Time to fix up the truck.

great white said:
Give your bodywork and paint a good month before undercoating. It needs to harden up sufficiently that the products in the undercoating don't penetrate the paint and lift it.
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I'll second that, bought a new Ranger in 2011, had it sprayed with no drip on the way home. The paint totally dissolved off the frame.

Greg
 
My cab corners all look fine from what I can see. The rockers are nonexistent, Maybe next summers project.
 
Flyinfool said:
My cab corners all look fine from what I can see. The rockers are nonexistent, Maybe next summers project.
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What does the substructure look like?

Order the patch panels for back/inside of the rockers if they're toast. Probably are if the outer rockers are gone badly.

IIRC, you can get a patch panel, which is preferred because the inner structure is actually part of the cab floor.....
 
I will be racing winter to get this wheel well opening finished. The very last step to do is the clear coat and it has to be above 60°F for that.
No way I will be able to start the rockers this year.

So far the only parts fabrication that I have to do is replace the inner structure by the tail light. I have not found a source to buy those repair parts. I hope to get all of the interior paint done by the end of this weekend, then I can start welding in everything and doing things that are visible so it actually looks like I am doing something.
 
Well I have to admit that I think I will lose the race with winter.
I managed to tear a muscle in my hip and have done nothing to the truck for 4 weeks now.
So the new plan is to clean up the rust in just the immediate area of the wheel well enough to apply the Rust Bullet and weld in the inner wheel well.
Then give it a quick coat of paint and leave the hole in the outer skin till next spring. The remaining hole is not any worse than some of the rusted panes I see running around. The tail light area will have to wait for next spring also.

I think I can do most of this work sitting in a chair to try to not re-injure the hip. It will be a while before that is healed up.

Open to ideas as to how to protect what I have done so far so it does not get any worse over winter. Not sure if there is something I can splash onto the heavily rusted areas with little to no prep to save it till next spring but that will clean up easily when I do get back to working on it.
 
Avoid primers. primers are, for the most part, permeable. Water will leach its way through to the base metal, which also includes just the humidity in the air.

Epoxy primers are a better choice, but still not ideal. Primers are, by design, meant to grab the base metal and provide a better surface for the top coat to adhere to. This means they all have a level of permeability to them. Its the top/clear coats that are meant to seal weather/oxygen away from the steel.

If you have to let it sit over winter where the weather is going to get st it, grab some type of rust paint (rustoleum, tremclad, etc) and give the area a good coat.

Give it a week to harden up and then tarp the whole vehicle to try and make most of the rain/snow roll off rather than sit. The rust paint is designed to function as a top coat and will do a better job sealing out weather than any primer will.

You’ll have to strip it off again when you’re ready to get back to the body work, but it should halt or slow down any further degradation while its sitting.

If you intend to drive it over the winter months rust paint will help, but its won’t stop it. Winter and salty roads mean corrosion. Its unavoidable, even on a brand new car where every spot they can get to is e-coated. Best you can hope for in those conditions is to slow it down.

”rust never sleeps”


So true.
 
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This is Wisconsin, not only does rust never sleep, it never even takes a rest. Yes this is my only vehicle so it will be driven every day through the salt and snow.

The interior around the wheel well will get fully finished, I really have to have the wheel well welded in and sealed up before the first snow. The well is a structural part of the box and the temporary angle iron braces that I have in there will never stand up to the forces of slush pounding in there. If I have to I can leave off the outer skin till spring. The hole that will be there is not much bigger than the rust hole that was there.

I do have a can of Red Rustoleum (It is not even to far off in color) that I can splash on for the winter.
 
Some type of undercoating would also be beneficial if its going to be winter driven.

Chose something that stays liquid or at least gel like. Those types tend to flow and cover up rock chips when they happen, maintaining rust your prevention. Stay away from the tar type ones that are “rubberized”. Once chipped, they tend to hold moisture under them which only accelerates the rust problems.

Something like fluid film is a good choice.
Unfortunately, its also a pita to clean off when you get back to bodywork.

I’m in Atlantic Canada. I feel your pain on the rust issues. The only way to avoid winter salted roads here is to not drive. Even then, it will claw its way into the garage and rust anything it finds in there…
 
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