Hi all.

Here is a picture of my truck I picked up about two months ago. I love it, but it is a slight work in progress. The previous owner had a drop in bed liner, which as you can see the bed ended up with quite a bit of rust as a result.

Here is my thought.
1.) Sand the living daylights out of the bed and get the rust out.
2.) Use some rust converter
3.) Sand more rust out
4.) Get some rust preventive primer like rustoleum and coat the necessary spots
5.) Rough up the paint some more
6.) Do a herculiner

I realize the sanding will be a pain, but do you think it's doable? Any suggestions?

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Well, the rest of the body looks in good shape.

Just my opinion, but I think some patchwork is in order. I don't think rust converter is intended for rust that far along but I could be wrong. You can try sanding it but it doesn't look like there's gonna be anything left by the time you get done.

If you're unable to patch it, you might try scoping the junk yards for a whole new bed, or perhaps you could do a spray on bed liner to cover what rust is there and prevent further corrosion. If it's applied right a spray on bed liner should be a suitable fix.

 

If you do a spray-on liner, you need to kill that rust first with POR-15 or something similar. If you don't, that spray in liner will only hide the rust from view while it finishes off the bed.

A replacement bed might not be a bad idea if you can get one cheap enough.

Now I need to look under my liner . . .

Ray

 

Find someone with a big compressor and get yourself a portable sandblasting kit, then blast all those rusty spots clean and treat what remains with a rust inhibitor.. then prime and paint. And it doesn't even matter if it's the same color paint because I'd then suggest you do a spray on bed liner.

 

The only problem with a bed is that my truck is the 2 tone eddie bauer. i think the bed looks worse than it really is.

 

3M also makes some good products like flap wheels for angle grinders and drills. I usually have good luck finding stuff at northern tool. I finally broke down and got a sand blaster but if you don't have the $$$ for that get the really abrasive flap wheels. I think I used something called gatorgrit wheels to get my surface rust off. I'd recommend checking under your bed too. If you have problems there you'll need to pull the bed and get the rust from both sides. Some guys like Por15 and I have seen several use Chassis Saver too. My computer is too slow to see the pics but if your rust is through the bed you need to do patch pannels... Either way you should seal the top with a spray or brushable bed liner to seal it when your done.

 

It's not rusted through the bed. Only rust on the whole truck is the rear wheel wells (and barely any for a midwest truck) and on the top of the bed.

 

I bought a 1995 F-150 with a plastic bedliner in it. Pulled it out to install a 5th wheel hitch. Under the liner the paint was like new. not a scratch, now it looks used.

 

1. Buy an angle grinder if you dont already have one.
2. Buy a wire cup brush made for grinders, the ones with the wires in little groups work better than the regular cup brushes-which usually spray them little wires all over everything cause of the speed of the grinder.
3. Go over the bed, wear LONG SLEEVES AND PANTS and a plastic face mask/shield!
4. Wash with dawn dish soap and water
5. Clean off with acetone, prep-all, brake cleen, solvent, etc.
6. Paint with whatever rust inhibiting paint you like, could even do rustoleum rust reformer spray. if you want one of those HD coatings, chassis saver, por 15, etc.
7. Line the bed.

Steps 1-6 should take maybe 2-3 days at most. If the metal is totally gone then you gotta cut it out and put in patch panels. Can rivet, glue (poly construction adhesive works well btw but they do make special body glue you can get at the better parts stores) or weld the panels in. Then of course paint. I used to have a cargo van made of cookie sheet pans, and poly glue. Painted it up and covered with a mat and help up for years.

 

A note on this- wire brushes won't remove all of the rust if there's pitting because they can't reach into the pits. Rust converter can have the same problem- sometimes it will "cap" the pit, instead of sinking into it and contacting the rust.

In this situation you should be able to use a wire brush to remove the bulk of the rust, but I'd go with Conanski on this one and do some sandblasting as well. It's the only way to ensure that you're getting all of the rust taken care of.

 

+1 (or is it +2 now)

sandblasting is the best bet to get the rust out completely so you don't have to deal with it again... I'd hate to seal rust in and have it start again and not see it until it's trough the bottom of the bed (seen it happen when people diy their own bed liners and seal the rust under neath)