Rust Under Roll-on Berliner - What to do?

[kenny 84 CJ7]

All,

My newest project is to come up with a plan for some of the rust in my tub. Getting close to the winter months I want to have a plant to start working on it. I have a feeling it will put the jeep out of commission for a few weeks.

The problem:

My previous owner decided (in his divine wisdom) to roll-on a bedliner throughout the entire tub of my 84 Jeep CJ7 . At the time of purchase I thought "great, one less thing I will need to do". I feel now I was wrong.

I have now noticed rust stains coming up through some spots on the floor. Also, around the drain plug on the drives side i could see the bed liner cracking and rust underneath. With a little knife I peeled up a small piece of the liner and rust all underneath. The PO rolled on the liner very think is some places and it is beginning to crack there.

It is either one of two things:

1.) The PO didn't know what he was doing when he did the bed liner and improperly prep the tub before painting. i.e. sanding and repairing all rust.

2.) The PO used the bed liner to cover up the rust in order to sell the Jeep. (that would be very mean, it was my first Jeep so I didn't even think rust might be under there)

My Questions:

What should I do here?

I could try and remove the current liner, then fix/replace the rust that is bad. Then have a new liner done professionally. Im not sure how I could remove it. Perhaps a grinder with wire brush. Also, not sure what I will find underneath. I am not made of money. I would hate to start a job and not be able to finish. One thought I have is just forget about it for now and save up enough to replace the tub. Then start on grinding off the current liner. If I find it is too much to tackle, worst comes to worst I just replace the tub all together.

Any thought and suggestions would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

-Eoin

 

[PaRenegade]

Well replacing the tub isn't a simple solution either so I'd work with what you have first. Rust can come from either side. What does the underside of the tub look like? I would remove the liner in any case. Sounds like it was a poor install job to begin with and leaving it there isn't going to help matters. Only once you can see the tubs metal can you make a good choice for a fix. Some guys as you said, cover up problems with the liner or diamond plate and then "outta sight, outta mind".

 

[Sasquach]

Sounds like a can of worms to me. I would peel up the spots that are bad with what ever tool works, putty knife / screw driver? and see just how bad it is and go from there. maybe some better prep and touch up those spots? some pics are allways helpfull.
If trying to strip everything my prefered method is paint striper/remover although it's not cheap and unsure how it would work on bed liner being so thick.
Ive done an entire CJ tub, fenders, hood and all in 3 layers of paint with about 3 gal.

 

[kenny 84 CJ7]

Sounds like a can of worms to me. I would peel up the spots that are bad with what ever tool works, putty knife / screw driver? and see just how bad it is and go from there. maybe some better prep and touch up those spots? some pics are allways helpfull.
If trying to strip everything my prefered method is paint striper/remover although it's not cheap and unsure how it would work on bed liner being so thick.
Ive done an entire CJ tub, fenders, hood and all in 3 layers of paint with about 3 gal.

I will try and post some pictures on my lunch break. Kinda show off the problem more. Some spots that are flat, such as rear fender wells and back seat area look fine. I think the problems are mostly in the front foot wells.

 

[Peanut Butter]

It's going to be a real pain to remove the bedliner, but sounds like the po thought this bedliner was a solve all problem paint. It is not. Any bed liner requires proper pep of the surface to be covered first. Thus the high cost of having it done. So remove all of it, repair any major rust spots, treat all other rust spots (more later), and then recoat if that is the type of finish you want. You can do it yourself, but don't skimp on the quality of the product. Prep the surface. Remove as much rust as you can, and treat the rest with a fast etch solution that converts rust to zinc phosphate. All surfaces will need to be ruffed up for the paint to stick. Even a new truck bed must be sanded for a bedliner to be properly applied. I got my fast etch solution from Eastwood, and am very happy with the results.

Unfortunately, I have way more time than money. So, I'm doing all of the sanding, etc. myself. One note, wear a good mask while sanding this stuff as it is very bad for your lungs. Rod

 

[truk820]

I was in the same boat - I pulled up some loose liner and brought chunks of rust up with it. I ended up removing the liner and am currently prepping it for Monstaliner (should be done this week if all goes well).

Removing the liner wasn't as big a pain once I figured out how to do it:

• Buy a gallon (or two...or three) of aircraft remover. I tried the spray-on and it barely worked - stick with the liquid.
• Cover the whole thing in a thick layer
• Wait an hour or so and use a scraper to remove the first layer of liner. It won't take everything off but it'll take a large majority of it. There will also be some paint / crud underneath and you'll get a feel for how bad the rust is.
• Repeat another time or two
• Wire wheel / grind away the last few hard spots

If you go straight for the grinder / wheel it's going to take forever and make a HUGE mess. At least with the aircraft remover there isn't dust flying everywhere and you can sweep it up. Word of warning it's pretty nasty stuff, make sure you've got some ventilation and gloves on.

 

[Deerejeep]

I was in the same boat - I pulled up some loose liner and brought chunks of rust up with it. I ended up removing the liner and am currently prepping it for Monstaliner (should be done this week if all goes well).

Removing the liner wasn't as big a pain once I figured out how to do it:

• Buy a gallon (or two...or three) of aircraft remover. I tried the spray-on and it barely worked - stick with the liquid.
• Cover the whole thing in a thick layer
• Wait an hour or so and use a scraper to remove the first layer of liner. It won't take everything off but it'll take a large majority of it. There will also be some paint / crud underneath and you'll get a feel for how bad the rust is.
• Repeat another time or two
• Wire wheel / grind away the last few hard spots

If you go straight for the grinder / wheel it's going to take forever and make a HUGE mess. At least with the aircraft remover there isn't dust flying everywhere and you can sweep it up. Word of warning it's pretty nasty stuff, make sure you've got some ventilation and gloves on.

Got any pictures?

 

[truk820]

Unfortunately no step-by-step photos, although I'm stripping the roll bar and can snap some through the phases.

Here's what I started with:


You can see in this picture the shiny metal is after an 2 rounds of aircraft stripper and a bit of the wheel. The stuff on the right, around the passenger floor pan, was after one heavy application of the stripper and then scraper.

 

[cj7inthetwigs]

Man, that sucks...never thought about liner as coverup..know diamond plate was used for covering up problems..anyways, Ace Hardware sells Strip ez.. think I spelt that incorrectly but its aircraft stripper Im pretty sure...when you're getting the mask,grab some good chemical gloves... I got a pair from work that goes to my elbows...trust me, that stripper doesn't feel good at all. Hate to see anyone get done that way..good luck

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[Deerejeep]

Unfortunately no step-by-step photos, although I'm stripping the roll bar and can snap some through the phases.

Here's what I started with:


You can see in this picture the shiny metal is after an 2 rounds of aircraft stripper and a bit of the wheel. The stuff on the right, around the passenger floor pan, was after one heavy application of the stripper and then scraper.

Appreciate it. That helps me understand the effectiveness. Guess I need a resperator or is paper good enough some good gloves and a couple gallons and some eye protection etc.