Rust

johnny_posc · **Joined:** Sun May 30, 2010 8:43 pm **Posts:** 69

My mechanic had commented a while ago that there seemed to be a lot of rust on the underside of my liberty. And the question in mind persists as to "What would be considered a lot of rust". I crawled under it yesterday and some of the weld seams and other areas were rusted as well as the front crossmember that runs under or near the tranny and the bottom portion of the suspension components on the front wells. There arent any holes rusted through but it looks like some rough surface rust.

I'm just wondering what the underside of some other KJ's looks like to know if mine is really in bad shape or normally for its age. Its a 2003 with roughly 93000 miles on it. I've only driven it for the past 10,000 so I'm not sure what the previous own did.

I'll try and get some pictures to post.

bgcarl01 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:36 pm

I looked at a lot of Libertys before purchasing mine. I looked under a 2003, two 2005's and a 2007 that I can distinctly remember. The mufflers on all but one all looked the same rustwise. This surprised me most of all. Also the crossmembers like you mentioned looked pretty rusty as well in all of them. You have to spend some time under there to prevent it, and if the previous owner didn't even know how to change oil, you can bet they weren't ever under their rigs. I try to spend each June underneath everything I own with a grinder and a bucket of bedliner/undercoating. You'll find that the cheap stuff holds on okay for about a year. (Wal-Mart special stuff.) But the good stuff only needs to be patched here and there due to a lot of road grime spraying it like a sanblaster or scraping it against rocks. I've done this even in my front wheel drive cars. As long as no through holes, you can still save it from future rust. However, don't just hide it from sight with stuff over the top of the rust. That won't work.

liquidxit2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2011 2:48 pm

There really is no way to prevent rust without spending lots of money and to be quite frank auto makers wont spend it. You could get the whole undercarage linex'd after fixing the rust, but still there are ways for rust to facilitate. Sad reality.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:31 pm

No rust under my 04 and that's with 154,000 miles and lots of salted roads

Main thing to do is keeping it clean, no matter if its 20 below or just out 4 wheeling for the day. I always laugh at the ones running around for a week with mud caked everywhere like they did something great. All they are doing is giving rust a chance to start.
Also spray paint is cheap, twice a year spring and fall I paint everything underneath.
I have worked on a few that was rusted solid underneath almost, won't mention names but some are lifted now :ROTFL:

Kdabbagh · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:28 pm

I have an 03 with almost 120K, and until this year it was in Indiana with salted roads. looking under it recently i noticed rust forming on the body underneath. thought of usinging some rhino-liner type stuff or something but heard that if water does get underneath it, it can hide the rust and maybe make it worse this may just be hearsay.

Anyway i decided to take a wirebrush to everything underneath, taking extra attention to rust spots with it. Then wiped it all clean with soapy water and sprayed the whole underbody with some Rustoleum. a lot of hard to reach places under there, i know it may just end up flaking off or getting worn off over time but the parts i was most concerned about was up around the gas tank area that seems to be more out of the way of debris.

Here is the result, still need some touching up and still need to do the front of the vehicle ( 3-4 cans wasnt enough)

http://img863.imageshack.us/i/img20110426183933.jpg/
http://img829.imageshack.us/i/img20110426183947.jpg/
http://img827.imageshack.us/i/img20110426184026.jpg/

:JEEPIN:

liquidxit2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:25 pm

tommudd wrote:

No rust under my 04 and that's with 154,000 miles and lots of salted roads

Main thing to do is keeping it clean, no matter if its 20 below or just out 4 wheeling for the day. I always laugh at the ones running around for a week with mud caked everywhere like they did something great. All they are doing is giving rust a chance to start.
Also spray paint is cheap, twice a year spring and fall I paint everything underneath.
I have worked on a few that was rusted solid underneath almost, won't mention names but some are lifted now :ROTFL:

Exactly. I wash my jeep every 2 weeks to once a month depending on the weather (if it snows I get a wash when if dries up). I get a touchless rainx wash that uses high pressure water and does a great under carriage cleaning too. During the warmer months I hand wash pretty often.

But still even with all that, there are voids and pockets that can collect grime and eat away at the finish and oxidize. Granted care helps fight this, but its not 100% preventable IMHO.

Rust

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