Preventing frame rust

exactly and clarification noted. Good luck! other than the one negative, which can be replaced cheap, relatively speaking, in comparison to the problems rust can cause, I have peace of mind that my truck wont look like a chevy in 3 years.

 

I found a Line-X dealer near me that does Fluid Film. Had it done on my year old frame last fall. Stuff has a great reputation, but the part I'm not a fan of, is the fact that it's a sticky mess. Any sand that gets kicked up sticks to it. My coils are covered in sand.

Oh, and just a heads up for anyone else getting it for the first time:

The smell. The shit is vile (at least for two weeks, and then the smell starts to go away). It's lanolin based (made from sheep's wool). I can deal with strong chemical odors, but this shit is a deep heavy musk. It smells like what I would imagine a whaling village in the 1800's smelled like after they cut open a sperm whale. Nasty.

 

I know people swear by it, but I don't understand Fluid Film. I have a can of it, and when I spray it on it's like a slime coating. I just envision that stuff getting washed off after a couple rain storms or pressure wash..... Does it harden and adhere at some point?

 

No, it stays "Fluid". It's pretty tough to wash off. It will eventually come off with repeated washing. The shop I went to recommended re-application every 20,000 miles, which for me means every 4 years.

You want it to stay fluid. Anything that hardens can/will trap moisture/salt underneath the coating. Look at the bullshit coating the Toyota dealers have been using.

 

I like that the link you posted, is an electro bonding technique with no drilling @sioux

 

@PoweredBySoy the undercoating that was done to the frame and wells, is more like a line-x oil based film. When i touch it i cant scrape it off with my finger nail. the fluid film put into the inside of my door, engine bay, hood bumper and tailgate, those crevices aren't getting directly touched by a wash.

 

Oh wow, that's it?

Yeah, I'm sure it works good, but like I said, when I power-wash all the salt off the bottom of the truck, I have a hard time envisioning that Fluid slime staying on....

 

I put a gallon of Fluid Film on every year myself. Would never pressure wash under my truck. It has been done every year since new this way, inside and out of frame and everything under truck, inside doors, rocker panels, inside tailgate, and under hood. 2001 truck in Nova Scotia, live beside ocean and my frame has no rust at all. It does not smell the best and is messy to work on but my truck is rust free.

 

For those interested, you can buy FF by the gallon for under $40, and they have a sprayer for around $28. They also have 5 gal. cans and a fancy sprayer with extension hoses for door's etc for about $100. The spray can's make for an expensive DIY undercoating job.

 

I have to imagine a product like FF is going to do the most good in the crevices/joints/interior of the frame. The parts that are hard to get a pressure washer into. If you look at any pictures of mildly rusty frames, that's usually where you see the rust start to form. The big flat sections that get washed off easily, also don't tend to trap the salt/sand. One of the things FF says on the website, is once applied it expands into all the crevices. Most if not all of the frame replacements (mine included rusted from the inside out).

 

Do you remove the bed?

 

No, my undercoating gun has a couple different changeable hoses about 3 feet long. They allow me to get under coating everywhere. I do remove taillights, and front parking lights so I can get to inside of fenders and bed better. I also do under bed liner as well.

 

Care to share that rust prevention product? Is it product a Tacoma owner can purchase?
Thanks

 

I spray mine with oil a few times a year and try to leave it parked as much of winter as I can

 

My biggest concern is the inside of the frame. The outside is easy to maintain. Most of the frame is made up of 2-3 layers of sheet metal. Gotta keep all those frame plugs/caps in place to keep as much of the dirty and salty water out of the frame as possible. With all the cutting and welding I'm doing to my frame, I bought a bunch of Eastwood internal frame spray and I'm gonna hose down the inside when I'm done. But it's still gonna be tough to keep water from getting between the layers.



http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame-coating-w-spray-nozzle-qt.html

 

I'm in the same boat as you almost to 17k miles though now!

Eventually I'm going to find a reputable dealer to undercoat it. If not, just wash it more frequently, preferably by hand but it's time consuming and not always ergonomic due to cold climates.

Just keep and eye on it. Any lubricant that prevents rust will be a good temp fix like the pinholes on your reese hitch. I think major rust issues were much later years than the 2015. Although, neglect and carelessness will make most things waste.

 

Wow. That picture answered a lot of questions. I never knew it was more than one layer of steel sandwiched on another.

And it made me less confident that anything will truly help prevent the damage the previous frames had, on the new frames (assuming the new ones are built the same way).

You can see the gaps between the layers. That is most likely where the salty/sandy water gets trapped. I can't see even something like Fluid Film getting in there, but if those layers aren't sealed (which I doubt they are) water will get in. The spot you cut out, is the exact spot where most of the damage occurred on the previous frames.

I've said it before, overall, my old frame looked pretty good for a 10 year old frame that lived it's life in New Hampshire. I'd say 95-98% of it was still black. just a few spots here, and there with visible surface rust. But it failed in that exact spot. Both sides bubbling from underneath.

BTW, what are you doing with the frame?

 

Clean it up and spray it with POR15, best stuff out there and a more permanent solution. I use this on an old Acura Integra I drove around with in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is horrible for salt in the winter, you get salt everywhere and after driving for a while, your entire vehicle is coated with a nice layer of white salt; you can rub steak on it and throw it on the grill lol. It was bad, however the POR15 kept that car from rusting ever.

I would take a pressure washer and go under the truck, spray it clean. Let it all dry, then prep the surface of the frame very well and then take POR15 to it; of course you'll want to cover the truck for overspray. I intend to do this with my truck come summer. POR15 requires prepping the surface well, its more work but a permanent solution to rust prevention.

 

You should work for the federal government.

 

Notching it for uptravel clearance for the lower links. Got filled with 1/4" steel plate after, and it was beveled enough that the weld tied in to both layers of the frame.



I think that spot is prone to rust because the cats are so close to the frame. But someone said that even the 4 cyl tacos rust on both sides there.