Key rust spots and how to stop them

[dodgeb1b]

I am currently the proud owner of a very clean and rust free w 200 and id like to keep it that way. does any one have suggestions of how to stop some of the prime areas rusting out? i am looking at getting some new door and window seals and was going to pull up the rubber floors and coat them with some kind of undercoating/rust preventive. any tips? any other places to look out for? any products that you have used and worked in the past? im moving from SoCal back to the midwest here shortly and dont want my truck turning into dust. also does anyone know where i can get a replacement headliner or headliner material? any help would be much appreciated!

[wally426ci]

Good score! you've got to take some pictures for us!

Id say you have a good plan, take a look and make sure your cowl flappers are sealing correctly. They're the vents up behind the dash that let fresh air in.

I know some other will chime in.

[junior]

J&J upholstery supplies in Rialto should have the headliner material ;247 S.Riverside ave. Rialto,Ca.jjfab@prodigy.net. If I were moving to the mid west The truck would become a summer time truck and parked in the garage thru winter. Behind the front tires on the front fenders in that area is prone to rusting. Keep the insides of the doors clean and the drain holes on the bottom of the doors clear of debris so the water drains good. Painting the inner doors especially the rear bottom corners are rust prone.

[Jeffc]

Por15 is about the best rust killer out there, it does work the best on metal that has some rust but will work on metal that is clean if ruffed up a little, not good to put it over painted metal.
Be sure to use their cleaner and metal prep products also.
There are other rust killer products out there, some that work pretty darn good.
Rust free Dodge truck? not possable unless it was kept inside all of it's life
but really you may have one that has very little rust, just haven't found it yet

Common rust areas,
Cowl (area under/in front of windshield) be sure the drain holes
work and do not have stuff inside (leaves, durt, ect), drains are near hood hinge on
the engine side of fire wall and as said have rubber flappers that cover them.
Even when new the weld seams on these often leak and never had any paint applied, I like to spray the Por product into these areas as they are hard to reach by any other way.
Others have reported that the vent hole covers leak (cab fresh air supply vents),
I have never had that problem on my trucks, but it could happen, more often it is
rust around these that would cause leaks (above).

Floors, leaking cowl is often the problem, sometime it's the roof rail weld also (area were
the roof and drain lip meet, filled by body puddy at factory and after 40+ years has cracks
and seal leaks, seen many a truck with no filler left and you can see the pinch welds were
the roof meets the drip rail. I have also seen some trucks were this area has rusted out on the inside of the cab and when it rains it drips right down on the dash like rain on the inside)....water gets in and under the floor mat and never really dries out.
Water/rust issues are most common around the front cab mount area as water will rest there
because it is the low point on both sides .

Rockers and the Step, the step is often because of the floor and cowl, but can be part of the
rocker under the step that has issues. The rocker has drain holes and is open in the rear
to let water out. These holes often get plugged and need to be cleared out of mud and
other road stuff. Agian these areas did not get paint on the inside and rot from the inside
out, again a little spray inside goes a long way.

Door bottems, like above, did not get painted in the inside, they also have
drain holes that need to be kept clear and get stuff built up over the years.
This is esp true of the front and rear areas at the space is very tight and
tend to ketch and keep what ever gets back there, including water.
Drain holes are on the outside of the gasket on the bottem of the door.
Agian rot from the inside out is common and will start with bubbles under the
paint most often in the outside door corners.

Windshields, rear windows, windshield gasket will sometimes leak around the top when going down the road
from air pressure pushing past the gasket and will drip onto the dash, a little sealer at the top often fixes this.
If the gasket has any age issues, such as gaps do to shrinking and cracks it really needs to be replaced.

Door post, this area is attached to, kick panel, floor, front cab mount, step and rocker, it will sometime rust out. It is a lot of work to repair this area and if bad enough replacement
of the cab is the better option then trying to repair it. It may cause the doors to fit poorly
and the cab to sag on the mount.

Tailgate, again durt and grim get traped around the tailgate hinge area and this area often
gets rusted out.

DO NOT use fiber glass to fix any of these issues, it will just trap water and make things worse on any metal left in the long term.

Those are the big ones and most common, but does not cover all areas that can and will get rust.....

