Undercoating/rust prevention

[Riggsauto]

I live in southeast Ohio and it is part of the infamous salt belt, I just purchased my 2019 Ram 3500 Longhorn Dually last January. It appeared to have been garage kept for the better part of its life. I am a mechanic by trade and work for the local municipality and every year we attend The Work Truck conference. Last year I spoke with a company selling a rust prevention product called Dinitrol and after do much homework and talking back and forth with this company I decided this is what I wanted to use ( whether is the best or not is one man's opinion.) Alot people have asked why I decided to do it myself instead of having it done and my response is that that no matter what product you use it is only as good as the person installing/applying it is, therefore I choose to do it myself. I want to share some pics of the preparation steps I took and some of the final results. Also the total cost of the project was just under 800 dollars which included the 2 pneumatic guns to apply the products and still have enough product to do my wife's 2010 Sahara. Winner Winner!

I will post the finished product here soon

 

[PRS]

Dinitrol was a stipulated corrosion preventative for our business aircraft.

 

[Riggsauto]

Here are some of the photos of the finished product

 

[Timd32]

Nice work, will be neat to see this in say 4mo.

Is it good for a whole season.

Great shop to be able to work out of.

 

[Topzide]

@Riggsauto, Looks good! I'm with @Timd32 about the down the road. Post up after the winter to see the differences. When I worked at dealerships, had a couple of techs that would take care of things that were above my pay grade back then. Had one undercoat my '87 Toyota 4x4. Had no rust on it for the first 10 years I owned it! He used 3 quart cans of undercoat that cost me $15 a can back then. Advantages of working in the parts dept! Definitely a way better job when you can do it yourself. You'll take the time to make sure everything has coverage! Are you going to use anything like Woo lWax to spray into the rockers!

 

[Ozymandias]

Dinitrol by Valvoline it is.
Did they spray the cavities too? That's even more important then the outside.

 

[Ozymandias]

I like the use of aluminum foil to cover stuff that shouldn't be sprayed.
We always used paper or plastic foil and strings and stuff, was always a mess to put on properly.
Foil is so much smarter as it stays in place by itself.
Thanks for the pic.

 

[Riggsauto]

@Riggsauto, Looks good! I'm with @Timd32 about the down the road. Post up after the winter to see the differences. When I worked at dealerships, had a couple of techs that would take care of things that were above my pay grade back then. Had one undercoat my '87 Toyota 4x4. Had no rust on it for the first 10 years I owned it! He used 3 quart cans of undercoat that cost me $15 a can back then. Advantages of working in the parts dept! Definitely a way better job when you can do it yourself. You'll take the time to make sure everything has coverage! Are you going to use anything like Woo lWax to spray into the rockers!

I used Dinitrol HP ( high performance) cavity wax

 

[Riggsauto]

so a quick run down on the process I took from start to finish
1. removed anything that could be removed to reach hard to reach places (everything in the photos)
2. put the truck on lift and pressure washed the whole undercarriage, followed by spraying Salts gone on whole undercarriage, then then pressure washed again.
3. blew dry with Dewalt battery powered leaf blower and then hit all the nooks and crannies and cavities with and air gun
let sit overnight to complete drying process
4.covered anything I didn't want to be sprayed with aluminum foil, garbage bags over the brakes/hubs, and used paper to cover engine where the wheel well was removed from the front and all around the lower part of the body of the truck to help with overspray
5. used Dinitrol ML rust inhibitor on any spots that showed surface rust like bolts, frame welds, some cavities that may have been questionable and so forth.
6. Once ML dried I used the Dinitrol HP cavity wax and sprayed every cavity I could possible find or access from underneath, I only had the lift for the weekend so I wanted to get the undercarriage done because everything up high I could do from home without a lift.
7. I laid on the Dintrol 4941 underbody coating

Oh I forgot to mention that I reached up over the wheel wells where it meets the outer bedside and ripped out all the foam insulation I could with my bare hands. it seems to me that is where I see a lot of rust start to form is around the rear wheel quarter. My theory is that foam gets wet and hold water add in salt and calcium or brine and you have recipe for rust. so I pulled as much as I could out and laid the undercoating on thick in that area

 

[SSchang]

On my 6th Ram diesel, and I'm very fussy about rust control as well. I believe the rear wheel well rust comes from where the wheel well metal meets the quarter panel metal. In other words, the wheel well lip. If you stick you head in the wheel well and look at it, they don't/can't bend the lips of both pieces of metal the same. There are places they mate up fine, and places there is up to an 1/8" gap between the two. And there is no seam sealer used to seal it up. In fact, in places I can see no paint or primer either. I typically shoot some Fluid Film in there every summer.

 

[Diesel85]

Nice looking work there.

I get my truck Krowned twice a year.

It's cheap and it works.

 

[Riggsauto]

On my 6th Ram diesel, and I'm very fussy about rust control as well. I believe the rear wheel well rust comes from where the wheel well metal meets the quarter panel metal. In other words, the wheel well lip. If you stick you head in the wheel well and look at it, they don't/can't bend the lips of both pieces of metal the same. There are places they mate up fine, and places there is up to an 1/8" gap between the two. And there is no seam sealer used to seal it up. In fact, in places I can see no paint or primer either. I typically shoot some Fluid Film in there every summer.

Yeah right where that meets the quarter panel mine had like a foamy type material almost like a sponge I wish I would have gotten pics but it definitely seemed like a good place for moisture to collect and lay. Maybe I will spray some of that fluid film I. There each year for extra precautions I have heard good stuff about that stuff

 

[Riggsauto]

It provides the capability to reprogram or flash the ECM of Cummins engines with updated firmware or custom calibrations. This is useful for staying up to date with the latest engine software and addressing specific operational needs.

pretty sure this is in the wrong thread LOL