POR15 Project

Hey TW, I'm in the middle of treating a good chunk of my frame with POR15. I've seen lots of discussion about the product in the forums but not much for pics or how to's ect.. So I thought I would show you folks how it's coming along for me.

Background

The truck is an 06 Access Cab 4x4 TRD O/R. It's new to me. I was fully aware of the fairly nasty case of surface rust on the frame when I purchased it (private sale) but I did get under there during the test drive and bashed everything with a hammer and found nothing porous. I used it as leverage to knock 1500k of his asking price and decided to deal with the issue myself using POR15 rust treatment products. For the record I live in the Canadian prairies with tons of road salt so rust is a fact of life out here. I want to get the visible frame pieces looking a hell of a lot better but the real goal is to extend the life of my taco (which I am very happy with so far).

The Job

I decided to paint as much of the frame that I could get to just using a Jack and stands in my garage. I decided to treat the frame rails first (day one) and the cross members + odds and ends next (day two). I'll probably slap a second coat on everything before freeze up too. It's a big job so plan at least 16 hours over a weekend if you want tackle the whole frame like I am. FYI all this stuff is nasty if you get it on you. I used full disposable coveralls, safety glasses, latex gloves tied down with rubber bands and a breath mask.

Step 1 Degrease

Get under there with a wire brush and wire wheel and grind everything down. While I was down there I also removed as much dried mud and rocks as I could from all the nooks and crannies (there was a ton of debris caught inside the frame rails).

Here's what came off



Step 2

POR15 uses a three step process involving a degreaser (Marine Clean) followed by a self etching metal primer (Metal Ready) and then the paint itself.

The goods



I bought a kit that included a quart of POR15 paint and a litre of the other products. The cost was $120 + shipping so I did my best not to waste any of this stuff. I diluted the Marine clean to about 1 part with two parts water in a spare spray bottle I had lying around. I proceeded to spray everything down
and then followed up with a good rinse using another spray bottle.

After Marine Clean



Step 2 Prime it

I opted to paint the metal ready on with a brush as it is corrosive to paint and was worried about overspray with a spray bottle. You have to keep the surface you're priming wet with metal ready for 20-30min before you can rinse and paint. I just went back and forth on the frame rails. By the time I was done painting one I just started back again in the opposite direction. This kept everything wet for the necessary time-span. Once you've got that finished you have to rinse it again.

After Metal Ready



Step 3 Paint it

You have to let things dry completely before painting I sped up the process by borrowing the wife's hairdryer. You have to give the paint a good stirring before use. Its really thin paint and spreads very easily. Watch out though, it dries pretty fast and then it's rock hard. I only poured small amounts at a time and made sure to wipe the paint can rim clean after every pour. I also put a piece of plastic food wrap between the lid and the can before closing it up. This job took me way longer than I first anticipated so I was wrapping up at around 11pm. By that time the temp had dropped 12 degrees and I noticed it was noticeably tougher to spread the paint. It's definitely better to do this work in warmer temps.

The end result





Overall I'm happy with the way it self leveled and how the finish looks. Time will tell on how it performs but I will update this thread as time goes by.

Thanks for reading, hope this helps someone. I'm off to self-medicate with barley and hops

 

Very nice, looks great, plus the knowledge your frames not rusting out from underneath you is definitely worth $120 plus supplies

 

Good call to use POR15. Awesome stuff and damned spendy, but worth the cost. Used it for many years on steel boats/ships in marine environments and can attest to it's worth. As an FYI to anyone who decides to use the stuff, if you ever put it on anything that get's sun exposure, you have to over-coat it with another finish paint. POR15 breaks down with UV exposure.

 

looks good

 

So with only a quart you were able to coat the whole frame or did you only do from the transmission back?

 

Might look good from the outside, but what about the inside of the frame rails?

 

I was able to paint the frame rails (top and bottom-both sides) and all the crossmembers (the parts I could reach with a brush) + trailer hitch with a quart (sorry I only documented the first part of the job). The paint is really thin and spreads really well. @racerx I got everything I could get to on the surface my fingers are crossed that no rust was coming from the inside out, everything held up pretty well to a hammer swing. POR15 is advertised as stopping the rust process so if I keep it maintained with a new coat every year or so it's my hope that I've averted any serious corrosion problems.

 

Good job, that had to be a full days worth of work to get that project completed.

