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Rustproofing

Puttyandnapalm

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Last year I bought a 08 ram that the previous owner did ziebarts undercoating every year, it looks great underneath for an 11 year old Midwest vehicle.

I was probably going to the same with the gladiator when I get it.
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Hootbro

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Last year I bought a 08 ram that the previous owner did ziebarts undercoating every year, it looks great underneath for an 11 year old Midwest vehicle.

I was probably going to the same with the gladiator when I get it.
I say this with the best of intentions, do your research on that stuff. I see way more reported negative examples of it than positive. Also, if you ever plan to work on it be prepared to wade through that stuff. Some repair shops will not even service vehicle with that product on it. That stuff can hide a lot of damage.
 
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Racer5112

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I spoke with my dealership here in Iowa and also contacted a guy in Technical at Fluid Film. He was very willing to listen and go back and forth about FF and undercoating pros and cons to each. After hearing my whole story/situation, I finally asked him what he would do at the end. He said to put it plain and simple, do the undercoating at the dealership. It will be put on without being on the road and the truck will never have a better surface to protect after that. He also went on to state that I should use FF on suspension components and everywhere the undercoating was not. He said if I spray the undercoating, it will soften it and it will come off. As soon as the undercoating starts to chip and come off on its own, he said to apply FF annually all over the underside of the truck. There's also a great video on their website that shows applying FF to a truck as well. Hope this helps you guys, I know it helped me decide!
 

Astephan1284

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Anyone else seeing poor quality coating on your factory welds? It showed up like this with 48 miles on it...

A0BAAD73-6B19-44D7-83C6-D484919455D6.jpeg


6E634F0B-A774-476F-B8D7-0CB40294A750.jpeg
 
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Racer5112

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Anyone else seeing poor quality coating on your factory welds? It showed up like this with 48 miles on it...

A0BAAD73-6B19-44D7-83C6-D484919455D6.jpeg


6E634F0B-A774-476F-B8D7-0CB40294A750.jpeg
Man, that sucks! Start spraying Fluid Film on it to stop the rust!
 

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Hootbro

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Anyone else seeing poor quality coating on your factory welds? It showed up like this with 48 miles on it...

A0BAAD73-6B19-44D7-83C6-D484919455D6.jpeg


6E634F0B-A774-476F-B8D7-0CB40294A750.jpeg
Yeah, that is slag leftover from the welding. E coating does not stick to it well. The actual welds themselves look pretty good though. Been a noted since the JL came out.
 

OneTraveler

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Anyone actually have a pic of the underside of a Gladiator that has had an undercoating from the dealer applied? Living in wet AK I decided to money was a worthwhile investment (wasn’t too expensive...cheap insurance both mentally and actually). Due to some weirdness right at the end, I’m not sure the undercoating was actually applied. Hadn’t thought about it until the other day while I was crawling under it looking at some electrical wiring. By my eyes, I’d say it wasn’t. Would love to see what one that positively had it done so I could compare.
 

JP15

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Anyone actually have a pic of the underside of a Gladiator that has had an undercoating from the dealer applied? Living in wet AK I decided to money was a worthwhile investment (wasn’t too expensive...cheap insurance both mentally and actually). Due to some weirdness right at the end, I’m not sure the undercoating was actually applied. Hadn’t thought about it until the other day while I was crawling under it looking at some electrical wiring. By my eyes, I’d say it wasn’t. Would love to see what one that positively had it done so I could compare.
I got the undercoating from the dealership as part of a Mopar Protection Package and received my confirmation of registration in the mail the other day. The warranty on the undercoating is good until 2049 and no dealer inspections required. I read the information they provided about it and it's wax based...much different than the undercoating I got in 2015 on my JKUR from a different dealer where you can actually see the coating underneath. I looked underneath before and really didn't notice it but because it's different than the undercoating I'm used to seeing not sure how visible it should be.

I took a couple bolts off for adding mud flaps and notice half the bolt head was costed with something so they might have been the wax undercoat product.

Do you know if it was the Mopar product they used?
 

