Rust solutions

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mryuck

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Ram Year
1987
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Slant Six
I've got a w150 with surfact rust on a bunch of the exterior. I think the underside is pretty good, thankfully. I want to restore it as much as possible- especially along the upper line of the windshield as that can be a weak spot for these trucks. Right now its atarting to bubble along the top of the windshield. What do you guys do to fight/stop rust, esp surface rust?
 

DustyDog99

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US
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1985 D250, 1986 W150
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1985:318-2bbl 1986:318-4bbl
Depending on the severity of the rust, a good rust converter primer will handle most of the surface rust. The bubbled areas will probably need welded if it's small or fabricate a patch if it is larger. A weld thru primer is an excellent idea as is one of the primers for inside frame rails. I would suggest a rust remover, but it may be too aggressive and leave the body panels thin and easily damaged.

Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk
 

Goard

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Michigan
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1990
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318 la
I've got a w150 with surfact rust on a bunch of the exterior. I think the underside is pretty good, thankfully. I want to restore it as much as possible- especially along the upper line of the windshield as that can be a weak spot for these trucks. Right now its atarting to bubble along the top of the windshield. What do you guys do to fight/stop rust, esp surface rust?
My cab leaked so bad at the top
Snow would hit me in the face driving.
I filled it in with roofing tar then put a lund visor over it to cover it up.
 

reek

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2015 RAM 2500 CC 4x4, 72 D100, 73 D100, 01 RAM 2500 field truck
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6.4 Hemi
if you're doing a true restoration, the only 'permanent' solution for full thickness rust is to cut it out and weld in a patch. Surface rust, you need to sand it down and see just how deep it goes. if the metal is pitted, it's probably going to be pretty thin. I used to use rust converters for areas I couldn't reach easily that looked like surface rust. but eventually even if you add some por15 or other encapsulator on top, it will come back. it'll slow it down, but it will be back.

Now if your restoration is to get it looking good enough and useable for a few years, sanding, rust converter, then epoxy primer (some would argue por15 instead), some putty, 2k primer, and paint will buy you some time. You might end up repainting in a few years down the line with this method.

my 72 stepside frame off restore, I did a combo of cut and weld for body panels and some converter/por 15/epoxy for the odd shaped parts like the side steps and bed side 'rolled' areas. but for rust through areas even on the odd shaped areas, I still had to cut and shape some sheetmetal and weld. it's tedious slow work but worth it.
 

crazzywolfie

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81 93
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5.2
i would say it depends on how bad the cab it. if it needs a roof and new floor pans and supports then it would likely be cheaper and easier to do a cab swap. you can usually to a cab swap in less than 2 days. new floors and supports are usually about $5-600 and even then you still have to make the floor pans fit. you can usually find a decent parts truck with a good cab for pretty cheap. my buddy picked up a whole truck for $1000. he kept the cab and sold almost everything else off and got all his money back plus got to the cab for pretty much free but then again i felt bad taking that truck apart. it should have been fixed but he needed a cab bad
 

reek

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I've followed Cwolfie's advice in the past. did a cab swap for my 73 since the roof and floor were gone. hard part for me was letting go of 'keep it all original'. but once I got over that, the swapped saved me weeks to months of tedious work. would do that again in a heart beat. plus welding in Chinese made floor panels is hardly keeping it original I guess. a good cab is not too hard to find. any other less common bits though, you may have to put in the time.
 

crazzywolfie

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You can get made in us floor pans but you probably don't want to see the price tag attached to them hahaha. I know what the cab supports cost from that company and they are about $300 for a set of front cab mounts but they look like pretty good quality. So call it about $1000 in metal plus a crap ton of labour. Really not worth it in my opinion. I replaced the floor pans and cab supports in my 93 and it was a nightmare. A week straight of cutting, sand blasting, metal bending and welding. I would not recommend doing it but in my 93's case a cab swap os not so simple
 
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