California rust

TurboTJ

TurboTJ

TJ Addict
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Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
1,106
Location
Walnut Creek, CA
I have a 2006 TJ that has lived in CA and Nevada its entire life. It is as rust free as you would expect, but I have been hanging around Death Valley and similar places where there is a lot of alkali and I guess probably salt. Every little bit of exposed bare metal now has surface rust. I paint everything I put on the Jeep (brackets, mounting plates, etc.) but all of the edges of these things now show rust. This Jeep will will probably still outlive me but I surprised by how much rust I am getting.
 
Yep, that's obviously very normal. Any exposed metal whatsoever will start to surface rust usually in no time at all.

Hell, I was shocked to see the amount of surface rust on my old TJ when @toximus drove it back home.

Unfortunately all you can do is wire wheel it, paint over the bare metal, and if you really want, put Fluid Film over those areas so then it won't surface rust to begin with.
 
An old Vermont trick was using bar and chain oil, lightly thinned with kerosene and sprayed on with a suction sand blaster. Very effective.
 
Flivver250 said:
An old Vermont trick was using bar and chain oil, lightly thinned with kerosene and sprayed on with a suction sand blaster. Very effective.
Click to expand...

The rust I have is just cosmetic. Still, I might try something like that.

I grew up in Vermont. The rust solution I remember is that everyone bought a new car every 4 years.
 
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TurboTJ said:
I have a 2006 TJ that has lived in CA and Nevada its entire life. It is as rust free as you would expect, but I have been hanging around Death Valley and similar places where there is a lot of alkali and I guess probably salt. Every little bit of exposed bare metal now has surface rust. I paint everything I put on the Jeep (brackets, mounting plates, etc.) but all of the edges of these things now show rust. This Jeep will will probably still outlive me but I surprised by how much rust I am getting.
Click to expand...
By and large we have it good here. There are a few areas that are as bad as you can get though. If you ever get the chance to take a peek at one, stick your head under a Jeep that has been used as a Life Guard rig at the beach. Be careful if someone is sitting in it though, they may accidentally kick you in the face by putting their foot through the floorboard.

And as you have noted, the high salt content of the dust and mud from the desert areas does show up now and then.

The worst place I've experienced was close to the coast where we got dew on everything on most days. Wake up and go outside to find everything wet and it didn't rain. That crap rusted every piece of bare metal I ever brought home in only a few days, generally faster.
 
Living in the rust belt, I use Southern Polyurethanes epoxy primer on everything. I put it on a primed, cheap chinese steel fender on my old truck & ran it 4 years unpainted with no trace of rust when the truck finally died. The other fender was body shop replaced due to someone backing into it and only made it 3 years before surface rust was visible
https://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/6620
 
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