Comancheman

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I live down in salty southern Louisiana and I spray a 16 oz can of corrosion-X about every month. The air is salty down here not to mention half the puddles are salt water. Cleaning regularly and trying my best to spray down after driving in puddles. Good luck so far, I just don't want it to look like my jk when I traded it in
 

ShadowsPapa

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I live in Iowa, always have. I also collect and restore classic cars. My Eagle had the Ziebart applied by AMC - it was a factory thing.
My 70 Javelin had dealer undercoating.
Love the negative comments - the dealer undercoating on that Javelin protected it SO well the driveshaft was shiny rust-free steel when I pulled it and cleaned off the undercoating for a restoration. Even the factory paint stripes (a sort of code for the shafts) was still there. The front springs had the stuff on them and when I stripped those I found the factory part number labels - and when I powder coated the springs I didn't have to do hardly any rust removal at all - the springs were pretty darned fresh looking. The floor? Rust-free. Rear springs and differential had rust - but no undercoating.
My Eagle? NO RUST AT ALL save for the areas where the fenders joined the rocker panels, where they bolted on, there was no undercoating or Ziebart and there was some rust starting (it was a California car). That's also an area the factory used ZINC to rust-proof. No the factory stuff isn't always enough - if it were, well, I'd see fewer cars and trucks that are only 10 years old (or less) with holes in them.
I'm working on another Eagle SX4 and the only rust is has is where dirt got between the over-lapping floor panels and kept things wet. I've since patched those spots.
My 73 Javelin - no undercoating - just the factory sound deadening tar, rusty sills and trunk and the gussets under the fenders are partly eaten away.
No undercoating on my 95 F250 and the rust was horrible - frame, brake lines, all eaten by flaky rust.
It was the first truck I bought with no undercoating.
I have restored iron and steel things since I was a teen -antique stationary gas engines, tractors, now cars and car parts.
I use rust converter products (like Extend and so on) and I use self-etching primers, epoxy primers and I undercoat things.
My 82 SX4 remains rust free since I restored it.
I've had several vehicles treated by the dealerships - undercoating and so on. As an automotive professional (nationally known for my work), I will continue to do so.
Eastwood sells some decent products to prevent or treat rust.
One big thing you can do aside from the protection is to keep things CLEAN - and keep DRAIN HOLES open. Many areas have drains that plug with sand, silt and crud like tree seeds, leaves and so on. Keep things clean and dry. Rust is oxide of iron and needs certain things to take place.
Once there's rust, the very best product I've used are the converters - they are organic tannin based products that literally convert the rust to an inert material you can then prime and paint over. One of my cars was repainted 13 years ago and the small rust areas, mostly surface and minor rust, were treated with Extend. To this day - no trace of returning rust.

Iowa SLIMES the roads. The slime is slicker than some ice! It's like grease. Des Moines applies it to the point of PUDDLES in the road - it leaves a horrible white residue all over cars.

Gladiator on order.........
 

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Racer5112

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I live in Iowa, always have. I also collect and restore classic cars. My Eagle had the Ziebart applied by AMC - it was a factory thing.
My 70 Javelin had dealer undercoating.
Love the negative comments - the dealer undercoating on that Javelin protected it SO well the driveshaft was shiny rust-free steel when I pulled it and cleaned off the undercoating for a restoration. Even the factory paint stripes (a sort of code for the shafts) was still there. The front springs had the stuff on them and when I stripped those I found the factory part number labels - and when I powder coated the springs I didn't have to do hardly any rust removal at all - the springs were pretty darned fresh looking. The floor? Rust-free. Rear springs and differential had rust - but no undercoating.
My Eagle? NO RUST AT ALL save for the areas where the fenders joined the rocker panels, where they bolted on, there was no undercoating or Ziebart and there was some rust starting (it was a California car). That's also an area the factory used ZINC to rust-proof. No the factory stuff isn't always enough - if it were, well, I'd see fewer cars and trucks that are only 10 years old (or less) with holes in them.
I'm working on another Eagle SX4 and the only rust is has is where dirt got between the over-lapping floor panels and kept things wet. I've since patched those spots.
My 73 Javelin - no undercoating - just the factory sound deadening tar, rusty sills and trunk and the gussets under the fenders are partly eaten away.
No undercoating on my 95 F250 and the rust was horrible - frame, brake lines, all eaten by flaky rust.
It was the first truck I bought with no undercoating.
I have restored iron and steel things since I was a teen -antique stationary gas engines, tractors, now cars and car parts.
I use rust converter products (like Extend and so on) and I use self-etching primers, epoxy primers and I undercoat things.
My 82 SX4 remains rust free since I restored it.
I've had several vehicles treated by the dealerships - undercoating and so on. As an automotive professional (nationally known for my work), I will continue to do so.
Eastwood sells some decent products to prevent or treat rust.
One big thing you can do aside from the protection is to keep things CLEAN - and keep DRAIN HOLES open. Many areas have drains that plug with sand, silt and crud like tree seeds, leaves and so on. Keep things clean and dry. Rust is oxide of iron and needs certain things to take place.
Once there's rust, the very best product I've used are the converters - they are organic tannin based products that literally convert the rust to an inert material you can then prime and paint over. One of my cars was repainted 13 years ago and the small rust areas, mostly surface and minor rust, were treated with Extend. To this day - no trace of returning rust.

