Honest Frame Rust Tips for Newbie Which of these options is best???

[efedude77]

Okay, I've spend a few hours looking at various car pages and such about different products and how to treat frame rust. I bought an 04' today with a nice amount of rust which is all on the surface (pics tomorrow) now I'm a bit confused on what option is the best so people with experience would be a big help. Of course after the frame is treated, I will apply fluid film and or under coat.

Option 1: Por-15 or similar product, get off loose frame rust and leave a thin layer of rust for product to bond to.
( I heard it can work better this way)

Option 2: Sand/wire wheel pieces of frame to bear metal, use rust converter or metal prep, then apply por-15 or similar product.

Option 3: Sand/wire wheel pieces of frame to bear metal, use rust converter or metal prep, the use some kind of rustoleum rust converting primer, then paint with some kind of basic paint.

Also a big issue here is getting to parts of the frame. Any ideas or real world experience will help me save this thing!

 

[li_runner]

I did a mixture, where rust was obv surface only just coated with POR. Where it was a bit loose and deeper I grounded/wire wheeled the are to get the rust off before applying.

Either way POR is expensive but worth it. It works really well.

 

[Gatafly]

I used POR15 and used their rust treatment first and im not impressed at all. The rust is all coming back and popping the POR15 off. I took jy running boards off which exposed the frame more. My frame isnt all rusty, but the welds are so I took a wire grush to them and used the Rust Oleum rust converter yesterday. I am going to try the Rust Oleum bed liner spray over that and see how it goes. If I were to do it all over again I would not use POR. Instead I would use the Rust Oleum rust converter, paint it then go with Fluid Film or the hot oil rust prevention treatment. For the time and money, POR15 is not worth it to me. It looks great for a year or 2 then you see that it was mainly a cover up. IMO POR15 would be great for bare rust free metal prior to painting. Thats my experience long term, hope others have had better.

 

[07V8]

No coating is going dissolve/transform/fix/protect loose surface rust/scale. You MUST wire brush to clean tight rust if scaling exists.

 

[M1911]

Even if you take care of surface rust on the exterior of the frame, the closed box section under the transmission tunnel will rust from the inside out.

 

[Btonns]

I am in the same boat. I just wire wheeled my entire frame and skid plates with a grinder and wire wheels for my drill. I brushed on Permatex Rust Converter. Then, I brushed on Rustoleum Rusty Metal primer followed by Rustoleum Black (semi-gloss). I waited for it to cure for a week then sprayed on Amsoil Heavy Metal Protectorant. It is similar to Fluid Film. I just heard about Eastwood Internal Frame Coating. I will probably buy a couple cans and try it out.

I used a similar product to POR15 called KBS Rust Seal on a bare VW chassis. I had good results, but I had it down to bare metal. It would have been to hard for me to completely strip the 4Runner frame to use KBS.

 

[blackoutt]

Any of the major name brand products work but it's all in the prep. Also as others have stated the issue you'll find is no matter how much work you do on the outside of the frame it's the creeping rust from every opening of the boxed frame that will still make itself visible if not treated on the inside as well. Which is a much more difficult task.

 

[m85476585]

I just heard about Eastwood Internal Frame Coating. I will probably buy a couple cans and try it out..

I've been wondering about that stuff. It seems like it's basically impossible to prep the inside of the frame. The best I can do is spray it out with water. Would the internal frame coating help on a dirty and probably slightly rusty frame? Or would it make it worse by allowing water to be trapped under the coating?

 

[T4R2014]

I've been wondering about that stuff. It seems like it's basically impossible to prep the inside of the frame. The best I can do is spray it out with water. Would the internal frame coating help on a dirty and probably slightly rusty frame? Or would it make it worse by allowing water to be trapped under the coating?

I've seen a bunch of people use it. With that said, there have been no long term tests. On these trucks I think it's an awful idea if you aren't doing a frame-off restoration. You don't know how clean the inside of the frame really is so you may just be painting over a layer of dirt. I would just inject the inner rails with fluid film. If there is dirt in there, no harm done.