Rear bumper rust around tow hooks

[mtudb24]

What the hell is up with this? 20K miles and the factory bumper insert around the tow hook is rusting. Same on the passenger side where I added a 2nd hook. Only had to cut out the plastic and no metal cutting for that one.
Anybody else have this?

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[troopertrek]

It’s not the bumper, it’s the frame ends. I had it too. Easy fix. Remove bumper, do some light sanding, prep and repaint with something better.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

It’s not the bumper, it’s the frame ends. I had it too. Easy fix. Remove bumper, do some light sanding, prep and repaint with something better.

Agree - but personally, for me, I'd take it one step further -
I'd do the light sanding, then I'd spray it with EXTEND, then I'd paint it after 24 hours. The Extend will convert the rust to an inert substance that stops the rust and can be painted over like a primer.
I've used it on car restoration for years.

 

[troopertrek]

Agree - but personally, for me, I'd take it one step further -
I'd do the light sanding, then I'd spray it with EXTEND, then I'd paint it after 24 hours. The Extend will convert the rust to an inert substance that stops the rust and can be painted over like a primer.
I've used it on car restoration for years.

I used Eastwood after cleaning up the minor surface rust. After it cured I painted with AEV textured black paint. It now looks exactly like the finish on the bumper.

 

[mtudb24]

I hear ya all and i know frame rust underneath and out of direct sightline is common, but this just glares SHIT to me. Nothing in direct line of sight should be rusting like this... They should have a filler panel around it if its gonna do this. Just my opinion
I have a 2005 Chevy ZR2 blazer in the garage that shows less rust then this

 

[troopertrek]

I hear ya all and i know frame rust underneath and out of direct sightline is common, but this just glares SHIT to me. Nothing in direct line of sight should be rusting like this... They should have a filler panel around it if its gonna do this. Just my opinion
I have a 2005 Chevy ZR2 blazer in the garage that shows less rust then this

The rust on mine had already started when I drove it off the lot with less than 25 miles on the odometer. I noticed it and knew I would need to address the issue. All of this kind of stuff is annoying, I’ll give you that, and they should be using better paint in that area. In reality, most people don’t care. I do, and obviously so do those reading this thread. An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. I personally have used cavity coater inside the frame rails and have sprayed down pretty much everything under the truck with fluid film. For me, it’s worth the effort, even if I don’t plan to keep it forever. I think a dingy, rusty undercarriage looks like garbage.

 

[troopertrek]

And now for the obligatory Gladiator picture because… Gladiator. I can’t seem to find any straight on from the rear pics, but you can see in the zoomed in version that the area around the tow hook is good to go now.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I like to convert rather than "encapsulate".
Here's what I use and have used for a couple of decades now.
I always have 2 or 3 cans on hand as well as a bottle of the liquid version I apply with a brush where sprays don't work well.

Any good converter is based on tannin. It is an acid that literally convert ferric oxide to ferric tannate. It's an inert material but must be protected from moisture - thus, the paint after it's done converting.

Always shake the can, don't soak the parts and don't spray until it runs off. If you follow the directions, it works great. I used it on certain parts of my 70 Javelin (the windshield pinch weld area where the drains had plugged and water sat in the channel after a rain.
15 years later - no rust.

I've used it on my SX4 which is to this day virtually rust-free. The CA sun baked the paint off all horizontal surfaces. So the roof had started to form surface rust. I have also used it on other restorations I do for others.

In an area like the frame ends where it's not exposed to scraping and road rash, etc. - it would last longer than you keep the truck. (well, unless this is the last Jeep you'll ever own)

The Canadian Conservation Institute uses their own home-brew version on restorations of antique iron work. I first ran across these methods in the 1980s and have used variations for restoration of my antique engine collection as well. (I use electrolysis for rust removal from steel and iron)

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I used Eastwood after cleaning up the minor surface rust. After it cured I painted with AEV textured black paint. It now looks exactly like the finish on the bumper.

Might be similar to the SEM textured black I've used on parts of my show car where I needed to fix a ding in a bumper protector. You can't buy them so I filled the ding and sprayed the texture on. Good match for the bumper textures on these, too, I'd bet.
It would blend in better than a glossy or semi-gloss black would and indeed look like part of the bumper.

 

[troopertrek]

Eastwood Rust Converter is the product I used for this project, not the encapsulator.

 

[troopertrek]

Might be similar to the SEM textured black I've used on parts of my show car where I needed to fix a ding in a bumper protector. You can't buy them so I filled the ding and sprayed the texture on. Good match for the bumper textures on these, too, I'd bet.
It would blend in better than a glossy or semi-gloss black would and indeed look like part of the bumper.

The AEV stuff is a very close match for the steel bumpers. If you take your time and blend/feather the edges it’s very difficult tell a difference.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Eastwood Rust Converter is the product I used for this project, not the encapsulator.

Likely the same chemistry as Extend. I've used their other products for years - metal prep, among other things. I use the metal prep to put on a phosphate coating before powder coating things that otherwise tend to rust before I can get to coating them.
Then there's their metal wash I use in my tumblers.
It has more than doubled in price in the last couple of years.
I used the metal wash on the roof of a car I was prepping for paint thinking I would get back to it in 3 or 4 weeks - the car sat in my shop almost all winter and that stuff still prevented rust on that bare steel roof. In the tumbler it helps degrease and protects the metal parts from flash rusting when removed from the wet tumbling media.
Their products are generally good, I really like their paints and clears for engine bays and other car parts.

 

[troopertrek]

Might be similar to the SEM textured black I've used on parts of my show car where I needed to fix a ding in a bumper protector. You can't buy them so I filled the ding and sprayed the texture on. Good match for the bumper textures on these, too, I'd bet.
It would blend in better than a glossy or semi-gloss black would and indeed look like part of the bumper.

Come to think of it, the rear left corner of that bumper (as shown) has been touched up/blended with the AEV paint. Turns out off! insect spray is really, really bad for painted finishes.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Come to think of it, the rear left corner of that bumper (as shown) has been touched up/blended with the AEV paint. Turns out off! insect spray is really, really bad for painted finishes.

I wonder how good it is for humans sometimes......

So, was your truck getting bitten out there in the sticks?

 

[troopertrek]

I wonder how good it is for humans sometimes......

So, was your truck getting bitten out there in the sticks?

Ha! Nope, my wife or daughter (never determined which one) was shaking an almost empty can to use before playing. The almost empty can spat and splattered instead of spraying a fine aerosol. Some splatter ended up on the bumper which wasn’t discovered until later. When I first saw it, it looked like bird droppings. The chemical had compromised the coating on the bumper to the extent that you could scratch it off with your fingernail.

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