Some frame rust. Lots of pics

I am finding some rust I missed. Specifically, the parts delaminating concern me. Let me know if you want different or better pics of specific things.

Which of these issues do you see that are a problem and what solutions do you suggest?

Truck has 200k miles and 1 previous owner was in south Tennessee. I plan to own the truck a long time

 

It’s interesting how the bed bolt shaft literally disintegrated. There’s not much holding the screw on the top half but I think the threads are set further down.

 

I don't see anything to necessarily get britches in a twist over. But here's some commentary.

Obviously, this delam is not great, but the actual frame itself is still fully intact, it's just the stiffener portion (on both sides, interestingly) that's shot. I mean, sucks because nobody makes that part, and this reeks of part failure to me, specifically I don't think the steel was manufactured correctly, but ...

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Is that a hole in the circle there? Also, LSPV can be replaced or swapped for a standard PV, Wilwood has one, and FirstGenTundras makes a kit.

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This caught my eye,tire carrier looks like it has a hole rotted thru it, or is it an optical illusion? It's not going to impact structurally with this little bit, but I'd probably want to deal with it, grind out the rust to clean metal, then treat.

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I'm tempted to bet you money the bed bolts are seized with how ate-up the sleeves inside the standoff are. Maybe it's purely exterior rust. But after what @jpink and @FirstGenVol went through getting his bed off... yikes.

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But more concerning for me, what the actual fuck is all over your gas tank? Is it leaking? Did your rear diff vent breather (blue circle) fail, and explode hot gear oil all over the gas tank? (A quick wipe and sniff of the oil would confirm if it's gear oil, gear oil smells like dinosaur decomp mixed with metal grindings)

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What shifty said. Frame looks good.

Some of those spots he mentioned would benefit from some rust removal and repainting, but based on your location, I really wouldn't worry about it. You could spray some Fluid Film or Blaster Surface Shield on those locations- and I doubt they would get much worse. Definitely take a look at that oil residue he mentioned though.

 

Is that really a GA truck or a yankee transplant?

 

Wayyyyyyyy too clean to be from any of the states that salt the roads.

 

Not the best, certainly not the worst. This frame has a long life ahead if some of these areas are cleaned up. Not sure what the solution is at the stiffeners... Personally I'd fluid film it after getting it all wire wheeled and prepped.

 

Great commentary. Thank you. I got a few more pics to speak directly to the points highlighted.

The failing stiffener portions, try to remove as much flake/rust as possible and then coat it with fluid film or oil? Any sense in trying to patch with something fabricated?

Thankfully not a hole in the cross brace near the LSPV. Must have been crud on the lense or a weird shadow, idk.


While not a hole on the end of the frame of the tire carrier, it’s in bad shape. I could rip off flakes and chunks.


Suggestions on the bed bolt sleeves? See about removing the bolts and replacing? Get a new sleeve?

Weird one on the gas tank. It seems to only be mist/humidity from the air. It was rainy this morning and damp here today. Got some mist on lots of things in the carport. There is no odor to it. Not like gas or oil to the touch. I’ll watch that closely but it looks to only be water from the weather. Got some closer pics and specifically the wires and area around the diff vent breather are dry.

 

I don’t think you can replace the sleeves as they’re part of the bed the bolts slide through and screw into the frame. Most you can do is clean it up as best as possible or buy a used bed which is too much to ask for a sleeve or two.

I would definitely consider removing the frame reinforcement and fabbing a new one to put in there. That’s going to be difficult to maintain with all the small areas salt and water can get trapped.

Normally I’d say don’t worry if you live in the South but considering the recent snow & saltfest, that is a little concerning.

 

The mist on the gas tank must be condensation from the fuel.

It must've cooled down overnight, and stayed cool into the day when it got warmer, and sweat like a glass of ice water. Interesting!

 

Ya, seeing stuff other than sand get put on the roads around here was not fun. Had to borrow the in-laws car for the day

 

The rust doesn’t look too bad…well compared to most rust belt vehicles. To mitigate the existing rust as much as possible, i’d grab 4 friends and remove the bed. Start soaking the threaded portion of the bed bolts with penetrating oil now, then make a plan to remove the bed in a week or so. You can set the bed on 2 sawhorses or 2 haybales. Borrow, rent, or steal a higher powdered (3500psi minimum) pressure washer. Use a zero degree tip to blast most of the rust out of those hard to reach cracks and crevices. Wear eye protection, cause you’ll definitely need it. Then attack it with a wire wheel. Then blast it against with the pressure washer. Let dry then spray everything down with purple power cleaner, then blast it one last time with the pressure washer. Let dry, then spray it down with fluid film. Spray inside the frame as well.

