For Those Who Have Dealt With This, Chime In

[Terrorist 5.0]

Hi everyone, I know about the rust issues that the Fox platform suffers from, mainly by the strut towers and frame rails in front, and have been monitoring mine.
Pictured is the drivers side. Every 6 months or so, I spray the area thoroughly, dry it off, and spray it with fluid film. Seems to work pretty well. From the engine bay side, rust is very minimal. I am not concerned with this amount of rust, seems like mostly surface rust, but for those who have had it worse than this, or have had to deal with it, what was the process? How bad did it get before you decided to do something about it? How much did it cost? Did a shop do it or did you? I am curious because seeing this amount of rust, which causes me no concern whatsoever right now, likely will grow to be a concern within the next decade probably. The car sees no snow, which I know is a huge help with salt and all that. Let me know what your experiences have been.

 

[whiplash473]

Spraying it with Fluid Film like you're doing will probably buy you another decade. I wouldn't worry about it.

Fixing it isn't rocket science but a mountain of work. The only way I could see, aside from fabbing it yourself, would be to cut the area out of a donor car. At which point you might as well just weld on the entire front clip. At which point you might want to just look for another car, unless this is your "forever" car.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Spraying it with Fluid Film like you're doing will probably buy you another decade. I wouldn't worry about it.

Fixing it isn't rocket science but a mountain of work. The only way I could see, aside from fabbing it yourself, would be to cut the area out of a donor car. At which point you might as well just weld on the entire front clip. At which point you might want to just look for another car, unless this is your "forever" car.

Thank you for that, while the rust doesn’t concern me, it definitely makes me feel better seeing that others don’t think it is bad too. I hope for the car to stay with me for a long time. Me and my family aren’t the type to run through cars. We keep them for around a decade, sometimes more.

Although one thing. These rust from the inside out don’t they? I’m sure the fluid film helps, but is the rust not occurring inside the fragment rails? I’ve read up on this quite a bit before I bought the car, and remembered that it is a lack of drainage that causes this.

Anyway, while I’m here, I might as well ask. Any other spots that these cars are known to rust out? I know the trunks do, but mine is clean. I even wire wheeled it and painted it black to keep it that way.

 

[RossA81]

Have you considered sanding/wire wheeling it, spraying with a rust converter, etc, and painting it? Seems like it may be best to get rid of that surface rust before it spreads/gets deeper. "Fluid Film" may also be locking in any moisture that is there.

Ross

 

[whiplash473]

Thank you for that, while the rust doesn’t concern me, it definitely makes me feel better seeing that others don’t think it is bad too. I hope for the car to stay with me for a long time. Me and my family aren’t the type to run through cars. We keep them for around a decade, sometimes more.

It's not bad. That area looks the same on my car from before it got relieved from winter duty. It's been like twelve years and still looks the same. But take that with a gigantic grain of salt because my car doesn't even get taken out in the rain anymore. At any rate, I wouldn't worry about it if you're treating it as you are.

Although one thing. These rust from the inside out don’t they? I’m sure the fluid film helps, but is the rust not occurring inside the fragment rails? I’ve read up on this quite a bit before I bought the car, and remembered that it is a lack of drainage that causes this.

Everything rusts from the inside out, really. The rust forms in that area because the fender liner doesn't cover it. So snow, salt, and water get slung up from the tires and sit on that shelf. I'm sure there is rust inside the frame rails but likely nothing to be concerned about if you can't see it coming through anywhere.

Anyway, while I’m here, I might as well ask. Any other spots that these cars are known to rust out? I know the trunks do, but mine is clean. I even wire wheeled it and painted it black to keep it that way.

Mine has a bunch of rust in the bottom of the 1/4 panel in the trunk.

Rust in the trunk project. Any suggestions?

After spotting some rust in my trunk. Unfortunately I found this after some deeper digging. When I saw it all I could think about was what the hell Ford. It makes me want to cry but I won't lol instead I'll have a beer or two while I figure out what to do. I'm pretty sure there are a few routes...

www.sn95forums.com

Like this ^ but not nearly as bad. If I kept driving it in the winter it would be but not being in the salt will keep it at bay for a long, long time.


EDIT: Apparently I forgot how bad mine was. I ended up coming across my own posts from some years back. Scroll down to post #9 to see some pictures of mine. Although mine was made even worse by the shorty headers that the previous owner installed that were hitting the strut tower.

Corrosion advice?

I just removed the air filter housing to get to left hand bank spark plugs and noticed this lurking at the bottom of the strut tower... I can see a bit on the drivers side tower too but it's obviously obscured by all the electronic boxes. Has England been unkind to my Mustang or is this a...

www.sn95forums.com

 

[whiplash473]

Have you considered sanding/wire wheeling it, spraying with a rust converter, etc, and painting it? Seems like it may be best to get rid of that surface rust before it spreads/gets deeper. "Fluid Film" may also be locking in any moisture that is there.

Ross

This is also a good idea, with the exception of the Fluid Film locking in the moisture. This is the biggest benefit of a lanolin coating over a traditional undercoat - it moves. Typical undercoat chips, moisture gets under it, and it rots. If a lanolin coating gets a chip it sort of oozes back to normal.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Have you considered sanding/wire wheeling it, spraying with a rust converter, etc, and painting it? Seems like it may be best to get rid of that surface rust before it spreads/gets deeper. "Fluid Film" may also be locking in any moisture that is there.

