I spent 5 months at the beach at the beginning of the year (I know, I know. somebody has to do it) and the frame and the springs are speckled with some rust.

It appears to be mostly surface rust.

Should I care? Is it worth fixing. How would I fix it? I plan on keeping the truck till it dies.

 

Just give it a good undercarriage wash to remove any salt deposits. You can wire brush and paint it if you want. I'm sure that the rust you are seeing is nothing like we have up north with the salt that they use on the roads.

 

X2 What Jim said.
Wash it good with some high pressure. Wally World has some spray paint cheap that will take care of it.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It may be an eyesore, but structurally speaking, a light coating won't hurt

 

Sounds like you could blow the rust off and you'd be fine!!
I've wire brushed mine at least a couple of times and painted it and with our wonderful winters and salty roads, I'll be doing it again soon. Should have done it the beginning of summer, but haven't quite had the time.

It does make the truck look a lot better once you get it painted up, almost like it's new.

I'm tempted to use some of the rustoleum rust reformer, thinking it might slow it down, but that stuff's pretty expensive to put on the frame and then probably have it rust back off next winter.

 

My frame doesn't have any rust, but my front springs do. They are Skyjacker springs, and I have rust spots on my driveway from those things. I might try that rust reformer on the springs and see what happens.

 

has anyone tried the POR ( paint over rust) by dupont. suppose to be able to brush it one so you do not have to worry about overspray, just not sure if it is worth the price.

 

That's a common product folks use on the oil pans. Haven't tried it myself, but from what I have read, it's great stuff.

 

Sounds like a $10 job for the neighbor kid. The brushing part that is. I would not trust the neighbor kid with a can of spray paint. haha

I prefer a wire wheel on a drill or angle grinder. I've got an attachment for mine. Works well. Cheers!

 

Just make sure rust don't start forming on the oil pan. That would be a place of concern for rust to do some damage.

 

I own a boat and trailer that gets immersed in salt water on a regular basis. I use a product called Corrosion X HD or Fluid film on all the springs and all non galvanized metal. These products seep into all the nooks and crannies to seal out the salt water, and stop further rusting. The trailer is now twelve years old and still in good shape.

 

Please you guys don't know real rust. I just wire brushed mine lightly to knock off the heavy scale and sprayed over it all with black Rustoleum. Unfortunately it's starting to rust through again now even without it being winter so some POR 15 may be the ultimate solution once the paint rusts off this winter.