Use a rust inhibitor to spray in the holes you've drilled and even spray the back side of the door jamb area. After 24-48hrs of drying time, I would then use a good seam sealer to the front side, to seal up the areas from moisture and contaminants.
I would highly recommend CRC Heavy Duty corrosion inhibitor (love this stuff) and for seam sealer I've always used SEM & 3M products, but whatever is a good high quality brand.
I also attached a video for you to view. It's a touch long but pretty good info.
Let me start by saying I have always been a big fan of your truck! It actually gave me motivation to restore my 79 F350 4x4 SC back a few years ago just because I loved the look of yours!
IMO--It's difficult to make that assessment without actually seeing the rusty metal in person. But if I were to guess, I would say there's a good chance that any welding in that area will blowout the metal. It just doesn't appear that the rusty metal will support much. But that's just a guess! I would first try to save what's there for as long as you can!
You "might" consider a couple of other options:
Use a rust inhibitor to spray in the holes you've drilled and even spray the back side of the door jamb area. After 24-48hrs of drying time, I would then use a good seam sealer to the front side, to seal up the areas from moisture and contaminants.
I would highly recommend CRC Heavy Duty corrosion inhibitor (love this stuff) and for seam sealer I've always used SEM & 3M products, but whatever is a good high quality brand.
Thanks for the kind words Scott. Read your thread many times! With Covid out there I've had a little more time to work on my truck. You can only procrastinate so long lol. Hopefully, I'll start a resto thread soon. Thanks for the video. It was very informative. Sometimes you have to think outside the box on some things. I'm wondering how cavity wax would compare?