Managing surface rust on my 98 S-10

[JHZR2]

Just surface rust, primarily from sitting outdoors. It saw lots of road salt long ago, but hasn't in years. It has seen beach salt/sand, though that has always been quickly rinsed off. This year I intend to refurbish a few things on the front end, and then treat this surface rust and protect with Carewell/Fluid Film (admittedly I've never done these treatments to the truck). Recommendations on how to treat, especially the crossmember??

 

[supton]

Sand, paint, oil. Depending upon how long you want it to last, I'd be tempted to just oil it. Getting down to bare metal and prepping for "great" paint would be no small task. From what I can tell, this is not driven much, so oil might make it last for years. I've read about POR15 and I'm not sure I'm enamored with the stuff. What is that in the second photo? Brake line?

 

[53' Stude]

2nd photo looks like fuel line, not brake line. I'm probably wrong

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: supton

Sand, paint, oil. Depending upon how long you want it to last, I'd be tempted to just oil it. Getting down to bare metal and prepping for "great" paint would be no small task. From what I can tell, this is not driven much, so oil might make it last for years. I've read about POR15 and I'm not sure I'm enamored with the stuff. What is that in the second photo? Brake line?

Lasting indefinitely is my hope. Doesn't get a lot of miles, and runs perfect, so my intent is to keep it as long as I can (forever) as a small utility vehicle. It costs me $125/year plus gas and maintenance to own, so I don't think I can do better than that.

 

[demarpaint]

It all depends on how crazy you want to go. I don't think I'd go nuts. They make various sized wire brushes. I'd get one the size of a toothbrush for the small stuff and a bigger one for the larger areas. I'd wire brush it, sand as needed, hit it with a rust converter, and prime it, paint is optional. Then hit it with your favorite rustproofing product, the spots first then the entire undercarriage. Getting the rocker panels and all the nooks, etc. That should keep it lasting a long time.

 

[Nick1994]

Wire brush attachment for your angle grinder. Harbor Freight has them for $5. It would take all that rust off right away. Then I'd paint it good, maybe spray some oil on it.

 

[Merkava_4]

That ScannerDanner uses a mixture of linseed oil and diesel fuel with good results, but he never got back to me when I asked him what ratio.

 

[Donald]

Drive to Dogeville NY and have Cliff spray it with CarWell at the Rust Cop shop. Will cost about $100. Then do it yourself in the future.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

Originally Posted By: supton

Sand, paint, oil. Depending upon how long you want it to last, I'd be tempted to just oil it. Getting down to bare metal and prepping for "great" paint would be no small task. From what I can tell, this is not driven much, so oil might make it last for years. I've read about POR15 and I'm not sure I'm enamored with the stuff. What is that in the second photo? Brake line?

Lasting indefinitely is my hope. Doesn't get a lot of miles, and runs perfect, so my intent is to keep it as long as I can (forever) as a small utility vehicle. It costs me $125/year plus gas and maintenance to own, so I don't think I can do better than that.

Fair enough. If it was me, I'd probably spray it with oil and call it a day. Once sealed behind oil, it shouldn't rust anymore, right? What is the purpose of sanding and grinding and painting if a pinch oil where the sun doesn't shine would do the trick? It doesn't look that far gone, and it'd be a lot of work to make "perfect" again.

 

[stephen9666]

Spray with one of the oil-based rust inhibitors and move on with life. I've had good luck with FF. Easy to use and works well. In my experience it will need an occasional touch up on high-wash areas like wheel wells, but it holds up well on other surfaces.

 

[Donald]

You will never be able to sand or wire brush all the rusty surfaces under the vehicle. Spray with a product.

 

[JHZR2]

The spots I'm showing really are the worst and only things I've noted. That cross member is the worst thing, and I think it is separate from the frame. The frame itself has no rust, they came wax dipped, fwiw.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

The spots I'm showing really are the worst and only things I've noted. That cross member is the worst thing, and I think it is separate from the frame. The frame itself has no rust, they came wax dipped, fwiw.

It might be overkill to some, but honestly if those are the only spots of concern and they're easy to access, I'd spend a bit more time and prep and pre-treat them like I mentioned, or some other way if you like. Then shoot the undercarriage with your favorite product. But that's just me. In the case of my FIL's Caprice which we weren't planning on keeping very long, the rust was worse. I just shot it and called it a day. I guess you could just flip a coin.