Iowa SLIMES the roads. The slime is slicker than some ice! It's like grease. Des Moines applies it to the point of PUDDLES in the road - it leaves a horrible white residue all over cars.

Gladiator on order.........
I may be close to you! I'm in Norwalk, IA.

My 61 Falcon has factory undercoating on it and still is pretty solid. There were a few rust spots on it when I got it, but it could have been A LOT worse!

My 80 Dodge Colt wagon is completely rust free. It has undercoating as well, but it was an AZ car almost all of it's life as well.

I plan on undercoating my Gladiator and doing Fluid Film to other spots that the undercoating doesn't cover. Hopefully DSM will get something else figured out for road protection some day...
 

ShadowsPapa

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Yeah, I catch Highway 5, head west, then can take an exit west of the DSM Register building and head south and get there in about 30 minutes or less. I used to know a couple of folks in that area. I think the Slaters live around Norwalk, and used to work with a Heidi Lackman from that area (if I spelled her name right)
 

Cape taco12

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Just applied woolwax from the $100ish DIY kit that had (1 gallon in (4) bottles the spray gun with extension wand) hooked it up to my compressor ran it at 110PSI after I let the bottles sit at about 75 degrees for a few days. Outside temp 30 degrees. Only used a half gallon.

it was super easy I like how it was so thick that it barely made any overspray. The only thing that was hard was to get a perfectly even layer not that it matters.

Tip:Spray in the frame rail And add a lot of material with the top first then use the extension wand to spread it/add more for the inside. Sucks on the passenger side the fuel tank skid contraption makes it nearly impossible to coat.


I went much thicker than I suppose I have to. I did some testing with my marine trailer if you get it thick and shoot it with the hose the excess comes off a thin layer still stays. I guess we will see how well it works.
D0439EBA-DDDE-4D91-8C4B-0BC756169A8F.jpeg
 

Beowulf85

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Will fluid film strip the factory black paint from the bottom of the gladiator? Says on the website it can soften some paints and cause peeling. Anyone experience that?
 
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Racer5112

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Will fluid film strip the factory black paint from the bottom of the gladiator? Says on the website it can soften some paints and cause peeling. Anyone experience that?
Copied from above...

I spoke with my dealership here in Iowa and also contacted a guy in Technical at Fluid Film. He was very willing to listen and go back and forth about FF and undercoating pros and cons to each. After hearing my whole story/situation, I finally asked him what he would do at the end. He said to put it plain and simple, do the undercoating at the dealership. It will be put on without being on the road and the truck will never have a better surface to protect after that. He also went on to state that I should use FF on suspension components and everywhere the undercoating was not. He said if I spray the undercoating, it will soften it and it will come off. As soon as the undercoating starts to chip and come off on its own, he said to apply FF annually all over the underside of the truck. There's also a great video on their website that shows applying FF to a truck as well. Hope this helps you guys, I know it helped me decide!
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