Fluid film my frame?

[Bbanks97]

I got some rust issues starting in my frame and was wondering if anybody has ever fluid filmed the inside of there frames. I have used chassis saver on it 3y ago when i first bought it and it seem to hold up nice, but this year i noticed it seem to be rusting on the inside out.

 

[gray_es300]

I fluid film it every year, it has definitely slowed the rust down.

 

[T4R2014]

It works. The goal is to make your whole frame look like your engine had a massive oil leak. You know that caked dirt and oil mixture that builds up on skid plates? That’s what stops rust from happening. Paint is just cosmetic.

 

[Kanoe]

I do ours yearly too. Which ever one is being used for the winter. Seems to be a good product. Seems to protect from further damage.

Fluid film stinks very badly for a couple of weeks, and makes a terrible mess applying from the rattle cans. Do it in the back yard somewhere that the overspray will not be a problem. I use other products in any spaces that are open to the passenger compartment.

 

[Mark_BC]

I was debating between this (well, Rust Cure 3000 actually which is the same kind of thing but better I believe) and Eastwood Internal Frame Coating. It's one or the other. Once you fluid film you won't likely ever be able to put on frame coating (paint) because you won't get it off. I decided to clean up the inside and spray frame coating in there. I will monitor it over the winter with a probe camera although I don't plan on driving it in the salt much. You can always put Fluid Film after Eastwood if you decide to, but you can't go the other way around.

 

[kolelt]

Yeah I'd recommend cleaning the inside frame. Coating it with Eastwood internal frame coating. Then use fluid film or Eastwood heavy duty grease.

 

[northcoast]

Yearly user here, too.

 

[psraff]

How are you guys cleaning the inside of the frame before your first coat of any product? I've pressure washed as much as I could from any of holes, but it would be nice to run some kind of snake through it. Or at least an air line with a special tip applied to blow out it's sides (angling forward).

(thinking out loud here....)

 

[Kanoe]

How are you guys cleaning the inside of the frame before your first coat of any product? I've pressure washed as much as I could from any of holes, but it would be nice to run some kind of snake through it. Or at least an air line with a special tip applied to blow out it's sides (angling forward).

(thinking out loud here....)

Chop a cheap garden hose in 2. You can snake the cut end of it all the way up through the box section of the frame starting from the rear behind the rear bumper. Squirt in some degreaser if you want and then turn the hose on full blast. Water will come out of every hole and then slowly pull the hose back out.

I do this yearly just to clean the frame out. A surprising amount of stuff builds up in there.

 

[Mark_BC]

How are you guys cleaning the inside of the frame before your first coat of any product? I've pressure washed as much as I could from any of holes, but it would be nice to run some kind of snake through it. Or at least an air line with a special tip applied to blow out it's sides (angling forward).

(thinking out loud here....)

I used a coat hanger cut and with a hook on the end to shove in there and loosen up everything I could. Blow out with longer air nozzle with bent tip. Blow towards back to get it out. The powerwash through every hole. Enlarge every hole so you can put your finger in to feel around. I drilled one more hole on one side of the bottom of frame near LCA bracket. The other side already had a hole.

Then I got a hand spray bottle and sprayed methanol all in the holes so it dripped out profusely. Then acetone. Then blast out with air again.

Then I sprayed Ospho (nasty stuff) in all the holes. Let it sit overnight. Wash out next day and let dry for a week.

Then sprayed Eastwood coating in all holes using a cut piece of plumber's snake as a guide for the curly tube that comes with it. After this you can put your phone up to a hole with a flashlight and get some good pictures of what is going on in there rust wise.

I wasn't happy with the rust flakes that remained on the welds (for some reason the welds rust first). So I then sandblasted where I could. Then had to use the garden hose and blower to get all that sand out. Let it dry and applied more coating where I blasted. Still need to finish that off, it was incomplete coverage. With the green paint you can easily see where you painted and missed.

 

[psraff]

I used a coat hanger cut and with a hook on the end to shove in there and loosen up everything I could. Blow out with longer air nozzle with bent tip. Blow towards back to get it out. The powerwash through every hole. Enlarge every hole so you can put your finger in to feel around. I drilled one more hole on one side of the bottom of frame near LCA bracket. The other side already had a hole.

Then I got a hand spray bottle and sprayed methanol all in the holes so it dripped out profusely. Then acetone. Then blast out with air again.

Then I sprayed Ospho (nasty stuff) in all the holes. Let it sit overnight. Wash out next day and let dry for a week.

Then sprayed Eastwood coating in all holes using a cut piece of plumber's snake as a guide for the curly tube that comes with it. After this you can put your phone up to a hole with a flashlight and get some good pictures of what is going on in there rust wise.

