Rust Repair Options

[AEW]

Hello I've got some areas rusting on my truck, it looks to like the previous owner just painted over the rust areas.

Can anyone point me to some YouTube videos that will guide me through trying to repair or just slow down the rusting. I'm only looking to have the truck for another couple of years and I use it for business and I don't want it looking like a total price of junk when I roll up to customer homes.

I'm planning on spraying the lower portion of the sides with truck bed liner afterward to give it some protection down there.

Any tips would be helpful.

Thanks.

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[Jeepwalker]

Ok, what you have going on there is someone attempted to repair some rust (or maybe it was dent repair) and bondo'd over parts of the wheelwell. Adding filler to smooth over dent repair in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after several years it actually causes more problems that it solves ...as in your case. So what's going on is the metal is rusting from the backside ...probably some moist dirt and water is hung up in the crevice where the inner wheel well comes down and meets the outer skin (there is a small cavity there). Dirt and rocks can get thrown up there from the tires and guys that think it's fun to go "mud'n" need to make sure they clean out little crevices like this when they're done. That moist dirt and crud packed up there ..helped by road salt if you live in the N. creates a nice corrosive situation.

When the metal on the box side corrodes through, the outer sheet metal (again rusting from the backside) it causes the thin layer of plastic filler to expand (rust expands) and that is causing the bubbles you see. Where it's thicker like the front part of your wheel arch it cracks (probably froze and cracked). It gets worse too: when it the filler cracks as it has on your truck, water gets in there and causes even more rusting (because plastic body filler holds water like a sponge). So now you have rust happening on both sides of the outer metal skin! I can almost guarantee you if you took a cut-off tool and cut away the outside of the box over the arch you'd find 2" of wet dirt/mud that would fill a quart container. I've dug into these kinds of repairs lots of times. The other side is probably not too far behind.

Overcoming rust and restoring it like new is like dealing with cancer: you have to get rid of it ALL or it'll continue to spread. You can't just grind it away and re-bondo it (that'll last 6 months!). What one has to do is cut away the metal around the wheel arch and either weld in a new replacement wheel arch and bodyworking it out (a ton of work to do it 'Right'), or better yet, I'd let it go a year or two and find a replacement box from a southern state (Texas/AZ/CA/Etc.) and have it painted to match. Rust-proof the arches of the next box before you put it on the truck.

I've cut metal away and welded on wheel arches before ...and I'm a pretty good bodyman, but it's extremely difficult to avoid metal warpage on the long, flat metal sides of the truck box. And, when you're done you have to find a way to completely seal off the welded seam where the box side meets the new wheel arch metal, or it'll for-sure rust at that seam. In addition, you have to use a fair amount of body filler to smooth the seams of the patch over. For all that work, you're way better off just replacing the box with a different one. Wheel arch repairs don't last very long and rust back in a year or two generally if you live in the N. In the dry S.W. they can be a great solution. There are tons of guys around here ..often independent truckers who buy and bring back rust-free truck boxes rather than come back with an empty load. Usually, around here they sell for $500-800. That's not a whole lot when you figure the work you'd save and get a nice, fresh box. If you check Craigslist maybe you can find a guy selling one for less. I bought one for my Shortbox Chevy for $350 from a guy who was going to replace his truck box but elected to just get a different truck. I jumped on that right away!

Anything less than relacing the box is going to be a temporary and less-than solution and will cost you almost the same amount of time/energy as replacing the box with a nicer $500 unit.

 

[AEW]

Ok, what you have going on there is someone attempted to repair some rust (or maybe it was dent repair) and bondo'd over parts of the wheelwell. It's rusting from the backside ...probably some moist dirt and water is hung up in the crevice where the inner wheel well meets the outer skin (there is a small cavity there). That moist dirt and crud back there ..helped by road salt if you live in the N. creates a nice corrosive situation.

When the metal corrodes through the outer sheet metal (again from the backside) it causes the thin layer of plastic filler to expand (rust expands) and that is causing the bubbles you see. I can almost guarantee you if you took a cut-off tool and cut away the outside of the box over the arch you'd find 2" of wet dirt/mud that would fill a quart container.

Overcoming rust and restoring it like new is like dealing with cancer: you have to get rid of it ALL or it'll continue to spread. That means cutting away the metal around the wheel arch and either welding in a new replacement wheel arch and bodyworking it out (a ton of work to do it 'Right'), or better yet, I'd let it go a year or two and find a replacement box from a southern state (Texas/AZ/CA/Etc.) and have it painted to match.

Anything less than that is going to be a temporary and less-than solution and will cost you almost the same amount of time/energy as replacing the box with a nicer $500 unit.

All valid points. I'm up in Canada, so the chances of me getting a new bed from down south at a decent price isn't going to happen.

I guess what I'm looking to do then would be to just slow it down.

Would sanding it down and spraying with rust inhibitor paint slow it down?