Depending on year, I like to use auto carpet contact cemented to the cab roof, this seems to
work well for me over the years and looks pretty darn good if some care is taken on install. If your truck has the old "heiring bone" wicker I have never found a 'like' good replacement.
Later trucks used a larger panel that covered more of the inside of the roof.

[Hobcobble]

I am currently the proud owner of a very clean and rust free w 200 and id like to keep it that way. does any one have suggestions of how to stop some of the prime areas rusting out? i am looking at getting some new door and window seals and was going to pull up the rubber floors and coat them with some kind of undercoating/rust preventive. any tips? any other places to look out for? any products that you have used and worked in the past? im moving from SoCal back to the midwest here shortly and dont want my truck turning into dust. also does anyone know where i can get a replacement headliner or headliner material? any help would be much appreciated!

Didn't you buy FrankyB's '69 W200? Look over Jeffc's post closely.... there's a
lot of good information there. Peel up those floor mats and put some type of
rust converter on the floor. You could top coat them with some good paint or
even some roll-on bed liner. I didn't see any other areas on Franky's truck that
needed attending to other than cleaning up the surface rust on those floorboards.
You might give thought to media blasting the box floor and inside walls and
either painting it having a shop do a nice spray in bed liner. Are you planning
on painting the exterior? I was pretty close to buying that truck. It came down
to a choice between that truck and a '65 W200 Utiline that was originally from
Northern CA. I chose the '65 because it was geared higher and I already have a
W200 with 4:88 axles. Franky put a ton of real nice work into that '69. You got
yourself one heck of a truck. By the way..... leave those bullet holes in the
tailgate. You should buy Jim Megee's Sweptline Restoration
CD. He came up with a real close match to the original head liner material for
his '68. Whereabouts in the Midwest are you moving to?? if you drive it through
too many harsh Midwest Winters your truck will likely suffer no matter what you
do to try to prevent corrosion. Rust Never Sleeps.
John

[dodgeb1b]

first off id like to thank everyone for the great info, just what i was looking for! and yes it was Frankyb's old truck. (P.S. if anyone ever gets a chance to deal with franky in person, he is a great guy and would bend over backwards to help a fellow sweptliner out!) The truck is in great shape and has a few issues but far better then my last 69. i was planning on keeping it stored in the winter months but for right now it is my only set of wheels and i didnt want to harm what i have.

[dodgeb1b]

oh i forgot to mention, hobcobble, yes i plan on repainting it but it wont be for a few years, untill then it will rock the bullet holes! heck, i might just leave the ones inside the cab for good measure!

[Hobcobble]

first off id like to thank everyone for the great info, just what i was looking for! and yes it was Frankyb's old truck. (P.S. if anyone ever gets a chance to deal with franky in person, he is a great guy and would bend over backwards to help a fellow sweptliner out!) The truck is in great shape and has a few issues but far better then my last 69. i was planning on keeping it stored in the winter months but for right now it is my only set of wheels and i didnt want to harm what i have.

Franky went the extra mile for a Sweptliner local to me here in Western NY State.
Actually, he went the extra 3000 miles across country and delivered a '68W200 in
person I had the chance to meet Franky.... he's top notch. This
is the reason I would have been comfortable in buying that '69 W200 from him.
Had I decided to buy his truck, I had full confidence in him as far as handling the
deal in California..... getting the truck loaded on the hauler, etc..
John

[Russ]

The first thing I would do is to clean out some of the problem areas. Just cleaning out the moisture holding trash and dirt will be a good start in preventing rust. When I got my truck I took a water hose and washed off all of the collected dirt that I could see under the truck. Be sure to clean the lower part of the bed ends as dirt is slung there from the rear wheel. I washed all of the area between the inner and outer bed sides as well. Then remove the 2" round rubber plugs in the front wheel wells and hose out the rockers. Then, depending how far you want to go, open up the doors and clean out the bottoms. Make sure the drain holes are open. I took a hacksaw blade and cleaned out the front and rear lower corners and then washed out the doors with a pressure washer. I had the doors emptied out so you might not be able to do this. Then remove the cowl cover and clean the dirt and leaves that might be collected in there, using either air or a water hose. It's a messy job but worth doing. The cowl consists of three sections which are isolated from each other (unless the walls have rusted through). The outer cowl sections are prone to rust through at the accent line so they need to be cleaned and painted also. The upper door hinge needs to be removed to get to these areas well, but you might be able to get the dirt out by sticking an air hose in around the hinge and blowing it out. You won't be able to paint inside there with the hinge in place though. It can get messy. I had my truck apart when I did most of this but it can be done while it's together with a little care.

