Bad Rust! Advice Please!

I didn't think the rust was going to be that bad on my Jeep. After I removed the roll bar and the gas tank I found some really bad rust. There is already a hole (with a piece of wood under it ) and I could easily push through in many other places. You can also see some spots on the outside where it's obviously badly rusted underneath the paint. I priced the floor pieces and with shipping it comes to like $900. That included front, back and the wheel covers. Plus that still leaves the rust on the body under the paint.

My other thought was to just try and clean it up as best I can, spray with some rust inhibitor and hope it holds out for a while. My original plan was to eventually replace the entire body anyway but I don't know when that will be.

What's your guys advice. I now nothing of body work and I've never had rust like this on any of my vehicles. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

Got any sandblasting shops nearby? You could have it blasted then shoot some primer on it for now.

Or you could go to Home Depot or some other hardware place and get some phosphoric acid, I think it is. That's supposed to stop rust by changing it from iron oxide to iron something-else. I hear it turns rust into a hard, black substance. There's a product at Ace Hardwares called Ospho, it's essentially the same stuff. http://www.ospho.com/

The floor areas you show aren't that bad, yet, they're not rusted through anyway. But I'd get after 'em with a 4" grinder with a wire brush on it ASAP, and treat the areas like mentioned above. But that's just me. The blistering on the rocker panel might be a little nastier, but it needs attention soon too.

Essentially, for now, I'd just try to get the areas cleaned up and the rust neutralized, then spray-can some primer or paint on them and keep enjoying the Jeep. I mean, WTH, it's a 60-something-year-old Jeep, whattya expect? Unless you're really wanting a cherry show rig, I'd just do the above and keep driving it. If you want it perfect, you're looking at a lot of work all over it.

After you get the rust dealt with, you might research body-shop classes at a local vo-tech or community college, and see if you might want to take one. You can learn how to cut out the bad spots and just weld in patch panels, much cheaper than replacing whole body panels that are OK everywhere else. Skills that'll come in handy with an old Willys in the family. You might even be able to bring the Jeep in to class as a project for everyone to work on.

If it's driveable and stoppable, I highly suggest you leave it that way for now and just enjoy it, fixing only what it needs as you can. I tore mine down to the frame for restoration right after I got it and have regretted it ever since. It'll be sweet when I get it done, but who knows how long that'll be? In the meantime, I gots no Jeep fun.

 

Cutting out the rusty stuff and welding in new sheet metal is relatively easy to do and not too expensive if you don't have to replace the whole panel.

When I started mine, I had never welded before in my life. I did have a friend show me how to do the first panel and I did the rest, including replacing the whole rear deck. I purchased a cheap welder for $200, a cheap angle grinder for $40 and spent less than $100 in materials (that's including the $65 new rear deck) to do mine and I still have the welder and grinder. Your weld appearance doesn't matter because you grind almost all of it back off anyway. Good penetration is the big thing so that the metal fuses together. The grinder with a cutoff wheel makes quick work of cutting the rot out and cutting the new metal. Then a regular grinding head is used to smooth out the welds.

I have quite a few pictures of my progress in my Webshots gallery. The link is below if you're interested.

Jim

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll go by Home Depot tomarrow and see if I can find something to put on it. I started to tear it apart since winters coming and the rust freaked me out a bit. I plan on doing a little at a time so I can continue to drive it cause it is a blast to drive. Gonna do the seats and fuel tank while a got it apart.

Do you think I should take the paint down on the rocker panels and do something there while I'm at it or will the paint that's in place slow the rusting process?

 

That's up to you, but the rusting is going on UNDER the paint even now as we speak, and it's only going to get worse.

 

to be honest.. your rusted areas dont look that bad.. my 80 5' was much much worse..

just like the others said though.. cut out the rust and weld in new metal.

 

This is the worst one. I couldn't get it to upload the first time. That's wood underneath. Not sure how it got there.

 

The hat channels under the body tub have oak inserts in them to keep the channels from crushing when the body mounts bolts are tightened. Problem is, when wood gets wet it stays that way for a long time, and promotes early rusting of the hat channels.

 

O.K. that makes sense. I don't know why they would do that on a repro tub though. You'd think they would use something else. Of course I have no idea how old this body is.

 

That's a repro tub? I think those channels have wood in 'em too. I know there's hat channel kits out there that come with the wood pieces, and I've heard of guys welding in small steel "crush tubes" where the body mount bolts go through, instead of using the wood blocks.

 

That body is in good to great condition in my book. Mine was much worse. I didn't go to too much trouble on my body. I just used the Rustoleum rusty metal primer and R-O paint. I used Evercoat's Kitty hair in some of the holes and smoothed them out a little more with Evercoat's filler. I do not plan on being nice to my Jeep though. If I bumped a tree in the woods after I spent 9 months trying to get the body all pretty I would probably throw a temper tamptrum. That would be embarrassing.

 

What is Kitty Hair? Do you have a link?

 

Don't know what facilties or abilities you have if you can cut out old stuff and weld in new metal. Ideally that would be my first choice. But as a temporay fix(one of my temporay fixes lasted twelve years before I got around to fixing properly)wire brush the rust out as much as you possibly can. Then coat wit a rust stop or inhibitor and lay a fiberglass patch over it. That would give you time to decide if your current body is worth fixing in your eyes or if you wanted to move on to an aftermarket tub. Buys you time to decide and gets you back in the seat while your doing so.

 

Don't forget, fiberglass is an option for smaller patches as well. also for the floor if you dont want to drop all kinds of cash on a welder, you can cut out the rotten sheet metal, Rivet some new stuff in (hand riveter is 20$) and close up the seams around the edges with fiberglass. Herculine it after and it will look just fine.

 

Thanks for all the advice and ideas. If I buy a welder what should I buy? How much should I expect to spend?

I don't know how to weld but my dad does it for a living. Too bad his work is like four hours away. I'm sure I could get some lessons.

 

http://www.tinmantech.com/html/must_for_rust_remover_inhibi.php
This is available at Home Depot and worked great for my tub. you may have to apply it a couple of times for heavy rust but it works.

 

I got a wire feed Craftsman that is gas capable for $200 at Cummins tools. It works great. The better ones run around $400-$500. I can't remember what the term is, but the motor can run for a certain length of time and then it goes into a rest period. The more expensive ones can run longer than the less expensive ones. I've only hit the limit two or three times. When it does I just take a break.

Jim

 

I agree drive it. fix your tub, a little at a time learn as you go. mine has similar problems, just as bad yet. I cleaned the floor with a wire brush on a 4" grinder and then used muriatic acid (same as what goes in a swimming pool) to clean a little more of rust off. Have to flush it off really good though. then i treated it with one of the rust converters that turn into a black coating. (lots of different brands I think they are all about the same) Last I sprayed it with a rubberized undercoating. I think you could skip the acid step though, I usually do not use it. The rust will have to get worse on mine before I cut it out. I have fixed lots of rust on other vehicles, and have seen all the fit and quality problems previosly mentioned. These are pretty easy patches to make, give it a shot and if you dont like the way they come out, you can still buy the new floor panels. In the picture you cant see the rust but you can see the undercoated floor.

 

You can do it! My project took a year until driveable. I won't do that again!
I took the body off and had it sandblasted. The metal that was left was either gone or darn thin. So I got a few pieces of 16ga and went after it. My neighbor has a metal shop, and I got the patch material free. Still not perfect, but not as much of an eyesore.