I bought some well fenders that will probably hide most of this mess.

And the bed liner spray will hide the rusting at the bottom. I just don't want it falling off because of the rusting behind it.


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[MADDOG]

Yes, sanding down and spraying or coating with a rust inhibitor would work.

Once you've started sanding you'll end up "chasing" rust for a bit so be prepared to grind for a while. Also, that does look like filler there so I'd suspect you'd have to remove all that to see what you have under it. I suspect you have rust under the filler as well.

Good luck!

 

[Jeepwalker]

Yeah, you could slow it down. What I would start with is on a dry day ...when you know you won't have rain for a few days, I would take an unraveled coat hanger and fish it up over the top of the wheel well (from underneath) and work it back/fourth about 50 times and try to knock as much of the packed in crud that's hanging up there as possible. You need to tackle the root problem which is rusting from the back, because it's only going to get worse. Then, get a hose and spray nozzle and on the 'Jet' setting try to hose and knock out the remaining. You want to get it as clean as you possibly can.

Then go drive it right away and let the wheel well dry out. Do the same for the other side. Let it dry a few days, then spray some cavity rust-proofing (waxy oily product) coat the area as best as you can. Squirt some oil at the bottom of your doors and rockers too before they start rusting out!

As far as the outside goes, if you wanted to do a quickie, you could grind away all the filler down to bare steel and Fiberglass over it (not filler). But then you're into paint work and the only way to do it 'right' so it doesn't look like crap is to professionally paint the entire box side. A set of flares is the time-honored way of covering rust up. My brother bought a set for his Ford recently from JC Whitney. He's pretty good at finding the best deals so you might look there. I think he said it was about $95 for a pair if IRC.

 

[AEW]

Yeah, you could slow it down. What I would start with is on a dry day ...when you know you won't have rain for a few days, I would take an unraveled coat hanger and fish it up over the top of the wheel well (from underneath) and work it back/fourth about 50 times and try to knock as much of the packed in crud that's hanging up there as possible. You need to tackle the root problem which is rusting from the back, because it's only going to get worse. Then, get a hose and spray nozzle and on the 'Jet' setting try to hose and knock out the remaining. You want to get it as clean as you possibly can.

Then go drive it right away and let the wheel well dry out. Do the same for the other side. Let it dry a few days, then spray some cavity rust-proofing (waxy oily product) coat the area as best as you can. Squirt some oil at the bottom of your doors and rockers too before they start rusting out!

As far as the outside goes, if you wanted to do a quickie, you could grind away all the filler down to bare steel and Fiberglass over it (not filler). But then you're into paint work and the only way to do it 'right' so it doesn't look like crap is to professionally paint the entire box side. A set of flares is the time-honored way of covering rust up. My brother bought a set for his Ford recently from JC Whitney. He's pretty good at finding the best deals so you might look there. I think he said it was about $95 for a pair if IRC.

Thanks for the tips.

I already picked up a set of fenders. I think they are 3" nothing huge.

I will try your suggestion, only finding consecutive dry days has been a real problem here lately.

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[smiley]

Mine is starting to bubble too. I used to live in the Twin Cities they used a ton of salt and chemical. Rust is very common. Anyway what I would do is grind it down. Spray on this VHT SP229 Rust Convertor Can - 10.25 oz. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NUABUO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_WKb5zb8F9KJ6R

Then cover with some primer and paint to match. Then cover with some sweet fender flares and should last many years before it goes beyond. This spray actually will work as primer technically and it works amazing to stop rust in its tracks. I don’t wash my truck enough so I am not surprised it happened to mine.

 

[AEW]

Yeah, you could slow it down. What I would start with is on a dry day ...when you know you won't have rain for a few days, I would take an unraveled coat hanger and fish it up over the top of the wheel well (from underneath) and work it back/fourth about 50 times and try to knock as much of the packed in crud that's hanging up there as possible. You need to tackle the root problem which is rusting from the back, because it's only going to get worse. Then, get a hose and spray nozzle and on the 'Jet' setting try to hose and knock out the remaining. You want to get it as clean as you possibly can.

Then go drive it right away and let the wheel well dry out. Do the same for the other side. Let it dry a few days, then spray some cavity rust-proofing (waxy oily product) coat the area as best as you can. Squirt some oil at the bottom of your doors and rockers too before they start rusting out!

As far as the outside goes, if you wanted to do a quickie, you could grind away all the filler down to bare steel and Fiberglass over it (not filler). But then you're into paint work and the only way to do it 'right' so it doesn't look like crap is to professionally paint the entire box side. A set of flares is the time-honored way of covering rust up. My brother bought a set for his Ford recently from JC Whitney. He's pretty good at finding the best deals so you might look there. I think he said it was about $95 for a pair if IRC.

I took under the wheel wheels today, no dirt or anything built up in there, but it's certainly rusting away, seems a bit brittle.

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