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#$@%@# rust

Mastiff

Mastiff

1/2 ton status
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Jul 21, 2002
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Tucson, AZ
This is why I moved to Tucson. I have a 1996 M1008 CUCV, product of Ohio. A few days ago I get in to go and immediately notice the brake pedal has way too much play. A little investigation shows that the drum side of the master cylinder is empty and there is a leak at the drivers side rear slave cylinder, right where the hard line enters.

I figure, I'll replace the slave cylinder and all will be well. This is a 14BFF, so out comes the axle, then some retaining stuff and a 50 pound rust ball of a gigantic drum. The bolts holding the slave cylinder in place are rusted to hell and immediately round out. Now my best idea is to pull off the whole backing plate so I can actually gain access the to bolt heads and maybe grind them off. To do this, I'll need to get the brake line off and of course it is corroded too and won't come loose... since the leak looks like it may well be from the line itself, now I figure I'll have to replace that line back to the splitter anyway, so I'll cut it to free the backing plate. Tracing it back, the line is pretty rusty at the splitter too, will I be able to get that free?

I'm going to have to end up replacing the entire brake system up to the master cylinder before this ever ends! :mad: Moral of the story: pay the extra money for the non-rusted option. Fixing rusted vehicles is not fun at all.
 
Welcome to my world....

Same dilema on my plow truck I am facing..every part from the master cylinder back to the rear axle needs replacing,every steel brake line,wheel cylinders,rubber hoses are cracked and the metal ends on them are so crispy a good stomp on the pedal will grenade them too..the rear leaf spring shackle on the passenger side was tissue paper thin,I noticed that after hauling a good 1500 lbs of old deck boards a few weeks ago--when I went to remove the bolts,it twisted in two like it was tin foil!..:eek:..the spring plate under the u-bolts rotted away in the middle,only two strips remain where the u-bolt nuts bear against them!..(I got some used plates and u-bolts from a member here,still need to install them though)...my oil pan rotted thru 3 years ago,ever since then J-B Waterweld putty is all thats keeping the oil in it!..
I have a good used pan,but am reluctant to install it myself lying on the ground..might opt to have my friend do it on his lift and pay him instead..

This '82 K2500 was in very decent shape when I got it in 2003 --still had paint on the frame,no rot at all in the floors,the roof had some though,and it appears a tree might have caved in the roof at some point,its got at least 1" of bondo all over it,and a visor was put on to hide the rust around the windsheild..but now the frame has sheets of flaky rot peeling off like delaminated plywood,the cab mounts are rusted thru in places,and the exhaust manifolds look absolutely horrible,big chunks are coming off and they must be paper thin in places..(ones on my '85 Suburban look no better,but at least someone undercoated the crap out of the undersides of that thing,and it came from WA state and VT,so it didn't get blasted with calcium cloride --the body panels are bubbly and "ripe" in a few places though)..

I get SO pissed off at rust..nothing you can do to stop its progress,you can only slow it down some at best..without fail, EVERY mechanical problem with all of my vehicles is rust related--I dont wear anything out,it simply ROTS out ..I have to replace brake lines,tranny & fuel lines on a yearly basis,and soon I wont have a truck WORTH all the expense and agony of fixing...as you well know,nothing sucks worse that trying to unbolt something,when every bolt now is a RIVET with NO hex on it for wrenches to grab,and its always the worst one to reach a "bolt extractor" cant be hammered onto that you cant take off..and torches cant always be used around rusted gas tanks and where lots of undercoating was..nothing like having to DRILL out every busted off exhaust stud that snapped off after being whittled down to nothing by rust either..

I want to move to Tuscon too,and buy an old truck THERE,and leave all my rotted s***boxes here ...I want to cry when I think of all the money and effort I wasted patching old rotted vehicles back together,only to see your efforts turn to crap in 5 years and you end up having to sell or scrap them anyway..I had some NICE vehicles that would have been worth ten grand apeice that litterally rotted away to nothing,despite anal care and trying NOT to let that happen..
Must be nice to live somewhere where you can let things sit 25 years and still not be rusty...
 
I had a Jeep TJ for 10-12 years in Iowa and it was doing really well. During the winter I would pressure wash the underside constantly, like whenever it got above or close to freezing. That was a 1998 vehicle though and I think they did a better job painting the panels (dip the whole thing?) by then. My 83 K5 started rusting in just a few years after being rust free in Arizona for 13 years. I got it repainted and never drove it in the winter again.

It's going to be a sad day when I need to give up on this old CUCV. I've spent a lot of time getting it up and going reliably and everyone who sees it says "cool truck!". But if you take a pressure washer to the underside flakes of rust fly everywhere. Maybe being in Tucson will be enough to save it.
 
