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My 74 is not a restoration project, it’s a driving survivor that I’m trying to keep running strong, but not trying to polish out.
that said, the bed has a ton of deep rust (only one pin sized hole and one nail sized hole) it’s structurally sound for my use…
I pressure washed out all the big loose flakes today.
I’m lazy, I’m not interested in a three step process.
I’m tempted to just paint with something like rustoleum rust reformer…
is there anything that’ll get the job done, just paint it on, and leave it be? I don’t wanna spend a ton of time prepping by grinding/sanding the whole thing.
thoughts, suggestions or insights? Post pressure washing After pressure washed
EDIT for Clarity - these last two pics with huge chunks are BEFORE I pressured washed
I was able to pressure wash all the big chunks out, and removing them all, the structure is still there, two tiny holes - everything else is still structurally sound.
So, these two pics are how the bed USED to look, but not anymore: Before pressure washing Before pressure washing
Excellent point. POR does no have any UV protection in it. They make a top coat as well, but it’s very expensive at $30/can. Worth it in my opinion. It covers very well and has a nice appearance.
Rust is weak compared to metal, and when the termites quit holding hands, it's gone. If you wire brush that with a cup brush, you are gonna find a bunch of holes.
Mine was way better shape in the '80s when I bought a 5x10 piece of 11 gauge steel, cut it with a sabre saw wearing out blades, and covered it. On my '77, the steel went a foot overlapping the galvenized inner bed sides. Of course, I had brushed and primed and painted the bed. Undercoated the steel too, then after bolting the steel to the floor and bed sides, painted more, plated the front wall, and then in time put a drop in liner in it. Recently Ibought a new drop in, but first I again cleaned the sound floor, coated with a gallon Iron Armor, brushed in, then added drain holes in corners.
If using POR-15 (I never have but hear / read it's good, but I never heard much about it way back when), my idea would be to stop the rust as is, then I'd paint over it and put my plate in.
You've lost floor strength as the floor spans between the cross members underneath. Eliminating the rust there will not replace lost strength. The reason floors have the ribs is to stiffen the floor between those cross members.
How long will the truck be in use and for what ...I guess is what you must ask yourself.
I have extensive experience with POR15. Great stuff. I highly recommend removing the remaining scale with a stripping wheel on your angle grinder. These discs are cheap and will make quick work out of all that rust.
I have extensive experience with POR15. Great stuff. I highly recommend removing the remaining scale with a stripping wheel on your angle grinder. These discs are cheap and will make quick work out of all that rust.
That bed is in pretty bad shape, even after pressure washing it, if you do wire brush it you're gonna realize there's a TON more holes in it. What's the underside look like?
Nothing will last unless you remove all the chunky, flaky rust. Rust creates it's own moisture and oxygen during the chemical reaction, so if you trap heavy rust under paint/coatings, it will still keep rusting even though it's not exposed to the outside atmosphere. I've seen plenty of rusty floorboard that were undercoated over and just become a couple layers of loose rubber holding in crumbling floorboards. None of these converters/sealers are miracle rust stopper, if you don't follow the prep instructions, which most of them usually says to remove the heavy rust and de-grease, they won't work properly or last for long. If they can't penetrate through the heavy crust to the base metal where it's starting, they won't stop it. You're gonna spend a couple hours just doing it the quick way and it's only gonna last a couple years. Spend a lazy day wire brushing it, converting the remaining rust, and then painting it, or use a bed coating/chip guard and you shouldn't have to worry about it again.
I agree w/ most of the above comments. unless you get a wire brush on an angle grinder, there's a lot of rust left behind and any coating will likely cont to flake off in the coming years.
spray on bed liner might buy you some time as it's pretty adherent to itself.
other option is just use it until it is totally rotten then replace w/ a junkyard bed.
We had planned on cutting out the bad and welding these in. Ours is a short bed, so we cut the two halves down. They do overlap in the middle so that would require either welding two seams or cutting and butt welding in the middle.
We also bought a rear sill and patch panels for the outer rust.
We ended up just buying a new bed floor, both bedsides, header panel and new tailgate. It is going to be a daily driver.
Costly, but it will be my sons' forever truck.
New floor panels RH and LH New rear cross sill.
I still have the panels rear sill, if interested send me a PM.