 

Hmm, good info on addressing some of this for the long term by getting the bed off and really getting access to some of this stuff. My mind had not gone down that road but I like it. I’ll add it to my list. I’m going to address some stuff in the bed anyway at some point, probably a DIY spray in bed liner behind the drop in liner. Will be good projects for some warmer weather

 

If you're sweating the frame pieces that are delam'd, note there is a way to pull them off a donor frame if you can find one. I've explained a few times but happy to share again. A frame that's been T-boned, or has major front end damage would work fine.

 

Thank you, good point. I may well do that. Prioritizing and slowly working through everything I need/want to do. I definitely want to address some of those bad spots under there

 

Gas tank is sweating, happens with humidity, you'd be surprised at how this can separate the water from the ethanol in your tank. Running 100% gasoline you dont see this happen, but with ethanol blend you do. You can see the garage concrete sweating too, quite common on those drizzly mornings.

The frame is not in terrible shape, not the best shape, but good for many more miles if you do some rust treatment and coatings soon.
That delaminated brace has the bottom of the frame rail pooched down, and the side of the frame bowed out. Definitely not my favorite thing to see but its kinda.... Meh... normal on these trucks. Mine is that way too, i took a drill and small drill bit and drilled in the middle of the flaky layers all the way back to the main frame rail and used the red straw on the fluid film to spray back in behind the layers to try to let the fluid film soak down behind the frame brace. You would be surprised at how well fluid film "walks" on a frame and my hopes are that it coats everything behind and between the stiffener brace and the frame rail. I sprayed inside my frame rails good too up front where the square boxed hole is in front of the A pillar cab mounts. Basically in the back of the front wheel well. I would do everything you can to mitigate the rust, and then coat it with something to try to keep moisture out of the frame. The guy above that said pressure wash everything 3 times.... Meh.... I personally wouldnt, every ounce of water you get inside the flaky layers, is water that will continue to cause those layers to rust. I try not to drive my truck if its raining, i try to keep it dry as much as i can even though i used rust converter on the whole frame twice, and then coated it with fluid film. I still know that its the moisture getting in everything that causes the rust. You do whatever you feel is right but me personally i wouldnt use a pressure washer to try to fight off rust.

 

This frame rust looks to be the perfect use case for an air needle scaler.

 

What rust converter did you use? I’ve experimented with some on bumpers, trailers, yard equipment, and found it was good for surface rust to light rust, but anything thicker (even after removing what I could with brushes, etc) would not fully convert. Only the outer layer would. The concern in that case is there is still rust underneath. Not sure if the converter encapsulates it enough to keep out air and moisture and prevent anything further. I don’t understand the chemistry of rust very well

 

I like either Loctite or Coroseal rust converter, and Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator.

 

Worth noting, they only work half worth a shit if you get ALL the flaky rust out of there and get remotely down to clean, non-flaking metal.

 

I like the stuff called Qurox
I did some metal ibeams about 5 years ago and they are still nice and black and have stopped any rust from coming thru again
I did some areas on my dumpster where the dumpster truck driver has hit the dumpster a few times with the forks about a year ago, still black.
I did some big metal beams on my shop, then used primer and paint and it turned out slick as glass.
There are other chemical rust converters available, i think i got some from TheRustStore once, their rust converter to compare it to the Qurox, and while what it did was the same, it wasnt near as thick and took 2-3 coats where as the Qurox was practically completely done in one coat.
I took a 4" ibeam i bought about 20 years ago for a project that didnt pan out, and repurposed them in another project back in 2020. They had sat outside for 15+ years and were as rusty as you can imagine steel beams would be sitting out in the southern mississippi weather. I didnt sand them, blast them, or brush them, i washed them off (some parts had dirt and pollen ect) and after they dried i used the Qurox with a cheap sisal brush and just painted the stuff on the ibeam. I let it sit overnight and put a second coat on the next day and it turns the rusted metal into a solid thick black coating. The rust converter turns into a soybean based oil coating which encapsulates the steel and keeps water out. I used the ibeam as a support for a wood floor over a span in a non air conditioned shop. Our humidity is high and steel rusts inside unless its air conditioned well, but these beams are still nice and slick and black. Here is a data sheet of the Qurox, i would venture to say its about 2x thicker than TheRustStore rust converter and you can easily do its job in less coatings.

 

Thank you. I’ve looked at a lot of them for a variety of uses not relating to this truck. I’ll check it out