I greatly underestimated how quickly rust developed on my rock slider

[GogDog]

Ok, on New Years day went on a snow run and scraped up my rock sliders a bit. Was looking at it today and noticed all of the rust on it now ->

I thought I wouldn't have to take care of it for a while before it got really rusty....its only been 1.5 months! (yes I am naïve). What is the proper procedure here?

I assume its something like....lightly sand it, spray some sort of rustoleum spraypaint into a bowl and then foam brush it on or something? (again, I am probably being too naïve and its something more intensive than that...)


I also scraped up my wheels ->

But no indication of rust yet, I assume because they are some kind of aluminum alloy. Any need to touch these up for protection?

 

[JSparky]

Foam brush would work, I've touched up really small areas with a q-tip also. For that I'd just mask off the door and spray directly. Make sure you clean the area after buffing out the surface rust with a solvent of some sort, rubbing alcohol works fine. Sounds like you have a good idea of what has to happen.. nice rock rash!

 

[MossJenks]

Most sliders are made of thick high quality steel and a bit of surface rust is nothing to worry about. Body panels are vulnerable to rust because they're quite thin. Sliders are many times thicker. I put a Marlin Crawler bumper ans sliders on my old 2nd gen 20 years ago and they started rusting almost immediately - but all these years later they're still quite stout. Ugly, but stout.

Bare steel rusts almost instantly.

For touch up just steel brush it a little, hit it with some rust-converting primer and paint away. The converting primer makes it stick great.

Wheels are aluminum. Don't worry about them.

 

[Bumbo]

Scrub it clean, and hit it with some spray paint.

I do that any time I get some good scrapes and show exposed metal.

 

[pDubs]

Those probably got that surface rust the day after you scraped them, depending on humidity, rain, etc.

Yes your wheels won't rust, they are aluminum. Bare aluminum will oxidize a bit, but nothing to worry about on the outside. It's where the bead of the tire sits that is the worry of corrosion and oxidation.

 

[GogDog]

Alright, sounds good! Thanks for the replies. I'll go get some spray paint and get her taken care of.

 

[2112 R]

Alright, sounds good! Thanks for the replies. I'll go get some spray paint and get her taken care of.

Yeah, you're good. The scrapes and rust happens on them a lot.
I hit mine with a Dremel using the wire brush tool and just lightly touch it to the rust and it will scrape it right off. Once it looks clean mask off the area (I'm super lazy and just hold cardboard between the slider and the door) and then hit the spot 2-3 times with some Rust-oleum that I picked up at Home Depot.

 

[Charlievee]

Por15. Expensive, but is worth it. On a side note, I had a friend from Arizona. Stationed at fort Bragg with me. Picked up a brand new Acura and after a week in the field, he thought the brake rotors got ruined because of surface rust. Being from NY myself, I laughed at him and told him to just drive it Down the block.

 

[JJRus237]

The rock rash on the wheels is real haha. Looks like you had fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bumbo]

I'm terrible at telling by just looking at a photo, but are those real bead locks? My friend has some on his UTV that look just like those.

 

[pDubs]

I'm terrible at telling by just looking at a photo, but are those real bead locks? My friend has some on his UTV that look just like those.

No, those are the SCS RAY10. RAY 10 – Stealth Custom Series™

Not actual bead locks.

 

[Orc]

Screw the paint, go wheeling and shine it up!!

 

[phillyd2]

Not sure why this was so surprising or a mystery. You scraped away the protection and the exposed steel rusted. That's what always happens.

The good news is that the fix is easy and the sliders did exactly what they were supposed to do.

Keep doing minor repairs, scrap them again and then after a few years take them off to redo them. Rinse repeat.

 

[Big_Cuss]

Apparently rust forms even faster on your frame where the sliders bolt up to it, from trapped moisture dirt and vibrations.