One of the biggest hurdles your truck faces once it leaves the dealer lot is rust. Snow, ice, rain, salt, and mud can make life difficult, not only on the functionality of your truck, but also on its lifespan. You see, we all expect the diesel mill under the hood to last forever, but what about the rest of the truck?
The truth is that most of our trucks aren't garage-kept. They're used year-round for hauling, towing, racing, off-roading, and most of us rely on them as daily drivers. So if your truck spends a lot of its time subjected to the harshness of winter, your frame may suffer more abuse than any other component on your truck.
This was the case with our '97 F-350 Power Stroke, which spent most of its days in northern Ohio and was subjected to a decade's worth of lake-effect snowfall and salt-covered roads. Needless to say, the underbody was slowly being overtaken by rust.
So, when J.D. Donahue, a professional painter by trade, offered a helping hand in stopping our rust problem dead in its tracks, we wasted no time letting him work his magic. Here's how we added life to our truck and made our frame look new again. DP
 Over the years, rust had taken...  Over the years, rust had taken its toll on our '97 Ford F-350. Here you can see what lurked behind the black spray-paint undercoating the previous owner applied, which was slowly chipping away and falling off. |  The rust was so bad on the...  The rust was so bad on the rear leaf spring shackle that a hole the size of a dime had rusted through. Although we didn't find any more see-through-size holes, the rest of the frame was in this kind of shape. |  Using putty knives, we scraped...  Using putty knives, we scraped all the loose paint and rust particles off the frame. We started at the driver side rear of the truck and worked our way around. Because we planned on painting everything with a solid black finish, we also scraped rust and paint off our axles, fenderwells, and receiver. |
 Maintenance projects are the...  Maintenance projects are the opportune time to check things on your truck that you might ordinarily overlook. While scraping our way down the driver side of the framerail, we discovered leftover auxiliary wire that used to power marker lights spanning the length of the cab. Since it was no longer serving a purpose, we removed it. Also while under the truck, we inspected our brake lines, and looked for oil, fuel, and transmission leaks. |  Once we were satisfied with...  Once we were satisfied with the amount of rust and chipped paint we removed, we fired up the air compressor and blew the remaining particles off the frame. Then, the rust conversion process began. We chose to use two quarts of SEM Rust-Mort (PN 69504) to attack the rust, and a gallon of black SEM Rust-Shield (PN 38101) to paint the frame. |  The first thing we applied...  The first thing we applied was the Rust-Mort, which does not need to be diluted. We used a gravity-feed paint gun to apply the chemical. |