How Long Will It Last

ts96 · January 17, 2010

I only got 2 real trouble spots on my 96 for rust. The bottom of the doors in the center are corroded away. I POR 15ed and painted them.

Also the bed supports have a little flaky rust to them.

If I spray things down with WD 40 religiously what am I looking at here will things stay the same or get worse?

I mean a new box and doors are easy down the road but I dont wanna be doing it in a couple years.

Thoughts?

Nytemare · January 17, 2010

I only got 2 real trouble spots on my 96 for rust. The bottom of the doors in the center are corroded away. I POR 15ed and painted them.

Also the bed supports have a little flaky rust to them.

If I spray things down with WD 40 religiously what am I looking at here will things stay the same or get worse?

I mean a new box and doors are easy down the road but I dont wanna be doing it in a couple years.

Thoughts?

Beat thing to do is fill the hole with cotton and fiber glass, stick a fiberglass patch over it and paint the bottoms of the doors with rocker guard or truck bed coating. Also coat the under side of the box with the same stuff...or get a tar based product for longer life under there.

Remember to use alcohol and 220 grit sand paper on the painted doors to get the rocker guard to stay on there. I'm from Newfoundland Canada, I know how to jimmy-rig rust holes to get another year or two out of a vehicle... This whole repair should cost you around 100 bucks or less.

ts96 · January 17, 2010

I only got 2 real trouble spots on my 96 for rust. The bottom of the doors in the center are corroded away. I POR 15ed and painted them.

Also the bed supports have a little flaky rust to them.

If I spray things down with WD 40 religiously what am I looking at here will things stay the same or get worse?

I mean a new box and doors are easy down the road but I dont wanna be doing it in a couple years.

Thoughts?

Beat thing to do is fill the hole with cotton and fiber glass, stick a fiberglass patch over it and paint the bottoms of the doors with rocker guard or truck bed coating. Also coat the under side of the box with the same stuff...or get a tar based product for longer life under there.

Remember to use alcohol and 220 grit sand paper on the painted doors to get the rocker guard to stay on there. I'm from Newfoundland Canada, I know how to jimmy-rig rust holes to get another year or two out of a vehicle... This whole repair should cost you around 100 bucks or less.

yeah the doors are not rusted through.

here it is

hope it will be fine for a while

Nytemare · January 17, 2010

I only got 2 real trouble spots on my 96 for rust. The bottom of the doors in the center are corroded away. I POR 15ed and painted them.

Also the bed supports have a little flaky rust to them.

If I spray things down with WD 40 religiously what am I looking at here will things stay the same or get worse?

I mean a new box and doors are easy down the road but I dont wanna be doing it in a couple years.

Thoughts?

Beat thing to do is fill the hole with cotton and fiber glass, stick a fiberglass patch over it and paint the bottoms of the doors with rocker guard or truck bed coating. Also coat the under side of the box with the same stuff...or get a tar based product for longer life under there.

Remember to use alcohol and 220 grit sand paper on the painted doors to get the rocker guard to stay on there. I'm from Newfoundland Canada, I know how to jimmy-rig rust holes to get another year or two out of a vehicle... This whole repair should cost you around 100 bucks or less.

yeah the doors are not rusted through.

here it is

hope it will be fine for a while

Cant even really tell man...stuff the hole like I said..and put rocker guard on it up to the body molding....all the way back so it don't look like poo. Than soak the under side of the truck with an undercoating that contains lots of tar....or you can actually use tar.

Graya25 · January 18, 2010

I can't really tell from the picture, but if you POR-15'd the rust spot, you should have neutralized the rust and converted the rust to a different compound that won't corrode any further and will be stronger (I think POR-15 converts rust to FeO3 instead of rust's FeO2). Depending on how much it rusted, I suggest that you bondo over the Por-15'd rust area and making that flush with the rest of the good body. Bondo itself is pretty durable. I used to drive a beat-up '89 Nissan Sentra with a large rusted-out hole in the door (yes I could see the road below me). I didn't want to put too much time or effort into fixing it, so instead of welding some new metal, I just slapped some bondo over the hole after filling it in with Great Stuff (which seals cracks or holes around doors or windows, you can pick it up at Home Depot for pretty cheap). Sure enough the hole was patched and it didn't leak any air.

Long story short, as long as you properly treat the rust, as you already have with the POR-15, it should last for a long time as long as the existing metal was strong.

Also, looking at your surface-rusted frame, I would Por-15 some of that too to prevent that from weakening. I'm going to POR-15 the frame on my '97 this summer since mine also has surface-rust due to some tough New England winters.