Underbody surface rust removal

[Farmer]

So I got a new truck that rolled off the factory on Black Friday. Inevitably there's rust already:



You can see specks on the frame (which I hope is kicked on there from the railroad and thus on top of the paint) and that driveshaft joint is 100% surface rusted already.

I was going to spend a day to do rust prevention (Fluid Film) but now I really gotta get this off first and do it right after. What do you recommend? Scotchbrite and vinegar? Scotchbrite and WD40?

I know it's normal, but I am OCD about this and I want to get as much of it off before I do the oil coat.

 

[coxmaster]

If it's really light surface rust, I would spray it with rust reformer. Then continue with your normal rust prevention coating you're putting on.

 

[jlee]

You can apply Fluid Film over rust. If you're fine with it the way it is, FF over it and move on.

 

[Farmer]

Yeah I'm just annoyed at the rust visually. I'm just very OCD about new cars. jlee your profile photo reminds me, if I had gotten a Land Cruiser, probably wouldn't have rust this soon.

I also found some surface rust on the frame as well (which sucks): two spots near the front axle where I assume the jack stands went when they were building the truck. I'm guessing they pump these out so fast they don't wait for the paint to dry before putting them on the line.

The frame spots and the diff coupling reacted well to naval jelly, I tried it and with a little elbow grease comes right off.

The specks on the suspension linkages in the first photo just don't want to come off. They don't react to naval jelly, rust converter, #3 steel wool, or any combination thereof. I've noticed that the specks exist only on the linkages, and only along weld seams. No idea what it is but at this point but I'm just going to paint over it, I don't want to overspray so I'm just going to paint pen over it. I figure linkages are easy to swap out, but the frame rust sucks.

 

[jlee]

Here's my 2005 GX after fluid film -- it went through one New Jersey winter untreated before I got it done, so unfortunately I do have a little bit of rust but it shouldn't spread any more.

 

[Farmer]

That's amazing.

I think your 13 year old GX has less rust than my brand new Ram. You can tell where the money is spent, looks like Toyota puts more than 1 pass of paint on the parts.

 

[jlee]

That's amazing.

I think your 13 year old GX has less rust than my brand new Ram. You can tell where the money is spent, looks like Toyota puts more than 1 pass of paint on the parts.

Most of its life was in Arizona, which helps a lot!

 

[Meghan54]

Most of its life was in Arizona, which helps a lot!

I was going to say that undercarriage is darned clean. My '03 Silverado isn't quite that nice, but it's not too far off. Of course, have spent its entire life in TN and GA helped. But my dunking the ass end in the water all the time isn't helping.....I've a boat and I use it a lot.

You still enjoying the GX? Kinda wish we'd kept ours, but it began having bizarre electrical issues....the entire stability control suite would just fail for unknown reasons, then the next day, it was like nothing happened. The memory for the seats/mirrors/etc. would quit remembering sometimes. Very random. Dealer couldn't isolate the problem, so out the door it went. Wife sorta still hates me for dumping it, but I'm not keeping something that's got an electrical gremlin wandering around inside it.

 

[jlee]

I was going to say that undercarriage is darned clean. My '03 Silverado isn't quite that nice, but it's not too far off. Of course, have spent its entire life in TN and GA helped. But my dunking the ass end in the water all the time isn't helping.....I've a boat and I use it a lot.

You still enjoying the GX? Kinda wish we'd kept ours, but it began having bizarre electrical issues....the entire stability control suite would just fail for unknown reasons, then the next day, it was like nothing happened. The memory for the seats/mirrors/etc. would quit remembering sometimes. Very random. Dealer couldn't isolate the problem, so out the door it went. Wife sorta still hates me for dumping it, but I'm not keeping something that's got an electrical gremlin wandering around inside it.

Replacing brake calipers fixes that - don't ask me why...

I love mine. I chased some electrical problems too (4wd didn't work for 11 months), and finally figured out that the 4wd ECU wasn't plugged in (right before I bought it, the seller had the HVAC blower motor replaced, which lives right above this ECU...I'm guessing it was never securely plugged back in and it fell out a few months later). I think my skid control ECU failed too (around 190k miles), so between plugging the 4wd ECU back in and replacing the master cylinder/skid control ECU assembly it's all happy again.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm just an interloper to this thread, but the OP indeed seems as he describes -- OCD. The undercarriage part showing rust is a heavy piece of iron. It's not body-panel metal.

Even so, if living in places like New Jersey, I can see where there should be serious attention to rust.

Permatex makes a rust treatment in a bottle. You'd want to do a bit of sanding first. After that, there is a spray-on undercoating "rubberized" material that can be added. For those undercarriage parts, I don't know how long it would last, after being hit with rocks and gravel. The undercoating hardens significantly over time, but you'd want to inspect and maintain your rust-proofing.

 

[jlee]

I'm just an interloper to this thread, but the OP indeed seems as he describes -- OCD. The undercarriage part showing rust is a heavy piece of iron. It's not body-panel metal.

Even so, if living in places like New Jersey, I can see where there should be serious attention to rust.

Permatex makes a rust treatment in a bottle. You'd want to do a bit of sanding first. After that, there is a spray-on undercoating "rubberized" material that can be added. For those undercarriage parts, I don't know how long it would last, after being hit with rocks and gravel. The undercoating hardens significantly over time, but you'd want to inspect and maintain your rust-proofing.

I prefer a coating that won't harden over time so it can be reapplied without blocking some parts of the vehicle. My concern is that a hardening coating may allow salt water/spray in at the edges and then trap it against the metal, whereas something like Fluid Film will seep everywhere and protect the metal. I'll have to reapply it before every winter, but that's ok with me.

 

[Farmer]

I'm just an interloper to this thread, but the OP indeed seems as he describes -- OCD. The undercarriage part showing rust is a heavy piece of iron. It's not body-panel metal.

Even so, if living in places like New Jersey, I can see where there should be serious attention to rust.

Permatex makes a rust treatment in a bottle. You'd want to do a bit of sanding first. After that, there is a spray-on undercoating "rubberized" material that can be added. For those undercarriage parts, I don't know how long it would last, after being hit with rocks and gravel. The undercoating hardens significantly over time, but you'd want to inspect and maintain your rust-proofing.

I agree with you there.

You're right that there are a couple of parts under there that are either raw iron or weathering steel in that it rusts very quickly but the rust remains superficial for the lifetime of the vehicle.

I've used the Loctite equivalent of the Permatex chemical you recommend (a converter) and also a rust solvent. Solvent works great on the iron parts, but for those weird specks on the suspension linkage, nothing works, I now even doubt it's rust. So i'll paint over it.

I'm going with Fluid Film for the reasons jlee mentioned above.

I'm now in the Pac NW, so there's no more road salt thankfully but there is plenty of rain. I'm gonna put a few hundred miles on this truck before I get chance to Fluid Film it, but will be much happier when I do.

 

[Joebklyn]

Check out Carwell CP-90 rust stuff. Used in fleets to prevent rust here in the north.http://www.carwell.com/products-cp-90.htm