Fluid Film for Rust Prevention

[KodyWallice]

I’m not sure if this is specifically a Maine issue or not, but I am sure that now that I’m here, I’ve got to start dealing with rust. Rust on the truck, rust on the trailer, rust on the tools and everything else rust ruins. And I’ll tell you that it’s an annoying something to deal with because rust goes on behind your back. And it’s quiet.



It’s only about 10 months old. I made one trip with my Arising Industries trailer. All I did was drive from Florida to Maine. We hit snow in New Hampshire, but I’m fairly confident that the state or town didn’t treat the roads with salt or the equivalent. Nothing contributed to the frame of the trailer rusting besides the fact that the paint job was not up to snuff and that the material the frame is made of is steel.



Looking back, I ask myself if I should have gotten an aluminum trailer. Then, I remember that aluminum would have cost me twice as much. There is a company out there (ATC) that I was pretty much sweating over while I was in the market to buy. They make awesome trailers, but they’re expensive. I suppose you have to make the choice while purchasing – are you going to own the thing for the rest of your life? Do you have that kind of money? If you aren’t and if you don’t, you buy steel. Especially when it’s enclosed. Snowmobile trailers are a different story. Buy aluminum. They are a much simpler beast. But even with aluminum snowmobile trailers, and other aluminum trailers for that matter, you have to concern yourself with the steel axle rusting away. Don’t forget about that. As you have your trailer in storage over the Summer, the moisture from the ground is eating away at the axle and hubs. Ugg.

Before Winter rolled around, I took a look under the trailer. I was surprised to find rust. Considering the trailer was brand new, I was taken aback a bit. I remembered the whole steel thing – blah, blah, blah. So over the Winter, I thought about the best way to tackle what I knew wasn’t going to fix itself or stop on its own. I initially thought about undercoating the trailer (and the truck which, of course, has the same rust issue) with rubberized undercoating. I couldn’t shake the horrible recurring nightmare of going outside to check on the underbelly of the truck or trailer one morning to see undercoating flaking off, with rust growing underneath. And once you’ve got that rubber on there, it would be a pain of monumental proportions to remove it and undercoat with something else. So, unless your vehicle or trailer is brand new, you can’t undercoat with rubber.

I found a pretty nice product after searching exhaustively online. Many, many sources pointed to a rust preventative derived from lanolin, otherwise known as wool wax. The product is called, Fluid Film and it sprays on metal like an oil. The spray never dries and should be reapplied every year or so, depending on how much the item you are spraying is used. If you drive a plow and salt truck, undercoat once a year. It you put about 10 miles a year on your truck and trailer like I do, undercoat once and call it done. Forever.



Check out this video. You’ll see what I’m taking about.

Fluid Film Car Applications

Yesterday, I decided to begin this project in earnest. I had already received three test cans of Fluid Film from Amazon and had to pull the trailer around, from the back year to the driveway. I really wasn’t interested in crawling under the trailer in that tall grass. Or grass of any height for that matter. There are bugs out there – lots of them.



After I was finished parking things in their new homes, I found some rusty areas on both the truck and trailer and sprayed them a bit. I wanted to see what this lanolin based rust preventative looked like.

First, I sprayed the hitch receiver of the truck. Those are notorious for rusting.



I’m trying to think back to how I handled this in the past. I think I either gave my hitches and receivers a coating of grease or I sprayed WD-40 on them. Grease wasn’t so hot. The WD-40 worked for a while.

As I was hooking the trailer up to the truck, I noticed that the trailer hitch was looking pretty bad. The guts of the thing were rusted up, so I coated everything with Fluid Film. I know this picture is dark – you’ll have to use your imagination.



After that, I wanted to see how the treatment looked on the trailer suspension. It’s areas like this, and especially areas like leaf springs on trucks, that can’t be rust proofed by anything other than a product like this.



And lastly, I sprayed some areas of the truck’s front end. Try rust proofing this area with rubberized undercoating. Yeah right. You can see where I sprayed because the areas look wet.



This afternoon, I grabbed a spare piece of paneling and placed it on the ground under the trailer. I thought I should treat a few steel beams in the rear of the trailer, just to see how it goes. But before I did that, I took some photos. I knew I was going to be writing this post.

Here are two pictures of what the frame looked like before I coated it:



And here’s what those areas look like after I treated them. I only did two beams.




I think it looks pretty decent. It goes on clear and stays wet looking. I think it’ll be perfect for my purposes, which is to drive the truck only when necessary and really never use the trailer.

