Lets talk Under coating / Rust Prevention

I'd just find a nice dusty road to drive on and get the dirt to stick onto the goo. Zeibart I beielve is just an asphalt based product. The other stuff is cutting through the zeibart and making it soften. I think your fine leaving it as is and just get some dirt on there to firm it up.
Did you ever back in the day have an old lawn mower that was covered in oil and grime? The grime was the dust sticking to the oil. Do you remember what it was like when you took a rag and wiped the dirty grime off? Looked like new!! Thats all your doing here by getting the dust to stick to the wet mess underneath to firm it up.

 

I am not in the rust belt but on a 13 year old truck , I found enough traces of surface rust on the frame, below the radiator, rear bumper etc.
Wire brush and a little fluid film is all that is needed if the paint has not peeled from the metal.

 

Guys, this is exactly why we gotta spray our frames. Check out this 3rd gen 4runner video, the frame looks good for being so old. AMD points out at 6:40 that the current owner sprayed Fluid Film and the previous owner did take care of it as well.

https://youtu.be/lDRiMUQdZys?si=g5-C9CUgntfMuK_H

 

AMD also did a video on a super rusted out Sequoia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH5Pu2p2lQ4

 

Agreed. Just got local professional to fluid film on Friday. Did areas I wouldn't have even thought of. Well worth the investment as this girl will take me through the next 20 years.

 

I went ahead and did it myself during turkey day, but I will put another thicc coat sometime this week.

 

It will likely see some snow in Big Bear, however, they don't use salt, only gravel. I'll probably just keep an eye on it and act if needed before there's a problem.

 

I’d get it done once, just get the metal covered in something will seep into the hard to see places. I wouldn’t treat it every year or twice a year like some of us up here in the North East have to do.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll see if I can find a place that does it. I would expect it to be much less common in SoCal.

 

So I'm trying to clean up some of this rust in the front areas. It looks from what I've read on here you're not supposed to spray or use any sort of undercarriage protection directly on the bolts so I assume a brush on type of coating like POR 15 is better so you can brush around the bolts? What have you guys used in this area?

 

This was done to our Acadia and I’ll have this done on the 4Runner in a few weeks. Goes on clear and soaks into the metal to help prevent corrosion.

 

Ideally, wire brush it, remove as many lose flakes as you can. Degrease it, metal prep and then POR15. After it's cured, fluid film it.
But it is very laborous and tests your patience.
Prep is everything with POR15.
What people mostly end up doing is, wire brush and add fluid film.
Personally, I am not open to adding fluid film to metal parts where rust has peeled paint to bare metal. I would like to add some sort of paint to the area first.

 

Where did you hear no product on bolts? I spray those down in woolwax, like everything else. When it’s time to take things apart, clean the area off and they come off like if it was a brand new bolt. Just clean the area before reassembly of anything, and torque things down dry.

If you’re using an undercoat that is like a thick hard rubber or asphalt based spray that sets up hard, then yeah maybe avoid it so that you can get a socket on them when needed.

I know that spraying woolwax on rust isn’t elegant, but grease on anything will stop rust from progressing if you saturate it.

 

I’m in Ohio and just got my 4Runner undercoated at 300 miles before it saw any weather.

After looking into several products, I ended up going with a lanolin product called PFC by Berkebile. I looked into fluid film and wool wax but the local applicators in my area only did black. Since mine only had 300 miles on it, I wanted a transparent product. We will see how it performs.

 

I think the bigger issue in SoCal or really anywhere in the southern half of the US would be the sun baking off the clear coat and damaging the interior.

I was out there not too long ago and was amazed at the condition of older vehicles. Burnt clear and faded interiors seemed common though.

 

Chris just curious who did your undercoating since we are both in SE MI

 

Underline Undercoating in Port Huron. Its about a 40 minute drive for me, but I trust them. Also, theres a really good coney island across the street I go eat and wait for my vehicles to be done. lol.

 

Thanks appreciate the info.