Paint and Body Strut tower rust… how bad is it

[AnthonyA1234]

I’ve got some rust on both of my strut towers. Drivers side is much worse than passenger side. I poked and scraped at all of the rust and the metal is still hard. Also as you can see when you look through the wheel well it’s clean on the other side. Will I be able to just spray some rust converter on this and call it a day?

Drivers side

Passenger side

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Realizing I shouldn’t have posted this in tech. Sorry about that.

 

[Potomus Pete]

It looks almost bad to me. Scrape and treat.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

It looks almost bad to me. Scrape and treat.

Well that’s good to hear. Finally some good news with this car haha. Now I just have to see how I can get to all the rust that’s made it’s way in all the nooks and crannies in the strut tower.

 

[Monkeybutt2000]

Unless you can get a scope in the frame rail,it's hard to tell. Driver's side is prevalent to spilt/leaking brake fluid that eats off the paint.

 

[Cheapskate207]

Drivers side it more concerning I’d say. If you want to really test it you can try to poke a hole through with a screw driver or something. I agree with Pete. Sand it down to bare metal if you can, rust inhibitor, then paint. This will slow it down and make it look better.

 

[General karthief]

Good news/bad news
The bad news: it's rusty in between the layers where the panels are spot welded together, common place, can't stop it, extensive labor to fix.
Good news: structure damage may be minimal at this point, scrape off the flakes and treat with rust converter like Ospho, not a permanent fix but you can still have a few years of enjoyment before it becomes a danger.
Check other places for rust under the car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

It’s hard to judge. It doesn’t look too bad. I’ve seen cars far worse than that.

But looks can be decieving. You need to kinda dig in there and see if it’s soft inside. If it’s solid, I would clean and paint and monitor. Eastwood has a good chassis paint that comes with a hose. You can spray inside the rails to coat it well. After I repaired both my rails, I used it on my car.

My pass side.

After poking around and finding out everything inside was soft.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Where’s the best place to look at it from to see how it looks on the inside?

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

It’ll need to be taken care of, because it won’t stop.

 

[Bree]

Looks like it's still surface rust. Take care of it NOW or you will be in for some real problems down the road! Sand it down and put rust inhibitor on it. If you don't it will rot clear through and you will end up having to replace metal.
If while sanding you find some pin holes, have a welder fill them before you do anything else.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

So I investigated the rust some more. I really scraped and poked at everything and it all was hard so I’m good on that.

However I took the wheel off and was looking through some of the holes in the frame and I could see that it looks very rusty on the inside of the frame. Is the only option here to just stick a wand through all of the holes and spray the rust treatment everywhere I can?

In the pics you can see the hole I was looking through and how rusty it is on the inside. I did stick my screw driver in that hole and poked and the metal was still hard.

 

[Bree]

Yea, at some future point, you will likely need to have that frame rail replaced, but, if you clean it up as best you can and get as much POR on it as you can and you will buy yourself a few years. The better job you do with it, the more years you buy.
Rust is car cancer. once it starts, well, you know...

 

[Mustang5L5]

Yeah, that brown flaky stuff is essentially cancer. You can coat it now, but the way that subframe is assembled it just will continue to grow. The folds in that area trap sand and moisture and the micro fractures from the high stress loads just makes it ripe for rotting out.

Hate to say it but coating over it is just kicking the can down the road.

 

[Bree]

I had to eventually have both frame rails done, and part of the shock tower.

 

[rednotch]

When its flaking like that but still solid a spray or brush on rust converter won't do much just slow it down a bit on the stuff you can see. Need to get it to clean metal and seal it. They rot from inside out once the coating breaks down and junk gets trapped in the rail. Vinegar or a similar acid to kill the rust, a good 2 part epoxy to seal it after its cleaned and prepped. Need to get real creative if you don't want to cut it out to coat the inside.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Yea I’ll do my best to coat it all to slow it down for a few years and then eventually I’ll have it fixed the right way.

#savethefoxbodies

 

[Bree]

And keep it out of the salt!

 

[rednotch]

Yea I’ll do my best to coat it all to slow it down for a few years and then eventually I’ll have it fixed the right way.

#savethefoxbodies

If your going to coat it after knocking off as much as you can, with a spray can or brush on sealer. I'd suggest picking up Cosmoline weather shed to use after it cures,that. It will add another layer of protection against moisture and with a 360 nozzle will put a good coating inside the rail..., you can get a case of it, 12 cans for under $100 from schafco. Use that stuff on work trucks, to keep cab corners from rotting and is way better then most of the crap they sell these days like fluid film etc.

Weathershed Rust Inhibitor & Anti Rust Spray - Schafco

Weathershed is the ultra tough, heavy wax rust preventive designed for high humidity, moisture‐laden conditions. Call 717-687-7017 today!

www.originalcosmoline.com

 

[AnthonyA1234]

It’s hard to judge. It doesn’t look too bad. I’ve seen cars far worse than that.

But looks can be decieving. You need to kinda dig in there and see if it’s soft inside. If it’s solid, I would clean and paint and monitor. Eastwood has a good chassis paint that comes with a hose. You can spray inside the rails to coat it well. After I repaired both my rails, I used it on my car.

My pass side.

After poking around and finding out everything inside was soft.

I’m guessing you’re talking about this product correct?

Eastwood Black Internal Frame Coating Aerosol and Nozzle Kit

Internal Frame Coating destroys rust hiding inside the chassis, so it does not rust its way through. You spend time and money restoring a chassis, but what about all that rust inside the frame? Use our Internal Frame Coating to make your chassis rust free

www.eastwood.com

So with that product how should I go about prepping to treat the rust on my strut towers? Just scrape them to get the flakes off, hit it with brake clean, and then spray the Eastwood treatment?

What about the rust on the inside of the frame rail I can’t really clean that metal since I can’t get to it so should I just blow compressed air in there to get all the flakes out and then stick the hose in there and spray it?