Fluid Film comes in spray cans, small cans with a brush applicator as well as gallon and 5-gallon buckets. Now that I know how this applies and feels, I am going to purchase a gallon container. I think the gallon costs around $60. After that, I can choose to brush it on or spray it on with any paint sprayer. I can even use a house paint sprayer.

Also, I wanted to quickly mention what someone can do if they are concerned with the insides of their frame rusting, which surely does happen. Fluid Film offers a rigid tube and flexible hose that you can attach to a spray can that snakes down the inside of the tubular frame. The spray comes out in all directions at the end of the hose. Some drilling may be required, but this is the real deal. Instead of having the inside of your frame or doors rust out, treat them. Take a look at this video. This technician shows you exactly how to do that.

Fluid Film Undercoating by Jeff’s Undercoating

 

[KodyWallice]

Undercoating My Truck With Fluid Film​

I’ve been working on this project since spring. For some reason, it’s taken all this time to get off my butt and finish things up. But now that both the truck and trailer are undercoated, I feel much better – especially living in Maine.

Basically, the deal is that rubberized undercoating is no good for a good majority of parts on a vehicle that tend to rust because of salt use on the roads. If your car or truck has been undercoated with rubber, you’re in decent shape as far as floorboards and all that goes, but as far as axles, drive shafts, front and rear ends and all parts in between, you’re unprotected. From what I’ve seen around here, if that’s the case, you’ve got some issues that need to be corrected. Especially with rear bumpers. I can’t count how many rear bumpers I’ve seen that are rusted through.

The problem with rust is that it doesn’t just go away by itself. Actually, it doesn’t go away at all, unless you mechanically remove it. If that’s the route you decide to take in an attempt to save your vehicle from being eaten, you better get something to protect the parts you removed the rust from. And the truth of the matter is, it’s virtually impossible to remove rust from all parts of a vehicle. I wouldn’t even bother trying. That’s why I use Fluid Film.

I initially bought a gallon thinking that I’d have enough for both the truck and trailer. Unfortunately, I used about three quarts on the trailer alone. I did manage to finish almost half the truck with the remaining quart, but sadly, I ran out and needed more. When I went inside to order another gallon, I noticed that Amazon had 5-gallon buckets of this stuff available for the price of three gallons and some change. Since Fluid Film needs to be reapplied periodically, I felt that the 5-gallon bucket would be a wise investment. I bought that and it’s now sitting in my trailer.



Since today is about 70 degrees outside, I thought it would be a perfect time to finish undercoating the truck. It’s not a difficult job, just one that needed to get done. So, I went outside to peeled the lid of my new bucket of undercoating back to unearth that distinct smelling material that looks like turkey gravy. Mmmm. It’s actually a wool wax material that, once spray on to metal surfaces, soaks in and protects from oxidation. It also penetrates and lubricates.



I had my undercoating spray gun at the ready and it was begging to be filled up.



I think a regular paint gun would have been fine with applying Fluid Film. It’s not all that thick. And it does thin out with heat, so if you decide to undertake this type of project and have a paint gun, go ahead and feel free to take advantage of it. Just be sure to clean it well before you use it for painting because I’m sure you don’t want oily undercoating to mix with expensive auto paint.

I learned a long time ago that attempting to pour material such as this out of a large bucket into a small opening doesn’t work too well. I now use a large spoon.



I also had a spatula and a towel nearby to clean up any mess I made.

A while ago, I purchased a nice DeWalt air compressor just for occasions such as this. It’s come in very handy.



The last time I applied Fluid Film, I set the compressor regulator to 60 pounds. Since that created a lot of over spray and wasted product, I lowered the pressure to 40 pounds. That seemed to work well today.



By the way, the reason I went with the DeWalt compressor is because the motor doesn’t burn out with lower voltage receptacles and extension cords like my previous compressor from Home Depot did. That was a disappointment.

For some reason, when I talk about undercoating with Fluid Film, those who I talk to still don’t quite understand what I’m under there spraying. Because of this, I decided to take some photos of the finished product. I think these are all pictures of the front end of my truck. That’s not for any particular reason – I just happened to be laying in these locations with my camera at the time. Basically, everything gets sprayed.



As you can see, you surely can’t protect these areas with rubber undercoating. Fluid Film works wonderfully for locations such as these.

