Frame rust

aerodynamic · Post by **aerodynamic** » Sat May 12, 2007 8:21 am

Hey all, I was under my car yesterday, and started wondering. When you do a total resto, what if anything can be done about resealing inside the frame rails so that they don't rust from the inside out? Obviously there are small access holes for towing or straightening, so there is some ability to get in there.

Post by **bruce** » Sat May 12, 2007 4:40 pm

Tough to do without the top of the frame rail opened--ie, removing and replacing the trunk floor, because there are also "cross-braces" welded inside between the sides of the rails. Sorry to spout off about US Car Tool again, but when they replace trunk floors and floors inside the passenger compartment they apply POR 15 liberally inside the frame rails. They try to do everything they CAN to ensure the cars aren't going to rust AGAIN...

72GY9Runner · Post by **72GY9Runner** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:29 am

Here in Canada, there used to be Rust Proofing places all over the country. They had rust inhibitor sprays that were applied with guns that had long flex tips (some of them 2 feet long) that sprayed in a 360 degree pattern. I've often thought that if you reduced Por 15 a bit, you could easily feed it through one of those guns into virtually all of the inner frame areas. Not sure where you would get one though. One of the companies that used to do it here was Rust Check.

On my car, I was content with just putting a touch up gun nozzle in every frame hole. I then blasted Por 15 into the holes in short intervals until it started to run out other close by holes. Then i spun the car back and forth on the rotisserie so that all of that extra paint would run around inside the frame rails. Once it started to tack up, I just wiped up my drips/runs on the outside.

Not the perfect solution, but I'm sure that I covered about 85% of the insides of the rails.

Post by **Eric** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:11 pm

I've always wondered about guys who have their cars dipped to strip away all the paint and rust....then there's all that bare metal that doesn't get recoated!
If I had a car dipped, I'd go with one of the companies that follows it up with and ecoat dip.....that way you get paint everywhere

ryangtogtx · Post by **ryangtogtx** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:29 pm

I agree with Eric. The only way to be sure that every area is coated is by ecoating. Here's a link that talks about the process. The GTX has a date with an e-coat tank this fall. Enjoy.

http://www.musclecarrestorations.com/ecoat.html

72GY9Runner · Post by **72GY9Runner** » Wed May 16, 2007 12:52 pm

I agree with Eric, if the car is going to be dipped to clean it up. The dip rust protects are the way to go, provided you (A) are wanting to totally strip your car, and (B) you can afford the entire strip and recoat process.

In my case, my undercarriage was extremely clean so I opted for just sandblasting the surface rust and the areas where mouse nests had caused rot. This was the cause of virtually every rust hole on my car.

The cost for chemical dip and rust protective recoat where I live was going to be about $3300. I decided I could do a lot of manual cleanup and "inventive" rust protection for that money.