What Should I seal this floorpan with?

[Supercharged111]

I cracked into this truck I just bought and quickly realized their ghetto attempts to seal the windshield had failed, the carpet was wet and had been for some time.

It's good and scaled, but the bottom is still white. Those 3 holes were punched by the general, I have no idea how they were sealed from the factory. I'm about to swing out and hit it with the wire brush and see what awaits me, what I'm wondering is what should I use to seal it? I'm after something more professional than POR-15, but I really have no idea how clean I'll get it.

 

[jcelk]

I cracked into this truck I just bought and quickly realized their ghetto attempts to seal the windshield had failed, the carpet was wet and had been for some time.

View attachment 218635

It's good and scaled, but the bottom is still white. Those 3 holes were punched by the general, I have no idea how they were sealed from the factory. I'm about to swing out and hit it with the wire brush and see what awaits me, what I'm wondering is what should I use to seal it? I'm after something more professional than POR-15, but I really have no idea how clean I'll get it.

 

[jcelk]

when you clean it up and it;s not swiss cheese a rust converter is the easiest. sand blasting is very very messy only done when you are asking for trouble

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

After cleaning the metal, hit it with epoxy primer and topcoat with a single stage 2k urethane. For the holes uou can measure the diameter and try to find body plugs that fit.

 

[CopperNick]

I like jcelk's idea of the rust converter plus hitting that with the epoxy primer and and topcoat suggested by Clone TIE Piiot. if I was doing this as a flip, I would do the rust killer and then apply a good layer of fibreglass resin by itself as a low priced way to seal the metal. Sand the first coat down, apply a second, and then paint it with a single stage enamel. As for the holes, a visit to the local body supply shop and use CloneTiePilot's idea about the plugs.



Nick

 

[Supercharged111]

I tossed some naval jelly in my bag, we'll see how clean that gets it. Should the epoxy primer not come from a rattle can or does it matter at all for primer?

 

[joesregalproject]

You can use one of those clean and strip discs on an angle grinder to get the loose stuff then Ospho what is left to get it spotless. But unless you are going for a show truck I think that is overkill.

Personally if it was me, I'd remove the loose stuff, scuff any surrounding paint, treat with Rust Mort and brush flat black Rustoleum over it. That's what I did on my Dodge. It looked pretty good and held up well. On my F150 I used a product called SEM Rust Trap which is like POR-15 on the rusty spots. Then scuffed and topcoated with Gravitex. Also worked fine but more expensive and no more effective than the Rustoleum I used on the Dodge.

 

[Supercharged111]

I was out at the truck today, scored some wheels for it and then took a quick whack at the floor pan. I just used what I had on hand, an angle grinder with knotted cup brush knocked out the scale and some naval jelly that's been on the shelf forever ate up a bunch of the rust. How much cleaner should I expect the rust mort to get this?

 

[joesregalproject]

The Rust Mort will remove the lightest areas of rust, but most of that will probably just get converted and turn black. The longer you can keep it wet, the better it will work. Here are a couple before/afters with Rust Mort on my Dodge's floor to give you an idea of what to expect.

 

[CopperNick]

Yep. The blacker you can get the affected areas to turn, the greater the degree of neutralization that has been achieved. You can even do a heavy coat, let it dry, and then take a wire wheel, or flap wheel to that surface again, Strip the surface one more time, and re-coat heavy a second time. Getting the heavy top debris off and as close to good metal as possible is desirable but you don't want absolutely clean metal because the RustMort needs some rust present to react with in order to drive the neutralization chemical reaction.


Nick