Frame rust (repetitive I know)

With this uptick in posts about rust I have been reading more. I have some slight surface rust on welds and a bit of heavy rust where the C frame is sandwiched together. I never knew about the boxed in area but today I crawled under in a second of free time and took a photo. Not too good looking, but nothing is showing from underneath. I know the frame rust from the inside out and I will get more photos shortly, but what do y’all think as to how serious this is?

 

Can I scrape away all that rust and spray in there with some stuff? I’m planning on wire wheeling all the frame rust then using a brush on rust converter, then a brush on rust encapsulator. I’ll probably end up coating the whole frame with something then doing wool wax once a year.

 

Hopefully someone else chimes in but I think you’re on the right track. Attack what you can get to as thoroughly as possible and keep the frame coated once a year with an oil based film or something similar. I go to KrownRustProofing once a year, they lift my truck and spray in every nook and cranny, to include all the door jams and tail gate hinge.
Lower your spare and skid plate prior to doing so.

 

Yes, it's never (sort of) too late to tackle it. On the outside, I'd wire brush any welds that are rusty and remove what you can. It doesn't have to be spotless, just remove the loose stuff.
Then, I'd hit it with some rust converter or RustOleum spray paint and let it dry for a week or so.
After it's good and dry, coat everything with Fluid Film or Krown, or something like that.
Honestly, for the sandwiched areas, I like something a little thinner because it wicks in better, in my opinion. I actually buy Dollar General's version of WD-40 because it's a little thicker than WD-40. I spray Fluid Film first and after a few days, follow it up with the thinner spray on the sandwiched areas. I also like to do this during the hottest part of the Summer because the extra heat helps it wick in.
I also spray in all the drain holes in my doors and at the pinch seam on the bottom of the rockers and cab corners.
My 2014 has no rust on it. To be fair though, I don't live in the rust belt.
Again, in my opinion, anything is better than nothing, even if it's just a decent spray lubricant. I touch mine up a few times a year with a can of the Dollar General stuff. I hose down my leaf springs, spray into the bump stop stand offs for the rear axle, etc. Just hoser' down.

 

Clean the frame with a degreaser, let it fully dry, and use compressed air to blow out the frame cavities. Get some noxudol 700, that's the stuff toyota spec'd for the frame recall. Also get a 3ft, 360 degree, spray wand attachment for the noxudol and use that to get into the boxed sections of the frame and the cross members between the frame rails. Use fluid film on the rest of the exterior frame sections.

 

Remove as much rust as you can. On the rusted sections, apply some rust neutralizer like Metal Prep (POR15 product and follow instructions) and then paint it. For paint, I think Tremclad or any rattle can rust paint would work.....

Now the most important step. Rust proof the truck annually. Krown, Fluid Film, etc. Something that gets in all the seems, etc. I would stay away from the products that 'only need to be applied once', like the stuff Toyota applied during the recall. The only way to properly maintain frame is to (i) remove rust/treat/paint when you see it (spend a few hours annually doing this) and (ii) annually rust proofing. Rust proofing is an ongoing activity, not just a single event.

If you stay on top of the rust, remove/treat it when it shows up, and treat the frame annually, frame should last a long time.

After a few years of doing this, a nice layer of rust protector builds on the metal. This protection layer will stay 'wet' and could be washed off if you wanted to remove it. Removing would defeat the purpose of protecting the metal. The only down side is your hands get pretty dirty working on a truck that is maintained like this.

Pic of my 15 year old frame, living in Canada, having been maintained like described above.

 

My 09 frame was replaced in late 2019 and since then I've liberally coated the underside and frame annually as @
JAGCanada mentioned, with Fluid Film for the first couple years, and now Wool Wax. I will continue this procedure into the future, as I plan on keeping this truck until I can't drive. Zero rust since frame replacement.

 

Thanks y’all, on Thursday I’m gonna take a couple days to do everything.

Day 1- brushing the whole frame dry, it’s super dirty under there. Then I’ll pressure wash it and do it again until it’s all clean.

Day 2- wire brush all the rust spots, scrape away at rust until I am at bare metal and black plaint all over the frame. Go around to all the spots that had rust or still have some rust and brush on some metal prep
https://por15.com/products/metal-prep

Day 3- paint the whole frame with Eastwood rust encapsulator
https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-rust-encapsulator-plus-quart.html
then spray the inside of the box frame sections with a 360 spray frame coater.
https://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame-coating-14-oz-w-spray-nozzle-nv.html
*some people talked about spraying inside some other places too, door jambs??* does anyone have photos of where to spray besides inside the frame.

Day 4- give the underside a healthy dose of Krown

$140 Krown Rust Control, T40, Rust Protection & Lubricant, Corrosion Protection, Metal Surface Penetrent, Marine, Home, Industrial 14oz (12)

https://www.amazon.com/T40-Protecti...ocphy=9008452&hvtargid=pla-2281435179778&th=1

Just to be clear a “day” is more like a step, I expect stuff to take longer than expected.
What should I do about the driveshaft? It’s not really rusty so should I just hit it wth the krown? Is there anything I am missing? I am planning on doing this to the rear axle as well, is there anything I problem with that? How should I do about cleaning out the inside of the box frames, I’m sure I can only reach so far into them.

 

I removed all of the rubber plugs down the bottom of the cab under the rocker panels and sprayed fluid film in there until it seeped out of the pinch weld. There’s plugs on both sides of the pinch weld and be sure to place them back. 360 aerosol wand would be good here. It should make sense once you get under the truck. When you open your doors, there’s tiny drain holes along the bottom of the doors that lets water out, you could spray in here too but be prepared for it to smell like fluid film in your truck for a couple of days.

 

Looks 10,000X better than my 2009 Tacoma that's spent 99% of its life in TN.

 

The bottom of the cab on my truck looks like new. The frame looks like it was just recovered from the deck of the Titanic.