What to do about this frame rust?

D

dekeman

New member
I was doing a fall cleanup/detailing on my '03 Windstar's interior, and took off the threshold cover plates in the front doors. There is a metal beam across the doorway that you can see is quite corroded.



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Here's some bubbling paint in the door jamb as well. Great.



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I just moved from Northern New York state and the van has been through two severe winters. I have wiped off the metal with light soapy water and then rinsed to try to neutralize whatever's in there (likely calcium carbonate road salt and water from shoes over the doorway countless times). Should I be concerned that this beam is going to deteriorate further? I have moved to central VA (Richmond/Petersburg area), where the winters are much less severe but still have some snow/ice.
 
How long do you plan on keeping the car? Is the rest of the car in good shape? Is there a door sill plate that covers up that sill? If so you could just sand the spots and throw some rattle can primer/paint on (though I am strongly against it as my dads a painter/does restorations, lol). I have seen MUCH worse cars come in to our shop.



That little c-channel piece or whatever in the doorway is not really that bad. If it came to my shop I would just grind whatever rust I could, sandblast the rust spots to get everything clean, throw some epoxy on and then paint it.
 
Geeze, whatever you do, don't look underneath your vehicle! You'll see a whole lot worse rust there. Cars aren't made of corrosion-resistant materials, generally speaking (although the engine cradle on my mother's LaCrosse is aluminum).
 
wagonproject said:
...That little c-channel piece or whatever in the doorway is not really that bad. If it came to my shop I would just grind whatever rust I could, sandblast the rust spots to get everything clean, throw some epoxy on and then paint it.
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That was my first reaction to the issue. Not sure what you mean by epoxy (bondo?) Probably use a spray can of paint since it's covered by sill plates. I'll get it looking as good as possible, but that rust/corrosion has to go.



Setec Astronomy said:
Geeze, whatever you do, don't look underneath your vehicle! You'll see a whole lot worse rust there. Cars aren't made of corrosion-resistant materials, generally speaking (although the engine cradle on my mother's LaCrosse is aluminum).
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Surprisingly, the rust under my vehicle is very minimal. I took it to the touchless at least twice a month and did the undercarriage wash VERY slowly (as you drive in to the wash bay). There is peeling paint (w/rust) on the subframe and rear axle beam (satin black), and some rusting of the steel wheels under the hubcaps, but that's something I can handle that's correctable. That corrosion is something I wasn't sure how to deal with. I'll get to sanding then. :furious:
 
clean the areas up and apply a good "rust kill" product. better yet - you can apply some LPS3 heavy duty rust inhibiter (i use this on my boat trailer that gets a salt water workout here - this stuff it great, does not wash off) or cosmolene (sp). you have to clean up the rust in the seams and seal it from further moisture to stop/slow the progression. this is a very easy fix.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Geeze, whatever you do, don't look underneath your vehicle! You'll see a whole lot worse rust there. Cars aren't made of corrosion-resistant materials, generally speaking (although the engine cradle on my mother's LaCrosse is aluminum).
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Well, some mfg's certainly take rust protection more seriously than the not so big 3. Sanding and painting is not going to fix it, you HAVE to use a rust converter once it starts. It depends on how long you want to keep the vehicle and how much work you want to put into it. Rust is like roaches, if you see one spot or two, there is plenty more.
 
I'm a bit of a nut about the undersides of my vehicles.



Areas that are the actual body of the car I usually get done right by pros. But the following works OK if you don't mind imperfection on areas that most people don't see.



Subframes/frames/suspension pieces/etc., those I don't mind DIYing in a somewhat half-@$$ed manner:



After cleaning things up and abrading away any loose rust/paint (dremels work well with flex-shaft extensions), I treat the aeas with a rust converter.



Then I coat them with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, which IME works a *LOT* better than POR-15. A few coats is better than just one.



Then I either top the Rust Encapsulator with Rustoleum (enamel-based, don't try it with lacquer-based products) or I just apply Eastwood's Black Heavy Duty Anti-rust (which dries non-tacky).



I've had remarkably good results with the above. Some underhood areas I treated on the MPV (with the Rustoleum topcoat) are still 100% after maybe five years. Undercarriage areas I did on the beater-Blazer (a real acid-test, that thing was nasty) were still OK two years later when I sold it, and they appear to still be OK even now, though I haven't crawled underneath to *really* check them out.



I was expecting the rust to just bubble back through, and/or the topcoatings to flake/peel off. And I expected it to happen in no time. Uh-uh :grinno: only a few areas went bad and when I redid those (a bit less carelessly) they stayed fixed pretty well, not perfect (these areas must've been pretty bad), but better than not doing anything. No, it's not a perfect solution, but I remain sufficiently impressed with the approach to a) keep using it on vehicles I care about, and b) recommend it to others.



Link to Eastwood: Eastwood Company: Auto Tools, Body Repair, Classic Car Restoration, Paint Guns, Powder Coating, Soda Blasters, Fender Rollers



IF you don't mind the sorta unappealing look, spraying AutoInt/ValuGard's rustproofing stuff (sorry, forget the name..) or Amsoil's Heavy Duty Metal Protector into the nooks and crannies will further retard ongoing rusting. Rust Never Sleeps, but you can slow it down quite a bit. The Amsoil stuff is especially nice for underbody electrical connections and things like spare tire mounting hardware.



AutoInt: http://www.autoint.com



Amsoil: https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/amh.aspx
 
Welcome to the 1st door of the black hole of auto restoration.



Go to Eastwood.com ; they'll have everything you need to slow it down.



Beware, once the rust takes hold, you can delay but never stop it unless you do extensive work.



BD
 
Accumulator, nice writeup on the underbody stuff, I'll be tackling this project soon.



Have you had much luck with the Amsoil MP? I feel like its a fancy WD-40 and haven't had great luck with it. Although much more messy, I have had good luck with BullFrog.
 
yakky said:
Have you had much luck with the Amsoil MP? I feel like its a fancy WD-40 and haven't had great luck with it. Although much more messy, I have had good luck with BullFrog.
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The Amsoil has worked out great for me, zero disappointment. Never tried the Bullfrog, but hey...there are so many YMMV factors and grounds for personal preference that IMO it's all a matter of finding stuff that *you* are happy with.



Heh heh, messier than the Amsoil I would *NOT* like :grinno:
 
Accumulator said:
The Amsoil has worked out great for me, zero disappointment. Never tried the Bullfrog, but hey...there are so many YMMV factors and grounds for personal preference that IMO it's all a matter of finding stuff that *you* are happy with.



Heh heh, messier than the Amsoil I would *NOT* like :grinno:
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Yeah, its almost like cosmoline in consistancy. How often are you applying the MP?
 
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