Undercoating/Rust Prevention

I just ordered a 6 pack of Fluid Film hopefully it does the trick.
I wish there was a Krown closer to me but the nearest one is 2.5 hours one way.

 

Yeah i'm here in ct too. Seems this state can't get enough salt, and now this brime chit thats basically an acid when it gets on your undercarriage. I found fluid flim just about useless once the winter season comes. Without going into a major expense, i found cosmoline pretty good so far.

 

I live between north and south Ontario so I get both sand/salt mix. In the Algonquin park area.

 

I’m in Peterborough area, so I know exactly what you mean haha. I find up near parry sound/ardbeg is where it becomes nearly all sand.

 

So.... I bought a 2020 TRD Offroad about six months ago. It looked in great shape and had just about 10K miles on it. The truck came with an underbody rust protection already applied. After reading through this thread, I looked under the truck more in-depth than I have in the past, and it looks like the treatment applied is the hardened rubberized crap, not something like Fluid Film or Cosmoline. (I've been focusing more in the engine bay with electrical projects than under the truck at this point)

A couple of pics (granted not great pics) are below. The light brown "specs" are from driving through a mud puddle over the weekend and not having time to do a full wash-down yet.



The question is how f'ed-up is the frame with this crap on it? Should I be looking at a process of spending hours under the truck (I don't have a lift) scraping / wire-brushing that shit off and doing a proper rust proofing?

 

Idk, i've seen some shops using those bed coatings on the frame for rust proofing which could be bad to. I would think you'd have to sand blast this stuff if you need to remove it. I really wouldn't know what to do if i saw a chassis that had be coated with that rubberized crap.

 

This is purely my opinion, and with mine or anyone else I'd talk to at least 1-2 people who work in the industry before you make a move. First thing I would expect is that the rubberized stuff is only on the outside and easy to spray areas. Not in the frame tubes sections, or body cavities which is where it's perhaps the most susceptible to corossion. Those areas are commonly treated with cavity wax that will creep into the nooks and crannies. Even with rust it's not going to hurt and will slow it tremendously, and prevent acceleration. Next, I'd look for areas that look compromised and only scrape those off to get to the metal, and treat it from there. Product of your preference.

By the way, what I can see in the photos looks fine. I wouldn't be super concerned about there being anything serious going on at this point. But if you live in the rust belt sates you may want to look into this more if you have long term intentions for keeping the truck.


The US contact for Dinitrol is:
Jeff Johnston
Business Development Manager
DINOL U.S. Inc.
740-548-1656 (office)

Jeff was super patent with me and helped me determine the best products for my application.

Mike

 

were do you live?

 

Thanks for the response! I'm leaning towards keeping an eye on things and if it looks like there is something going on, then breaking out the wire brushes and sandpaper to cleanup an area. It looks like the previous owner barely drove it (less than 10K miles in almost three years) and from the condition of the paint / exterior, had it garaged and not parked out in the elements. Will plan on spending some more time under the truck this weekend to do a lot more detailed visual inspection.

In Michigan here - both heavy salt and heavy sand used through the winter, depending on the location. Not uncommon to end up with a salt / sand sludge under a car after repeated snows in a short amount of time, especially in the colder parts of the winter.

 

Michigan is as bad as any rust belt state. They get winters similar to ours. Op will probably be a slave to that trucks underside repairing chips in the coating. Maybe this type of coating wasn't applied to everything like all the components in, and around the front end. That would not be good.

 

From what i gather reading up on dinitrol, its the british version of cosmoline being a waterproof cavity wax requiring a lot of preparation before doing a complete rust protection job. Still they claim like cosmoline its got to be checked every 2-3 years for areas with high abrasion. I do think its better than fluid flim, or similar rust inhibitors, but imo, its nothing special.

 

Do you all remove and coat both sides of your skid plate with fluidfilm/wool wax??

 

I don't even spray the skid. Just remove the skid plate and spare tire, give it a good wash underneath then spray the next day or two after drying.

 

If you hardly use your spare tire, or if at all, be sure to coat the wheel on both sides, or it will rust.

 

My dealer offered Cosmoline for $995 when I bought my new Tacoma last summer…

 

Quick question, should I attempt to remove the current surface rust before spraying fluidfilm everywhere?

 

I'm lazy I'd just spray over it if it's just superficial surface rust. As long as you keep up with the coatings it'll stop/inhibit further rusting

 

No. This will stop the surface rust. If there is loose scale, wire brush that off first.

 

Go on YouTube and look up repairgeek. He has an entire series on how lanolin based products work and what and how you should do with them.

 

I think its best if in a wet rust belt region. Rust should be removed, and any metal repainted if you really don't want any rust to return. After that you can use whatever rust protection coating you want. I had a lot of surface rust after 10 years develop on my 2001 tundra undercarriage that i used fluid flim on only to see it washed away after every winter. The rust got worse beginning every spring. I'd let it go till fall before encapsulating with a new round of fluid flim before the next winter. Every year it slowly got worse. The good part was the cab, and rest of the trucks body was perfect.