Ross

I have considered getting rid of the rust and spraying it with something. I even tried scraping around with a small pry bar to loosen up anything, and it is barely starting to bubble. Only thing is the shock is in the way and I don’t want to take it out just for this. I may try to work around it, but it is going to be before I reapply the fluid film as I just applied it.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

It's not bad. That area looks the same on my car from before it got relieved from winter duty. It's been like twelve years and still looks the same. But take that with a gigantic grain of salt because my car doesn't even get taken out in the rain anymore. At any rate, I wouldn't worry about it if you're treating it as you are.



Everything rusts from the inside out, really. The rust forms in that area because the fender liner doesn't cover it. So snow, salt, and water get slung up from the tires and sit on that shelf. I'm sure there is rust inside the frame rails but likely nothing to be concerned about if you can't see it coming through anywhere.



Mine has a bunch of rust in the bottom of the 1/4 panel in the trunk.

Rust in the trunk project. Any suggestions?

After spotting some rust in my trunk. Unfortunately I found this after some deeper digging. When I saw it all I could think about was what the hell Ford. It makes me want to cry but I won't lol instead I'll have a beer or two while I figure out what to do. I'm pretty sure there are a few routes...

www.sn95forums.com

Like this ^ but not nearly as bad. If I kept driving it in the winter it would be but not being in the salt will keep it at bay for a long, long time.


EDIT: Apparently I forgot how bad mine was. I ended up coming across my own posts from some years back. Scroll down to post #9 to see some pictures of mine. Although mine was made even worse by the shorty headers that the previous owner installed that were hitting the strut tower.

Corrosion advice?

I just removed the air filter housing to get to left hand bank spark plugs and noticed this lurking at the bottom of the strut tower... I can see a bit on the drivers side tower too but it's obviously obscured by all the electronic boxes. Has England been unkind to my Mustang or is this a...

www.sn95forums.com

Yeah yours is pretty bad. Mine is nowhere near that bad. Almost spotless in the engine bay.

 

[ttocs]

you might be able to buy some extra time with something like this. The long hose has the aerosol tip on the end so you can put it in a hole in the frame rail and then drag it out while painting the inside of the rail.

Eastwood Internal Frame Coating Aerosol Green

Spray coating inside chassis so it doesn't rust thru

www.eastwood.com

 

[whiplash473]

Yeah yours is pretty bad. Mine is nowhere near that bad. Almost spotless in the engine bay.

I should have clarified before - mine looked just like yours from the fender well.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

I should have clarified before - mine looked just like yours from the fender well.

Mine is pretty much spotless from inside the engine bay

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Went to investigate another problem area I noticed a while back, so I removed the rear bumper, and was greeted by a fist sized hole from the rear fender to the trunk. The wheel wells are pretty much spotless, the only real rust is where those black boxes behind the wheels are. I blame them, as they were packed full of moist dirt when I took them out. I wired most of the dirt loose, and went to town with the fluid film as I do every 6 months. Most of the rust is towards the rear of the car. The middle and front are pretty much spotless. Strange. I’m not concerned with the holes all too much, since it isn’t structural, the only thing I am concerned about is the cost to fix it, if I were to. It doesn’t seem major, and shouldn’t be a problem for a while as it is waterboarded with fluid film, isn’t structural, and is invisible when the car is together.

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Whoopsie lol, I looked wrong. It appears the guy who sold this to me painted over some of the rust and it is starting to appear. I definitely have some rot going on in the engine bay. Driver side mostly. The pinch welds are starting to separate. Boy was that a nice surprise!

 

[cobrajeff96]

Rust doesn't start from the inside out.

All ferrous metal rusts as the result of an electrolyte being present (salt being one of them). Rust penetration doesn't take long to form and by the time you're inspecting an area, you might think it rusts from the inside out just by the look of it. It's only the result of a quickened reaction due to electrolyte penetration. Rust is an electro-chemical process.

Someone may've stated it already: get the panel dry, scrape it, wire wheel it, sand it, whatever. Get rid of any rust you can see assuming it hasn't gotten so bad that it's already fully penetrated the problem area. Then, you have to block off the ingress of future electrolytes with primer/paint. If it's real bad then you're looking at surgery with new metal. I've experimented with Loctite rust converter before and it works, but you have to periodically inspect the area for sure.

What I've found over the years is that moist environments seems to promote rust building even more than straight wet environments. I had a car parked in a private detached garage for maybe two weeks. It was during the wet months. It didn't matter, rust had already started to form because of all the moisture coming up from the ground during warmer days.

My car has been in Italy for two years and Germany for a total of twelve years and I've never had a problem with rust. Maybe a spot or two of just patina here or there.

 

[MyLittlePony]

Wire wheel whatever you can reach, then paint naval jelly rust dissolver on what you can’t reach. The pink goop will turn white when it comes in contact with rust. Clean it all throughly, rubbing alcohol with a paper towel to be absolutely sure you got it all. Then spray rust to primer on it, then paint brush POR15 over it. It will seal everything and make it strong. My 94 mustang has never had a speck of rust on it, but I have a variety of 60s and 50s cars where I have done this treatment to frame off restorations.

 

[Slice]

This is also a good idea, with the exception of the Fluid Film locking in the moisture. This is the biggest benefit of a lanolin coating over a traditional undercoat - it moves. Typical undercoat chips, moisture gets under it, and it rots. If a lanolin coating gets a chip it sort of oozes back to normal.

I just use regular motor oil and it works quite well. I've been doing that all my life. I just thin it with some varsol and spray it.