 

[KodyWallice]

COMMENT: I purchased an Arising trailer earlier this year. It is an 8×24, I stripped the factory plywood inside. When I done this I found all the wall frame is solid rust, no paint whatsoever. The seams of the wall metal all leak, they are not sealed. The design is to let it leak and rust, the plywood interior will hide it. So far i have gotten no response from the dealer or Arising.
I was surprised to see this, after all the dealers talk about how great they are. I know I am on my own for a solution to this.

RESPONSE: I would recommend picking up some Fluid Film and spraying the hell out of everything on the trailer. Metal rusts eventually, no matter how painted it is. You need to treat it. Pick up a 5-gallon bucket’s worth.

 

[KodyWallice]

How to Clean Up Fluid Film?​

I've used Fluid Film to protect my car and truck through the years. It's done a decent job, but in order to get the best protection, one really needs to keep an eye on things (undercarriage, suspension, metal brake lines, etc...) for rust. It's easy to spray it and forget it. This stuff can wash off quickly at times and you may need to reapply to spots upon necessity.

Anyway, I've been using the same spray gun to apply this product and I haven't exactly ever cleaned the gun. I am now noticing less and less material flow through. I think it's getting clogged. My question is, what's the best product to use to clean the Fluid Film from my spray gun?

ANSWER: They say liquid dishwashing detergent will work. It says it right on the Fluid Film website. Personally, I would use warm/hot soapy water to spray through the gun. That ought to loosen things up. The heat will soften/melt/liquefy the undercoating and it should spray through with ease. I clean my gun regularly. If I don't, the buildup reduces the amount of spray that goes through.

 

[WendyMay]

Does Fluid Film Work Against Rust?​

I drive a Honda CR-V and my boyfriend drives a Nissan Frontier and we'd like to get them undercoated to prevent them from rusting. I've been doing some reading about different types of undercoating and Fluid Film has come up time after time. Is this coating any good? How long does it last? If we have our vehicles sprayed once, will that last forever?

 

[LukeLewis]

Fluid Film is generally touted as a once per year rust preventative, so spraying your vehicles only once won't cut it. It's not like the rubber undercoatings we're all so used to. This film is more of an oil. It's actually wool wax, so yes, it does wash off after some time. It's great for rust prevention because unlike rubber undercoating, you can spray Fluid Film in pretty much anything. It doesn't eat away at rubber lines and it's easy to wash off things you don't want it on. The best part of this product is that you can spray it on your shocks, struts, springs, brake calipers, frame, and just about anything else that begins to rust underneath a car or truck. You can't do that with rubberized undercoating. Where I live, I see a lot of pickup trucks that have rusted out rear bumpers. This is because the road salt finds its way up inside the bumper and sits there forever chewing away at the metal. You can't generally undercoat that area with traditional undercoating. With Fluid Film and other oily undercoatings, you can. Simply spray it up there. You can spray the transmission, rear ends, gear boxes - whatever you want.

But here's the thing. Don't spray your vehicles in the spring. Driving around in the rain will wash it off. You want to spray as close to freezing as possible so the only thing you encounter is snow. The cold will also keep the oil (or wax) firm, so it's less likely to wash off. It's also not a set and forget type of product. You need to keep tabs on your vehicles' undercarriages to see if there are any dry areas. If there are, you might need to reapply.

I will tell you that I have sprayed vehicles and trailers that haven't moved very much in years and it looks like I sprayed them yesterday. So treating things that are in storage or that don't move is a great idea. It's just that warm water that this stuff doesn't like.

 

[CaptainDan]

I have been spraying cars and trucks with Fluid Film for years. Hundreds of different makes and models. I have applied it to both of your vehicles, so I thought I'd chime in here. Basically, with the CR-V, you can access much of what needs spraying without putting the car on a lift or even jacking it up off the ground. You won't get to much from underneath the front of the car, but you can access underneath the engine and all of the front suspension areas from the sides. As you move to the rear, you'll have access to pretty much everything from the rear sides and the rear itself. Most of what's vulnerable is underneath the back of the car. The fuel tank, suspension, sway bars, tow hitch if you have one, brakes, struts, and everything else is in plain site. As for the Frontier, you certainly don't need to jack this truck up at all to get to everything. Just put a piece of plywood or something on the ground and start spraying. This truck is definitely high enough off the ground to reach all that needs to be reached. Basically, I'm saying that if you bought a gallon or two of Fluid Film, an undercoating spray gun, some air line, and an air compressor, you could do this job yourself this year and every year thereafter. And all this equipment would probably cost the same as what a garage would charge you for only one application on both vehicles. Dewalt has got a great little pancake compressor that's perfect for this type of job. Good luck.