minor rust repair ideas (w/ pics)

[DZink24]

i am finally getting around to repairing my 2 corner rust spots on my tailgate. last night i wire wheeled and used a dremel tool to knock the majority of the loose, bubbly rust off of the gate. i have some ideas in mind, although i want your ideas, as i am no body mechanic. my main plan was to make this tailgate look like a "2nd gen" gate, you know, with the strip of black molding running along the bottom edge. i was planning on using the crease below the DODGE badge as a straight edge, and using rubber molding or other type of body molding to cover the rust, while giving the gate a "clean" look. should i bother to prime the rust spots, or is this rusting from the inside out? after sanding, and preparing the lower portion of the gate for the molding, does anyone have any ideas as to what kind of glue or cement i should use to attach the molding?

 

[RAton]

Coat the area in a rust converter like Rust Mort, any auto parts store should have some kind of product on the shelf. Prime the area and mount your trim piece. Make sure the rust is gone or it will continue to eat the steel. Good Luck.

 

[PFranzese]

I would sand it down with a sanding disk to knock the rust down until I saw clean metal. I would also remove some of the paint around the rust to make sure the metal is completely clean around the visibly rusted area. Mask off the rest of the tailgate and prime it with a good sealer primer then paint it to seal it off for good. After its completely dry I would mount the rubber molding with 3M double sided tape designed for automotive trim. Stuff is crazy strong!!

 

[RBellah]

Get a tail gate... there is going to be rust on the inside as well

 

[AMatsonIII]

Sand the area around the rust spots until you find clean metal. Put a coat of POR 15 on it. At this point you can go two ways. First is if you plan on painting it. Wait until the POR is dry. Sand it Skim coat it with some body filler and block out until smooth. then prime and paint. Another way is to wait until POR is tacky to almost dry and spray it with self etching primer. Then you could coat everything with some type of tectured coating and paint it red. Like what was said above... . this is only a temp fix for a little while. If there is that much rust on the outside there is probably asmuch if not more on the inside.

 

[DZink24]

thanks for the replies so far. i am going to take a peek at a tailgate this weekend, there is a farmer near here that has a full bed sitting out by his barn, i believe he made a flatbed out of his truck. the gate looks good from the road, but we will see. if it looks bad up close, i will most likely go the route of paint, and if i can get matching red from a dealer, i may try my hand at painting it up and leaving it as is if it comes out ok.

 

[PFranzese]

If you need paint these guys are pretty good.



Automotivetouchup.com Touch Up Paint, Aerosol Spray Paint and Touchup Paint Accessories | AutomotiveTouchup | 888-710-5192

 

[goodguys75]

move to a dry climate... . lol:-laf

 

[SWithrow]

A friend had the same issue on his truck, he drove everywhere with the tailgate down and never gave it a thought, bodyshop said it was caused by water pooling in the tailgate and suggested a new tailgate.

 

[mtman86]

Take the tail gate off, and remove inside access panels. Spray inside and outside w/phosphoric acid, such as Ospho(made by Skyco), let dry overnight, then grind rust where accessible. Retreat w/Ospho, let dry, then rinse well w/ water. Let dry. Then cover area w/ MasterSeries Silver Rust Sealer. See MasterSeriesCT Coating Line Rust Prevention - MasterSeriesCT for details. Finish with or without a topcoat. Do it properly, and your tailgate will last a long time.

 

[mtman86]

Here's the link to MasterSeries. MasterSeriesCT Coating Line Rust Prevention - Prices

 

[rbattelle]

If it were me (and when it is me - it's inevitable), I'd strip the thing bare and have it coated with Line-X.

-Ryan

 

[DZink24]

Take the tail gate off, and remove inside access panels. Spray inside and outside w/phosphoric acid, such as Ospho(made by Skyco), let dry overnight, then grind rust where accessible. Retreat w/Ospho, let dry, then rinse well w/ water. Let dry. Then cover area w/ MasterSeries Silver Rust Sealer. See MasterSeriesCT Coating Line Rust Prevention - MasterSeriesCT for details. Finish with or without a topcoat. Do it properly, and your tailgate will last a long time.

mtman86, is the acess panel that you write of the panel on the inside of the gate there towards the top that has the dozen or so torx head bolts on it? if i remove that i think i may have enough room to clean out the rust on the bottom and treat it like you say.

 

[mtman86]

Yes, that's the panel(s) I'm talking about. You probably won't have much room to work in the inside, put if you use a spray bottle for the Ospho you should be able to get to the interior rust. You don't need to grind it(because you won't see it), just want to convert the rust. It'll be more difficult to get the Silver rust sealer in there, but foam brushes work good, and the sealer's viscosity is pretty thin. If you have holes in the bottom of the tailgate, coat the holes first w/ the sealer, let dry, then mask off the holes prior to the second inside coat. PM me if you need to. John

 

[NSperduto]

Just popped on here perusing and your gate looks just like mine... . What did you finally end up doing.

My truck is patriot blue so I was going to sand down to clean metal and paint from the body line down with bedliner... I wasn't interested in spending the cash on a new gate.

 

[DZink24]

funny you mention it. . i was thinking today of updating this post. i finished it a few wks ago, after working on it for several weeks. it came out good. not showroom perfect, but darn well considering the fact it cost less than $40 in materials. a can of dupli color perfect match rimer, topcoat and clear, all about $7 each from any major auto supply house, sandpaper/abrasives, tape, and metal filler is about all you need. i was skeptical at first, i didn't think there was a chance in ... that my red would match, after all it is a $7 can of spray paint... well, i fell over when i saw the finished color. for reference, i used the body groove in the gate as my border, just in case it didn't match perfect. if i had to do it over (i may very well have to):-laf , i would spend more time sanding and smoothing the filler. as a worst case scenario, i will end up using a piece of body molding (black) cut to the size of the 3. 5 x 54" panel to cover up the whole thing.

 

[DZink24]

trying to upload pics...

 

[DZink24]

a few more... .