Cleaning the Chassis in Winter

MajiJeepTJ

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
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132
Location
Queens
Good morning,

I am new to all this so I have been asking a lot of questions and have received an abundance of information, so I thank this everyone on this forum. I am pretty sure there has been a thread written about this but I still need to ask. What do you use to clean the chassis with in the winter? How do you keep it protected all year round? I know the big issue with these is rust and mine has some but it is not terrible, so I just would like to preserve it as much as possible.
 
The chassis, for the most part, is all the suspension parts that are so thick and heavy that rust won't really matter except for looks.

What you really want to focus on is the frame, especially the inside where it's flat between the lower control arms mounts. The area between the skid plate and frame is also where rust likes to take over.

Your best bet is to get it clean and coat it with Fluid Film before winter. I don't think doing too much cleaning in the winter is a good idea because I don't want to remove the F-F so I mainly just wash the visible body a couple times until spring.
 
Ok, great, thank you so much. I keep seeing Fluid Film all over these threads. I heard of it but don't know much about it. I am going to go get it this weekend.
 
Use Eastwood internal frame coating and drill 4 holes in the bottom of the frame to let all water out. The Eastwood only needs to be done once and not every year. Nothing else needs to be done.
 
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Drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the frame. I personally have a 1/2 hole in front of the rear control arm mount. I also have 1/2 holes in between the nutserts that hold the skid plate on. (and I have a 1" tcase drop spacers so there is room for water to get out)

Then after every major snow storm I go to the quarter car wash. I stick the wand into the holes in the side of the frame and fill it with water till is pouring out the other holes. I do this in 4 spots on each side of the frame. I rinse the salt off of everything as soon as possible.

Often, you can see the water change color as it spills out.

For $2 - 20 times during winter, you are cleaning out the crap that is on the road here in michigan.

Everyone recommends fluid flim. But that seems like a great option if you don't have rust to start. I mean, spraying oil on rust, may help slow rust down, but I feel its a lot of money.... maybe I am wrong...
 
Mine is heavily covered in that rubber coating on the frame so it is hiding a lot of the rust. I need to find out how bad the rust really is.
 
Mine is heavily covered in that rubber coating on the frame so it is hiding a lot of the rust. I need to find out how bad the rust really is.
Take a paint scraper, and scrape it all off. Scrape as much rust and rubber as possible. Get all of that off and get the flaky rust off. Evaluate. Decide the future of this jeep.

I use a product called corroseal (its like por15, but cheap). I put it in a 1/2 gallon pump sprayer. I spray it everywhere and use a brush on the spray to spread it out. My hope, is that this slows the rust. It also looks much better. Repeat every year. Also, if you take anything apart to repair, do the same process at everything you can access.
 
Take a paint scraper, and scrape it all off. Scrape as much rust and rubber as possible. Get all of that off and get the flaky rust off. Evaluate. Decide the future of this jeep.

I use a product called corroseal (its like por15, but cheap). I put it in a 1/2 gallon pump sprayer. I spray it everywhere and use a brush on the spray to spread it out. My hope, is that this slows the rust. It also looks much better. Repeat every year. Also, if you take anything apart to repair, do the same process at everything you can access.
I am afraid of that, I hope I didn't make a mistake buying this Jeep since this is my first one. I hope I don't need to start a restoration process on the frame. I am changing the gas tank skid plate since it is rusted bad. I am going to be doing a lot of prep work to find out what it really needs. I can't really afford to put in frame pieces at this time. I am in NYC and this work is expensive.
 
I would caution against using a frame coating like Eastwood product. It can (will) seal in any speck of rust that you can't completely remove from inside the frame.
This will make it look all pretty inside while the rust continues to eat the frame underneath the coating. The same as the rubberized spray on crap. Get everything as clean and rust free as possible. Then use Fluid Film and soak every nook and cranny with it. They sell 3 foot extension wands that replace the spray nozzle to get deep into the frame and torque boxes under there.
If you live in some place like AZ or CAL where things 'patina' instead of rot out then something like Eastwood coating may be a great idea, but here in NY with all the salt and slush covering the bottom of your vehicle you need a system that can be looked at and re applied as needed. Even a brand new on the lot vehicle here in NY often has more rust on it than 40 yr old machines do out west.
 
I would caution against using a frame coating like Eastwood product. It can (will) seal in any speck of rust that you can't completely remove from inside the frame.
This will make it look all pretty inside while the rust continues to eat the frame underneath the coating. The same as the rubberized spray on crap. Get everything as clean and rust free as possible. Then use Fluid Film and soak every nook and cranny with it. They sell 3 foot extension wands that replace the spray nozzle to get deep into the frame and torque boxes under there.
If you live in some place like AZ or CAL where things 'patina' instead of rot out then something like Eastwood coating may be a great idea, but here in NY with all the salt and slush covering the bottom of your vehicle you need a system that can be looked at and re applied as needed. Even a brand new on the lot vehicle here in NY often has more rust on it than 40 yr old machines do out west.
Fluid film is like coating crap with oily Pam baking spray. Eastwood rust encapsulator does what it says.
 
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I would caution against using a frame coating like Eastwood product. It can (will) seal in any speck of rust that you can't completely remove from inside the frame.
This will make it look all pretty inside while the rust continues to eat the frame underneath the coating. The same as the rubberized spray on crap. Get everything as clean and rust free as possible. Then use Fluid Film and soak every nook and cranny with it. They sell 3 foot extension wands that replace the spray nozzle to get deep into the frame and torque boxes under there.
If you live in some place like AZ or CAL where things 'patina' instead of rot out then something like Eastwood coating may be a great idea, but here in NY with all the salt and slush covering the bottom of your vehicle you need a system that can be looked at and re applied as needed. Even a brand new on the lot vehicle here in NY often has more rust on it than 40 yr old machines do out west.
Thank you for this reply, I need to see what the actual frame looks like and then fo from there.