Complete Suspension/Chassis in POR15

[whyzed]

After many many hours of prepping, grinding, & sanding, I've I think I've finally finished making the truck semi-winterproof.

When I bought the truck, it had chips on the rockers and rather than painting it and having these chips only reappear again, I ran bedliner on them and the fenders. Needless to say, I took my chances with a product someone recommended called Hippoliner and about 2 harsh winters later, I had bubbles forming on the lower rockers.

I don't necessarily think it was 100% the "Hippoliner's" fault though, because with every paint job, rust will find its way if the other side is not coated also. (In my case the inside of the lower rockers). I decided to run POR15 underneath my truck and before I knew it, I was doing more and more areas and got a little carried away.

I ended up doing pretty much all the suspension components, chassis, inside rear panels, rear axle, inside lower rockers, & underneath the bed. For the insides, I had to get a undercoat gun & attachment wand.

Anyhow, here are some before and after pictures:

 

[wsmithduramax]

Looks great:thumb:

 

[dirtymaxer]

Looks awesome! Where did you get the gun and wand to do inside the fenders and rockers? I'm in afghanistan and my GF sent me a pic of my pickup and everything underneath is covered in rust from sitting for 7 months and was planning on doing the same thing when i get home. Any pointers or tips that will help out i'd appreciate it.

 

[duramax05blk]

Ya also curios how much grinding was required to get such smooth looking components. Looks awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Excuse my grammar the iPhone makes me iStupid!

 

[Noreaster]

Don't you have to coat the POR-15 with something else cause the POR-15 isnt UV resistant

 

[elliottw]

^would the chassis get hardly any direct light? Op that looks great. How long did it take you? That's something that's been on my list awhile

 

[whyzed]

Looks awesome! Where did you get the gun and wand to do inside the fenders and rockers? I'm in afghanistan and my GF sent me a pic of my pickup and everything underneath is covered in rust from sitting for 7 months and was planning on doing the same thing when i get home. Any pointers or tips that will help out i'd appreciate it.

Thanks. I brushed on as much as I could, so that I could get a nice thick coat on there. I sprayed hard to reach areas such as the inner chassis near the fuel tank area/inside lower rockers/etc with the wand. I got a cheapo "Astro Pneumatic 4538 Economy Air Undercoat Gun" on ebay for about $15 shipped & it worked fine for what I wanted out of it. The wand was the hardest thing to find. I didn't know how to google such a thing. I tried bedliner applicator, undercoat gun nozzle, undercoat gun accessories, flexible tube applicator, you name it. "3M Rust Fighter Application Wand #051135-08998" is what you want or simply search "3M wand" on ebay. It should be about $20 but it is well worth it. You unfortunately have to do some thinning for it to spray both 360 degrees and out the front at the same time, which I didn't care for due to wanting it as thick as possible. I ran 2-3 coats when I used the wand.

As far as tips:
Prep work is very important if you want the job to last. POR 15, Rust Bullet, Eastwood all have a similar process from what I can remember.
- You need a cleaner/degreaser. I used simple green and marine clean (POR15's product)
- Take a wire wheel/brush to get rid of any loose rust areas
- A Rust Inhibitor - POR 15 has a "metal ready", but just go to Home Depot and get a gallon of Phosphoric Acid. It's called Prep & Etch and it does basically the same thing.
- Actual paint product

The phosphoric acid is the biggest helper in my opinion, because it etches areas acting like a primer and "converts" the rust into a black or white powdery substance. You can see some of this in my pictures. You can even spray only this on areas you don't want to put major work into and it will inhibit the rust from spreading/eating away to a point.

P.S. Run a coating about 3/4" up on the interiors of your doors. I had some rust forming here.

Ya also curios how much grinding was required to get such smooth looking components. Looks awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Excuse my grammar the iPhone makes me iStupid!

I have more hours than I would like to admit in the prep, but I was real anal about getting a 100% ready surface. A sand blaster did help in maybe a handful of hard to reach areas, but 2-3 different wire wheel attachments for your air drill and a few old school manual wire brushes are a godsend for this job.

Don't you have to coat the POR-15 with something else cause the POR-15 isnt UV resistant

Yea, I did hear that its UV sensitive, but I didn't care too much, because it is under the truck away from most light anyway and I didn't want to take the chances on their UV safe products not being as tough. Something can probably be done to seal the por15 once its still wet to protect from the UV, but I didn't really put too much thought or worry into it.

 

[guga1979]

Looks real nice! I'll try that if I can ever make the time. Good job

 

[prodiesel804]

nice job

 

[dirtymaxer]

Thanks for the help! I hope ill have some time to do this next month before winter hits hard!

 

[Cknight199]

Nice job, a few months ago I used a wire brush and polished all the old coating on the frame off that falls in your eyes when working under the truck. Stuff is seriously annoying, but after I polished all the rust spots off as well as loose coating, I plasti dipped the frame hopefully it will hold up like it did on my wheels over the winter. I absolutely love the plastidip.

 

[MACKIN]

Looks good but I'd like to see it in a year or two myself. I know "prep" work is the most important step to Por 15 I'm just not sold on it anymore with my experience. I followed the instructions and used THEIR products and still the windshield frame and gas tank hanger/skid plate rusted through on my CJ. The windshield frame was NEW out of the box when painted ,the gas tank hanger/skid plate was not. For what you pay for the product and prep stuff I expected better! I'm not the only one either.

When first done it looked like a million bucks 2 years later,JUNK.

 

[whyzed]

Looks good but I'd like to see it in a year or two myself. I know "prep" work is the most important step to Por 15 I'm just not sold on it anymore with my experience. I followed the instructions and used THEIR products and still the windshield frame and gas tank hanger/skid plate rusted through on my CJ. The windshield frame was NEW out of the box when painted ,the gas tank hanger/skid plate was not. For what you pay for the product and prep stuff I expected better! I'm not the only one either.

When first done it looked like a million bucks 2 years later,JUNK.

At first, I wasn't going to go with it, because I heard it was the best of the best and then some say it didn't do much. I almost went with rust bullet and at the last minute changed my mind and went with it. I saw what 2 winters did to the rustoleum bed liner sold in quarts at walmart and the harder hippo liner both, so I'm with you. I want to see what it will look like compared to the alternatives that aren't $45 a quart.

If this doesn't hold, I'm going to put some serious thought into biting the bullet and paying someone to Line-X it. I was hoping this would work though, because if I remember right, I was quoted over $3k for the job or something outrageous. That's money I would rather put towards a suncoast.