Bed Rack Rust Spot Fix?

Need some quick advice.

My bed rack has some rust spots on it. Its over a year old and in iowa weather. So im not complaining about it. Its a kb voodoo which i found out (just recently) that they have been reported to have these issues before.

Im not complaining; just want some advice on how to fix.

Since the entire rack is not rusted, and only area's; is it best to just take a small wire brush, sand the rust down. add a primer, and then spray on some rust o leum?

Since I probably wont get the paint to match, I planned to spray entire thing down with some under coating. If I do that, do i have to sand all of the rack down (including the Powder coated area's that are not damaged) or can I just sand the rust areas, use a degreaser on the entire rack, and then spray it.

Never done this work before so Im genuinely asking since I have no idea. Lots of different answers on here so Im trying to see what is spoken to do the most.

Ill add some pics below

Thank you!

 

KB voodoo has some finish issues; if you’re is affected, I would just get the whole thing sand blasted and then do your prime and paint, or have it re-powder coated.

You can wire brush and rattle can it but the rust might spread out further. Cheaper and easier option

 

Here’s some of the areas. It’s nothing horrendous. Much better then some have had. But I for sure want to fix what I can

 

Unfortunately I dont have a sandblaster and the cost to have someone do that and then repaint i could just buy a new rack lol Id hate to wire brush entire thing down due to time consumption as well as the fact not all of it is damaged

 

It looks easy enough to wire brush those areas and repaint.

I thought it was going to be huge sections of the straight bars

 

i already ordered some new t nuts to replace since those rusted. And i plan to get a tonneau cover before too long which will replace the brackets I currently have. So really I just need to touch up on the area's on the rack itself.

 

No. Thankfully mine has not been nearly as bad as ive seen with others.

Although I am wondering if i should just spray entire rack down so that Way im not fixing this down the road.

Can i just use scotch bright pad to rough up surface, then use a degreaser to clean, and then spray the coating? Because if I can do that ill just knock entire rack out and prevent future issues

 

You could attempt that and see how I works.

I use a product called CLR around the house. It’s calcium lime rust. It works really well on calcium and lime buildup, wonder if it would do well on the rack to remove rust too.

 

I have some rust issues on my KBVoodoo hi-rise crossbars as well.. My plan was to do as you mentioned in your first post - hit the rust with a wire brush, sand, primer, and rustoleum. However, its not bad enough for me to make it a priority just yet

 

If you don’t ease all those hard edges it’ll happen again.

 

yea for the small area's I think this plan will work.

But my thoughts now are matching the paint up correctly as well as the rack having a textured powdercoat finish compared to a smoother from an afterwards touch up. Which is why im wondering if I should just do entire rack.

Im also considering justt wire brush small area's. Grabbing a real tiny paint brush. And then hand painting the area's with the paint brush. That way I cant see a noticeable difference from paint touch up

 

Are you saying ease as in sand them down? Like with the wire brush? bc I planned to do that

 

You need to neutralize the rusted areas with something like OSPHO or Naval Jelly after you sand the areas down. Sand, neutralize and clean according to directions then touch up the areas and you should be good. That one extra step of neutralization will keep that rust from spreading

 

I actually was reading about stuff like this.

From what I read, this can be used without sanding? Confused me a little. It said it neutralizes the rust down to bare metal, therefore removing the sanding stage. But my gut tells me to sand, then spray, and then add paint.

 

Also should I get the spray, or the jug where I apply with brush? I feel spray may overspray area's not needed.

 

Yes that is what the directions say but it will still leave it rough in the rusted areas so I always sand first then neutralize and clean. Don’t forget to clean after you apply the product and it dries. Paint will not adhere properly if you don’t. I’ve used OSPHO for decades and I swear by it. A little bit goes a long way.

 

Get the jug and apply with cheap china bristle brush. Use a brush that you can throw away.

 

Ok that sounds more how it should be done. Now to clean, will any degreaser work? I ordered custom shop degreaser but Amazon has it on back order so it has been over a week and half and it still hasnt arrived and no one near me has it in stock.

 

Yeah sand grind...the paint/power coat is very thin at the hard edges metal expands contracts and breaks the surface tension of the coating which allows water and air in you get rust and the coating flakes off. A slight radius and that won’t happen on clean properly prepared metal.

 

Any degreaser is fine. Get some simple green or something cheap and readily available.