rear frame rail rust

[NOT A T5]

Hi All, 

I have my rear frame rails exposed (cut out the old patched trunk floor) and of course found some surface rust in the rails. No rusted through areas at all. What is the best approach to clean this up? Ideas? Thank you all and have a nice and save 4th!

 

[Fabrice]

After a classic massage (wheel brush, sandpaper, hand brush), these days i get excellent results with rust dissolvers, some are in gel form, which make them ideal for these. Then its a matter of wiping, cleaning with wet cloth (clear water from a bucket with a spoon or two of kitchen soda). Once dry, I spray sync rich primer on the surface, and where the welding heat will not be intense, I spray a layer of 2k black (bit overkill).

After welding, these days I use a sprayable wax that gaves me so far excellent protection on few cars, the brand I use come as a can with a small tube with a nozzle so you can "inject" from the side of the rails.

I feel with you as I will very soon enjoy the same job on my rusty 71.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Those rails do take a beating if you are accelerating hard. I have seen the rear spring mounts come into the trunk on really rusty ones. You might cut some strips of steel and drill some holes and plug weld on the vertical sides of the rail to beef it up some. If you can blast the rails is quick but sand gets everywhere.

David

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

That rust looks pretty manageable. I would wire brush off the surfaces to remove any loose bits (probably with a hand held wire brush which is as easy as anything else)

I'd go from there to a rust converter (on the parts I can reach) that is phosphoric acid based-afterwards it will need a neutralizer. Then I would spray the rails with a foaming rust treatment like eastwood sells https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html. Considering the cars age and the general good condition that should buy you a good bit of additional time for those parts

 

[NOT A T5]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's just so hard to really get in there. I really don't wanna bead blast anything and like the idea of a rust converter and an eastwood rust encapsulator product.

 

[Mister 4x4]

While I had my trunk pan out, I killed the rust I found and slathered on a coating of Rust Bullet Black Shell epoxy paint/primer.  Just make sure to remove it from the areas you need to weld, then recoat following and jam some seam sealer into the... well... the seams, when finished.  You'll never need to do that again once it's all buttoned up and sealed.