Rust on out of sight body parts

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rmschaver

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I was replacing my stock exhaust and noticed body rust on all the places that touched or were very close to frame. I have 2010 screw with 82k miles. What might be the best way to deal with this? The other parts of the body appear fine so I am thinking whoever had this truck before me did not do a good job cleaning her up after playing.
 

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mmaterni

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I was replacing my stock exhaust and noticed body rust on all the places that touched or were very close to frame. I have 2010 screw with 82k miles. What might be the best way to deal with this? The other parts of the body appear fine so I am thinking whoever had this truck before me did not do a good job cleaning her up after playing.

The environment you live in may also be a factor if you live in salty winter states. There are several underbody rust prevention products on the market. Many people here in ohio will take the time to clean affected areas repaint them with a rust preventative paint like rustoleum spray paints and then will keep a rust preventative coating pn the whole underside. That is probably one of the cheapest options. The more expensive options include a complete underbody coating with an HD underbody coating that must be professionally sprayed in. That is also a popular option here in Ohio. It kind of comes down to how much it bothers you how much you are willing to spend or how much elbow grease you are willing to invest. Unfortunately here rust is virtually unavoidable unless the vehicle will only be driven during summer months.
 
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rmschaver

rmschaver

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I live in northern VA the snow is irregular and spotty. I was told the guy who owned it before me first and only owner lived in DC. Possible he was taking truck to the brackish water area on chesapeake bay or the beach. This maybe nothing but I would rather deal with it now if I should rather wait till it spreads and costs me more.
 

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EricM

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You need to do something to it. What to do? There's a million ways to fight it.

The most basic would be to blast the whole underside with WD40 or oil on a regular basis. If it's oiled, it won't rust. WD and oil don't last very long in a wet environment though.

There are more "clingy" type products like Amsoil HDMP, Fluidfilm, etc. There is a thread here with reviews of these types of products. I used Fluidfilm on my old truck and it worked pretty well. It definitely slowed the rust in my doors on my old truck. It was a bit messy, and kind of stinky for a few weeks though. I've sprayed some fluid film into the bottom seam of the Raptor's tailgate, as I noticed some surface rust starting in there already.

Then you get into rust converters, which will stop/kill the rust. I used Mar Hyde One Step on my old truck and have sprayed some leftover onto the Raptor's hitch after I dropped the spare tire to inspect it. You should top coat the area after the rust has been converted for best results.

There are product lines that have both converters and top coats. POR, Rustbullet etc. POR is expensive, Rustbullet is cheap.

There's nothing you can do to totally stop all the rust except for driving through a 2 foot deep puddle of motor oil everyday. The best solution in my mind is to take the bed off and go after it that way. You can get to all the the bed bottom, wheel well areas and cross supports that way, and have good access to the frame and cross members. Pressure wash it, do the rust converter, then top coat it with paint or some type of undercoating/bedliner.

Check the "tape" on the inner part of your rockers too. Replace it if it's starting to peel back and let a bunch of water and salt spray in there. That's a good area to load up with anti-rust treatments, as well as the bottom of all of the doors. Hit the bottom of the radiator core support if you can get to it as well.
 

CoronaRaptor

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That rust isn't too bad, surface only, you could take a wire wheel and get rid of it and then brush on some rust proof paint. Btw, while you are under there looking for rust, take a look at the inside of the rockers, there should be black duct tape over all the access holes on both sides, these tend to peel off and if left exposed, these holes fill up with dirt. You need to apply more gorilla tape, etc.

Oh I see now, it was already mentioned above, lol ^^^^
 
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Bulletnjm

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meh, i have similar rust spots. I wouldnt worry about it, i have seen trucks on here with much worse than that
 

Truckzor

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That's not too bad. I would just hit the whole underside with amsoil HDMP. It will prevent it from getting any worse. It also makes it not look as bad.
 
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rmschaver

rmschaver

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Thanks for the info I keep my vehicles for while until they die or disintegrate and this one I want to keep for a long time. Any ideas about how heavy the bed is?
 

Five-O Donut Hole

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meh, i have similar rust spots. I wouldnt worry about it, i have seen trucks on here with much worse than that

Mine looks about the same and I feel it's normal for living in Illinois. I even slathered the entire undercarriage area with Amsoil when I bought it but still have some surface rust.

Taking that bed off is a 2-person job unless you have some sort of pulley/lift system I would imagine.....
 
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