 

Thanks, not gonna lie it suuucked being under the truck for 16+ hours. I bet there are a ton of mechanics and autobody guys with back problems. Worth it though, I swear I could hear the rust spreading before I did the work.

 

I like POR 15 and have used it in the past...

Your writeup is great...now I am thinking I should order a quart of the black and do the powder coated, plate steel bumper on the wife's jeep...

However, in my experience, there is nothing as good as preventing rust as a Detroit Diesel up front misting oil at it goes.

Howard

 

Krown. Ive suggested it before, it works. you could read the stickers on my frame after 10 years. $100/yr and no body rust, minimal frame. Worth every penny. www.krown.com

 

Great write up. We use por15 I'm our shop if there was rust on a panel we're fixing but not part of the claim. Pretty much the same process. Only difference is our can says it takes 12 hours I think it is to fully dry. Might be a little thing to keep in mind, but of you're not painting over it I guess it wouldn't be a big deal

 

OP: How is it holding up after a year? Any rust emerging from underneath?

 

Not bad . There are some small spots coming through in areas where my paint coverage wasn't ideal but the spots that got the most attention still look good. I'm definitely going to apply another coat this spring. I'm thinking that I'm going to need to do annual touch-ups and a new coat every couple years or so going forward. I'm mostly pleased with the product but it's certainly not a do it once and forget about it kind of solution.

 

Thanks for the update. I was hoping it would be 'do it once and forget it' type of deal apart from annual touch ups or so. Hopefully you won't have to crawl under there and redo the whole thing anytime soon. I'm doing the same project with Rust Bullet at the moment, so will see how that is going to hold up.

 

Thanks for the great write-up and for all of the included pictures. I am just getting started on a massive Tacoma project that includes replacing a severely rusted out frame. Sorry to post on a thread that has gone silent for a couple of years. I just wanted to reply to racer1x's comment regarding the inside of the frame rails, just in case anyone else reads the thread and wonders about that as well.

From the research I've done, there are a few ways to take care of the inside of the frame rails. Common to all treatments will first be to work with a clean surface. A lot of folks like to spray out this area with a hose until any debris and dirt have been removed (some mentioned being on an incline / jacking up the front to assist with the drainage).

Once the inside of the rails is clean and has had time to dry out, you have a few options. One is to use an internal frame coating made by Eastwood (http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame-coating-w-spray-nozzle.html ), which comes in an aerosol can. It has a flexible tube and a nozzle at the end that can fit into the small holes throughout the frame, spraying a rust inhibitor from all sides of the nozzle. It might take somewhere around 3 cans for the frame, depending on how heavily you coat.

Since many people apply POR-15 on the outside of the frame, many also want to bring it to the inside of the frame rails as well. Obviously, to prep the area as instructed with the degreaser and metal ready could be quite a challenge. An option is to Macgyver a rope to a sponge, or something similar, dip the sponge in POR-15, and use the rope to pull it through the internal sections.

While perhaps not as long-lasting a solution, spraying Fluid Film on the inside could also be done. Fluid Film is available in an aerosol similar to the Eastwood product I mentioned above, and a flexible tube with nozzle is available for their product as well. Alternatively, if you plan to utilize a Fluid Film kit, one of their applicator guns can be matched to a flexible tube with nozzle similar to the aerosol can setup.

I hope this information can be somewhat useful to someone out there! I spent some time looking into how I was going to coat my new (to me) frame prior to doing a swap. It might be overkill, but my plan is to apply POR-15, Fluid Film the inside of the frame rails, and apply Fluid Film to the underside of the truck (including inside the frame rails) on an annual basis, prior to winter.

 

does the frame already have to be rusty to use it? Or can you use it anytime? Theres a shop here that does por15, and they guarantee the frame for 10 years after their service.

 

I've used this stuff on quite a few projects - all with great results. Apply as noted above. One tip: don't open the can. Use a small screw or nail and poke a hole near the top of the can on the side. Squeeze out some in a container and put a screw in the hole to seal. I've placed a thin rubber washer under the screw head for a better seal. This stuff cures with moisture and the less air that can get at the paint, the better. When I first started using it, I would take the lid off and use plastic wrap but over time it would harden to a rock. With the screw in the side trick, a can will last years.

 

Nope, no rust required, you can use it anytime.