[mopardwh]

This is what I plan on using. Eastwood has the best reviews for most of their products (especially rust products), and I've had nothing but good come from their company.

http://www.eastwood.com/rustproofing-an ... ystem.html

[Russ]

This is what I plan on using. Eastwood has the best reviews for most of their products (especially rust products), and I've had nothing but good come from their company.

http://www.eastwood.com/rustproofing-an ... ystem.html

I bought that same gun from Eastwood but without the undercoating and used Rustoleum paint with it.

I haven't heard anyone mention this before, but one more area on Sweptlines that needs attention, at least it did on mine, is the area under the inside top of the bed, on wide beds under the flat area where the top folds over. When they painted mine at the factory they just painted what they could see and there was no paint on the inside top rail. I wire brushed mine and then treated it with Ospho. Then I used a cut off paint brush and Eastwood paint to coat the inside lip that turns down and sprayed the rest using a touchup gun. Another time consuming and messy job but it needs to be done.

I have to disagree with JeffC about his caution against using fiberglass. I've used it before on old trucks and never had any problem with it, and I used fiberglass resin in a couple of areas on my current truck to coat some areas that I thought needed more protection than paint would provide. Just don't use it for structural repairs or to build an entire floor pan.

[Hobcobble]

I have to disagree with JeffC about his caution against using fiberglass. I've used it before on old trucks and never had any problem with it, and I used fiberglass resin in a couple of areas on my current truck to coat some areas that I thought needed more protection than paint would provide. Just don't use it for structural repairs or to build an entire floor pan.

I'd like to throw in a "regional climate caution" on this one. In our climate, depending on how often
you drive a vehicle with fiberglass panel repairs, the road salt will "pop" these areas out pretty
quickly. In the more temperate and hot/dry climates..... its probably not as much of an issue.
I could also see in Jeffc's region.... with a good amount of rain and humidity.... there could be
more of an issue with using fiberglass to do panel repair work. Ideally.... metal is the
better way to go if you can do it or afford to have it done for you. Depending on
which part of the Midwest Dodgeb1b is moving to.... road salt might very well be an issue if the
truck is driven past November....
John

[Hobcobble]

oh i forgot to mention, hobcobble, yes i plan on repainting it but it wont be for a few years, untill then it will rock the bullet holes! heck, i might just leave the ones inside the cab for good measure!

The cab holes could be used to run a CB antenna cable out of.
John

[Russ]

When I said I used fiberglass I only meant I used the resin to coat some areas that I thought needed something a little more durable than paint. It can be mixed for a slow cure so that you can inject it into some areas where you can't otherwise get to to apply any other durable coating. I've never had it to separate from any place where I used it, but I've never used it on the exterior of a vehicle. I don't use it with the matting to actually build a panel or patch a hole.

[SpecialOrder66D100]

Fiberglass has it uses...

It's pretty terrible for rust repair though. What usually happens is the area will rust out around where it was fiberglassed ...

[Jeffc]

Fiberglass has it uses...

It's pretty terrible for rust repair though. What usually happens is the area will rust out around where it was fiberglassed ...

and then the edges of the resin will pull away from the metal (or metal will rust away from the glass) and let water under it and hold it there, seen it happen many times and I used resin and resin and glass in years past before I knew better.... were I live rain is a fact-of-life and now they have started to use some salt on the roads when there is ice


Agree , the problem with resin and/or glass is that it by itself will not kill rust and any rust that is not killed with a rust killing agent and sealed (por or eastwood or the like) will just keep rusting, untill there is no metal to rust.

[Russ]

"I used resin and resin and glass in years past before I knew better...."

I guess I'm just a slow learner. I have used fiberglass occasionally since my first car in 1956. It's been satisfactory and held up well in every case. I'm 68 now and still don't know better......