Rust proofing.

Woolwax, Boeshield, Fluid Film, are all lanolin based rust preventers and work very well at keeping water off of surfaces.

But note that if you already have surface rust its porosity will make it very difficult to prevent continued rusting even if you slather liberal amounts of lanolin over it.

Ideally, wire brush off as much surface rust as possible, then apply a phosphate converter like Ospho (available at ACE and Sherwin Williams stores) to reduce any remaining red rust into iron phosphate.

Then, you can either apply lanolin over that.

But, if you live in a rusty environment, I found the lanolin tends to rinse off during the winter and allows some red rust to proceed.

So, I went back and cleaned off the surfaces (with oven cleaner, and rubbing alcohol) to apply a thick coat of underbody paint, to help seal the surfaces (things like POR15 are awesome, just so long as it is a paint). The key before paint is to make sure the surface is very clean, so it can bond. Abrading the surface with a green scrubby helps key the paint mechanically, too.

Then, because I hate rust, I put two coats of paint, and then over that a heavy coat of 3M Cavity Wax (or Cosmoline). If using aerosol use 3 heavy coats to equal one coat of bulk liquid.

Then, because those petroleum based waxes dry semi-hard, don't penetrate all that well and don't self heal, went over that with Fluid Film (cheap, easy to apply, self healing, penetrates well and takes no time at all to touch up each fall).

Rust prevention is a series of layers, with each one protecting the one beneath, and each layer providing a good bond to the one above.


Norm

This is a deep subject. There’s different use cases and products when it comes to rust:

• Rust removal products
• Treating metal where the rust has been removed
• Sealing rust that can’t be removed
• Protecting new parts from getting rusty

There’s no one product that can do everything.

For protecting new parts and fasteners from rusting…

This video convinced me that CRC is the best. It protects well and doesn’t wash off or collect dirt. I’ve used it to protect new parts, especially bolts that I’ve cleaned or replaced but also areas of the frame I’ve removed rust from and repainted, or new parts like Control Arms. You can’t just spray this or anything over rust though and expect it to stop.

norm356 said:

Woolwax, Boeshield, Fluid Film, are all lanolin based rust preventers and work very well at keeping water off of surfaces.

But note that if you already have surface rust its porosity will make it very difficult to prevent continued rusting even if you slather liberal amounts of lanolin over it.

Ideally, wire brush off as much surface rust as possible, then apply a phosphate converter like Ospho (available at ACE and Sherwin Williams stores) to reduce any remaining red rust into iron phosphate.

Then, you can either apply lanolin over that.

But, if you live in a rusty environment, I found the lanolin tends to rinse off during the winter and allows some red rust to proceed.

So, I went back and cleaned off the surfaces (with oven cleaner, and rubbing alcohol) to apply a thick coat of underbody paint, to help seal the surfaces (things like POR15 are awesome, just so long as it is a paint). The key before paint is to make sure the surface is very clean, so it can bond. Abrading the surface with a green scrubby helps key the paint mechanically, too.

Then, because I hate rust, I put two coats of paint, and then over that a heavy coat of 3M Cavity Wax (or Cosmoline). If using aerosol use 3 heavy coats to equal one coat of bulk liquid.

Then, because those petroleum based waxes dry semi-hard, don't penetrate all that well and don't self heal, went over that with Fluid Film (cheap, easy to apply, self healing, penetrates well and takes no time at all to touch up each fall.

Rust prevention is a series of layers, with each one protecting the one beneath, and each layer providing a good bond to the one above.


Norm

Click to expand...

I'm in the process of knocking off surface rust as the beginning of my FJ's life started in Ohio for a few years, then made its way to Austin, and has been in SoCal for the past 4yrs. since I live in southern california and will most likely never see snow/salted roads, my final step will be to paint the frame and not use a product like FF. I'll be doing the steps you sugget here but wondering about paint.

Steps:

1. wire brush all scaling and surface rust as best I can.
2. de-grease/wash. I'll be using simple green full strength.
3. apply phosphate converter.
4. multiple coats of paint. I'm leaning towards Rust Oleum High Performance Enamel and I was thinking of doing a Rust Oleum Primer coat before hand - would this be overkill? Thoughts on Rust Oleum High Performance Enamel? I've had good experience with this paint in other applications.