You know it is so weird to hear you Northern folks complain about rust. From listening here, I realize I had no idea what it was like up there.

I have fought rust all my life, living here on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
On that beach, air conditioner radiators last about 5 or so years if you have them mounted so the sea air does not blow directly on them.

I once saw a unit where the compressor housing rusted a hole in it. And its almost 1/4 steel.

Just a few miles North, they never heard of rust like we have. Lower Ga. you see equipment 10 years old without a speck of rust.

My late trailer building friend had what you folks need.
He made primarily aluminum trailers. But he kept getting requests for hot dip galvanized ones.
They would be cheaper. Might not last as long on the beach, but should last almost forever fishing fresh water.

Of course, the problem is, you have to dip it after you build it.

One day I pulled up to his shop, and he had a big sign that said " We can hot dip galvanize ANYTHING."

I told him that was a bold statement, he grinned and informed me he could dip my pickup truck.
Complete.
I was driving the F150 I had before this one, so that was impressive.

It seems he had found someone over in Texas that had a huge vat.
I don't know who it was, or how big the vat was, but he sent over a ton of trailers, some of which would handle a 30 foot boat, and they all came back galvanized.
Thick galvanize too.

So, if you folks could find someone like that, the next time you have your truck down to the frame for a rebuild, just bead blast the frame, braze in or weld in new metal where needed in the body and bead blast it, and just have everything hot dip galvanized.
 
I get mine from the south now. Unfortunately, I still have to fix rust on stuff I bought before I got smart. And I try not to drive them in the winter, only two get sacrificed in the bad season, my Ohio-born S-10 and my Suburban. The Suburban came up from Texas shortly before I bought it 5 years ago, but it looks like every other Ohio truck now:(
 
I love rust.It makes cars and trucks cheep enough so I can afford them.:haha:
 
One nice thing about living in the northeast is that you can get away w/o the AC option. But keeping things high and dry is the most practical way of keeping the rust at bay. I'd like to drop a whole cab in a galvanizing tank and see how that works out :thinking:.
 
When I patch up rotted areas on my trucks I use galvanized metal,usually stuff like old heating ducts or new galvanized stove pipe...even left unpainted it takes forever for it to rust--unless the road salt gets on it,then it attacks it and it'll eventually rust too..I've had my cab rust BEYOND the area I patched (even though it appeared perfect when I did the patching and was sure to go far enough beyond the rotted area to get to good solid metal...one floor patch I did ,in three years,I was able to litteraly tear it out by hand in one peice,all the steel I had welded and riveted it too rotted right around the edges of the patch!..

Another item on my trucks that litteraly dissolve is the GLOW PLUGS..I bought a new set in 2004 for my '82 K2500's 6.2,and not even three years later,they were so rotted a 3/8" wrench wouldn't grab them any more--they looked like 40 year old bleeder screws on a caliper,two I busted off trying to remove them,luckily I was able to grab the tiny stub sticking out of the block with a bolt extractor and since I had not torqued the piss out of them and used never-seize,they did come out..but geez,the 28 year old originals came right out and looked like new (though they didn't glow any more)--they looked like they were stainless steel,the new AC 60g's I got sure werent..
My valve covers are rusty on both of my diesels too--and all of the injector lines and oil cooler lines are encrusted and ready to pop any day too..:(...

I think its better to have a leaking "Valdez" of an engine than one with no leaks...my '79 Bonanza had a straight six and its valve & side covers oozed oil forever,the engine compartment and firewall and up under the cab was saturated with oil as a result...the sheet metal on that truck was dam near pristine!..inner fenders were like new ,but grimy..I made the mistake of steam cleaning a cars engine compartment that was a "leaker"--within 6 months after blasting all the oil & grease off,it was so rusted I felt like a dam fool for not leaving it slimy..:(
 
Look on the bright side. I'd rather find out about a brake line failure in the driveway than on the road.
 
might not be a bad time to invest in Stainless steel lines.... might last a little longer!!!

i will have to probably do the exact same thing with all the Michigan Caterpillers eating away at the metal here...

Ck1500
 
Ck1500 said:
might not be a bad time to invest in Stainless steel lines.... might last a little longer!!!

i will have to probably do the exact same thing with all the Michigan Caterpillers eating away at the metal here...

Ck1500
Click to expand...

Well, being in Tucson now, stuff lasts forever... I ordered a pre-bent stainless line for my K5 a while back. I can't remember where I got it. Anyone know who makes them? I thought it was Classic Tube or Inline Tube, but I couldn't find truck applications on their sites.
 
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