I wasn't happy with the rust flakes that remained on the welds (for some reason the welds rust first). So I then sandblasted where I could. Then had to use the garden hose and blower to get all that sand out. Let it dry and applied more coating where I blasted. Still need to finish that off, it was incomplete coverage. With the green paint you can easily see where you painted and missed.

Damn...... that's a list!

I know what you mean about the welds. I lost one earlier this year. Had a bit of welding to do.

 

[thegipper]

I know everyone likes fluid film (which is a good product) but I've been using LPS 3 instead. When applied, it dries into a semi hard wax that lasts a really, really long time. I like it because everything isn't "oily" unlike fluid film.

Unfortunately, LPS 3 is pretty expensive but it is a great product.

 

[Bbanks97]

Snows about to fly here in pa. So im going to give the fluid film a try and see how it holds up over winter.i have to find a welder also and get a spot repaired before i begin the process.

 

[gray_es300]

Has anyone seen the cosmoline on Ebay, like 12 cans for $60 bucks? I'm wondering if thats a better option, even though I already used the fluid film. I know german cars, at least before, were shipped over with cosmoline on them for the same purpose of preventing rust.

 

[TommyN]

Anyone care to give there experience with this over time. Over a year now on this thread. How has it held up?

 

[MaineRunna]

I started using Fluid Film in the 90's when I worked on a commercial fishing boat. Back then you had to buy it from a Fluid Film distributor, now you can buy spray cans, gallons or 5 gallon buckets at NAPA. It is a great product and quite water resistant, but definitely needs to be re-applied at least once a year. It is similar to oiling a frame and coating it with dust and dirt to form a protective coating to keep OXYGEN away from the metal. Fluid film is lanolin though, with no petroleum in it. Won't harm the environment. Once the frame is rusty, short of sandblasting it and painting it there is not much else you can do, and there isn't really any good way to clean and paint the inside of the frame, so Fluid Film and similar products are the only alternative. They sell a Fluid Film spray gun kit with 2 wands to apply it inside the frame. (you need an air compressor) I buy 3rd gen 4runners with bad frames and repair them to sell, so I'm very familiar with what the inside of these frames look like in harsh environments like we have here in Maine. I can't speak about the other products mentioned in this thread, but I can say that Fluid Film works well and that it is a good idea to drench the inside of your frame with it.

 

[Mark_BC]

Anyone care to give there experience with this over time. Over a year now on this thread. How has it held up?

Spraying ospho or metal prep inside the frame is a bad idea because it leaves white residue which prevents paint from bonding. You can't remove it in there. I'd just clean up the loose rust, degrease with por degreaser, hose out, rinse with methanol then spray with Eastwood frame coating then once it's nice and dry I'd spray fluid film over it all. On the outside use Eastwood rust encapsulator which is thicker more viscous paint and can be put on by brush.

 

[kolelt]

Fluid film, lps3 and Eastwood heavy duty grease. Are amazing products. The goal is to remove rust and then use these products. Ever seen a very oily undercarriage and it has 0 rust.

 

[Kryptoroxx]

Fluid Film has been my secondary yearly coating. When I was still in the desert and my frame was mint I covered the whole thing in chassis saver a couple of times. Then I coated the rest of the underside in a rubberized undercoat. After I moved to Michigan I cleaned out the inside of the frame and used Eastwood's Internal Frame coating. I fluid film every year but so far so good on my frame. It's only been 3 years though so I can't really comment on whether this is going to be the last bit of rust-proofing I will ever do. I've been thinking about Ziebart who does professional undercoating here in Michigan.

 

[ToyotaBrah]

Fluid Film has been my secondary yearly coating. When I was still in the desert and my frame was mint I covered the whole thing in chassis saver a couple of times. Then I coated the rest of the underside in a rubberized undercoat. After I moved to Michigan I cleaned out the inside of the frame and used Eastwood's Internal Frame coating. I fluid film every year but so far so good on my frame. It's only been 3 years though so I can't really comment on whether this is going to be the last bit of rust-proofing I will ever do. I've been thinking about Ziebart who does professional undercoating here in Michigan.

I would highly advise you to not go with Ziebart. Have a look at this video (plenty of other reports, too, of this occurring)

YouTube
kolelt is right. An oily underbody keeps the rust at bay.

And, as sad as this may sound, this is why I chose not to clean any of the oil mess my leaky valve cover gaskets caused. It coated everything around the engine in oil. It was a good oil leak.

As far as Fluid Film, I love it. It's been vital in keeping this truck clean from rust.
I have had the whole underbody doused in it since I bought it in 2014. I also will rinse it underneath every now and then in winter when the weather thaws out to get all the salt muck off, but majority of the credit goes to Fluid Film for keeping this rig rust-free. (Hmmm...think I should be added to FF's payroll. I give a plug to them all the time on here lol!)