 

[larryinnewyork]

It sounds like you don't have very much rust and are planning on keeping this vehicle. I would: 1) Buy some Fluid Film in Aerisol Cans (E-Bay). Get underneath and spray any rusted areas. Do this several times until you know the Fluid Film has penetrated the rust and reached the base metal. Note: Fluid Film DOES NOT affect synthetic rubber. It also 'creeps' into cracks and around spot-welds. I would be concerned about the brake (or gas) line. I hate changing that stuff. If you spray that well enough, it shouldn't get any worse. On my vehicle, I coated the brake lines with Never-Seize when I bought it New. I now mix Fluid Film with Never-Seize and brush it on. At 14 years old, my brake lines are still shiny. 2) Once you know the rusted areas are under control, consider going where they spray the underside with a undercoating OIL (like Fluid Film). In my area, we have a Car Well and another place that will spray it with a thicker oil (still creeps). That's the place I like because a lot of the oil is still there and I now only spot treat any rusted areas myself.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: larryinnewyork

It sounds like you don't have very much rust and are planning on keeping this vehicle. I would: 1) Buy some Fluid Film in Aerisol Cans (E-Bay). Get underneath and spray any rusted areas. Do this several times until you know the Fluid Film has penetrated the rust and reached the base metal. Note: Fluid Film DOES NOT affect synthetic rubber. It also 'creeps' into cracks and around spot-welds. I would be concerned about the brake (or gas) line. I hate changing that stuff. If you spray that well enough, it shouldn't get any worse. On my vehicle, I coated the brake lines with Never-Seize when I bought it New. I now mix Fluid Film with Never-Seize and brush it on. At 14 years old, my brake lines are still shiny. 2) Once you know the rusted areas are under control, consider going where they spray the underside with a undercoating OIL (like Fluid Film). In my area, we have a Car Well and another place that will spray it with a thicker oil (still creeps). That's the place I like because a lot of the oil is still there and I now only spot treat any rusted areas myself.

This was my point get it treated at a CarWell shop with their long wands and knowledge, then spot treat areas needing it in the future.

 

[JHZR2]

Yeah I agree about car well. I have the full kit of their stuff and can do it at home, I have on other cars, and while this one is higher and easier to access, I think leveraging a shop to get it on heavy after prepping some surfaces is prudent. I'm up in Albany area every so often as it is, so I'll just go on from there I guess... Need to treat what I can first though.

 

[Donald]

I will be at the CarWell shop on Thur afternoon having Subaru done.

 

[JHZR2]

So I crawled under today when doing an oil and coolant change. This was the thing I was most worried about: And I found that it IS a bolt-in item that is the one end of the torsion bar mounts. So, given how it looks, should I replace with a new/good used one from the desert? Remove it and refurbish it off the truck? Or, do it in place on my back? With the lifted suspension and 31" tires, on my back is a breeze without it being lifted. Lifting it on ramps/EZ car lift/jackstands would get even more height. Im not sure what can of worms Im opening up removing it, since the torsion bars are a suspension and height adjustment. Replacement is an option but I not thinking it is critical. The brake line with the shield over it is connected on both ends by some dual male jumpers, so its replacement would be simple. The other things are just frame mount washers. Big washers. Ill maybe spray a bit of something on them. The spots where there are welds that are showing a little surface rust, I figure Ill get some eastwood rust converter, and then convert and zap them with some cold galvanizing zinc paint, and then maybe some color matched green over that... Everything will then get Carwell oil spray and FF over top in certain places... Thoughts?

 

[Nick1994]

I'm still saying a wire brush that screws onto an angle grinder would zip that down to clean metal in no time. Then some paint and oil.

 

[wrcsixeight]

After scraping the loose stuf off, and putting some Ospho on the rust with an old spray bottle, came back the next day with 99 cent store imitation scotch brite pads wetted with Ospho and some elbow grease then some rust bullet paint. Bare steel turns gray and paint sticks to it like a magnet. Old paint is not really damaged and is also etched and accepts more paint nicely. You can keep scraping off the black iron phosphate and apply more Ospho until you reach bare pitted steel, if you really wanted to. Works better than Naval Jelly in my opinion.