Yeah, I'm more of a plan it out, fix it and forget it type when I do things. It did take me a few experiments to find the products that worked best to reach the being able to forget it. Maintenance I do has more to do with touch ups due to scraping my frame and axles on objects such as deep snow/ice during the winter which I don't think any method has solved by making unscratchable paint. POR included. I've seen some nice POR jobs, I've also seen some that look like someone smeared vaseline all over the undercarriage and didn't look so good. I'm interested to see how yours turns out. Still sounds like a lot of work to me.

No plans for my exhaust or my driveshafts. I leave those untouched to remind myself what the rest of it could look like if I didn't do any rust prevention.

My tow hook used to be my reminder but I pulled that off last fall and replaced it. The rust was driving me nuts. I'm also currently planning on replacing my driveshafts so that rust will be gone soon enough.


This spring (if the warn weather ever comes) when I go to do the touch ups, I've decided I'm going to try to create a YouTube vid since I've had quite a few others asking for details and to show how well it's been working.

This is a similar pic of the rear of my under carriage I took at the end of January....salt still on some of the parts after going through the car wash. I think it shows it's been effective.

 

I live in Wisconsin, this weekend I was going to start with some of my rust issues. I would love to hear about tour methods

 

In regards to POR15, here's a couple pics someone else posted on another forum. This didn't look so good to me, and the work involved didn't thrill me much as well but I have seen others that look pretty good.

 

If you're going to go so far as to cleaning and painting the whole underside then you may as well pull your gas tank skid and lather it up with POR or your rust prevention method. I did the cheap method and went with Ospho followed by a satin black spray paint (which is what you say you don't want to do). The driveshaft didn't have any balance issues. I did do the muffler with a high heat black but didn't do any real "prep" on it, just scrubbed it with Dawn and then painted it on a warm day.

I'm suggesting the inside of your skid as well as getting anti-seize into those threads as the skid has pockets that will rust out from the inside. It would probably also be a good idea (with the salt) to pull your transfer case skid and transmission crossmember and give them the same treatment.

A new gas tank skid is ~$350 if the one mounting nut rusts out.

 

Here's the details about my process.

Every Spring I typically detail my JK inside and out to get the winter grime out and identify any rust concerns that started to form over the winter. I live in Michigan, so it's a rust belt state that salts the roads. I don't do any major cleaning throughout the entire winter except for going through a drive thru car wash weekly. I own a 2009 with 150K miles and the under carriage looks good to me.

My goal is to keep things simple as possible, inexpensive, and effective where I'm not having to be worried about continued regular pain in the azz maintenance.

So here's what I do for the under carriage, which includes everything and anything underneath which is black from the factory which includes frame rails, skid plates, axles, suspension parts.

Prep work: (Cleaning the under carriage)
I just go to the local power washer stall, to get the majority of dirt washed off from underneath. I use the power sprayer, and the foaming brush, cleaning the wheel wells, outside frame rails, and axles. Anything that is simple enough to reach with the foam brush. I typically also clean my engine bay while I'm at it. So I start by spaying down my engine bay with the green tire de-greaser and then move on to the chassis to let the green stuff do it's thing on the engine bay grease/oil/crud. Then rinse with the power sprayer to rinse the majority of soap,green stuff, and dirt off.

Then I drive to the local drive thru car wash, and get the package which includes the under carriage to further clean off any soap, or areas I may have missed in the power washer.
Then find the nearest highway and take it up to 70MPH and drive for a few miles to dry off that under carriage, then head home.

Pre Product application Prep: (Make easy access room, and tape up a couple things I prefer to not get rust prevention product on).
I remove the wheels, and put the JK up on 4 jack stands, stands placed under the axles. This provides easy access to the Axle C's and wheel wells, control arms, as well as prevents me from getting any product on my wheels/tires.
I then use blue painters tape, to mask off anything in a nearby vicinity to my suspension parts that I don't want to get any product on which in my case only includes my 4 fox shocks, and synergy drag link.

Step 1: Rust Maintenance=Containment: (Iron Armor Rust Reformer)
Go to Harbor Freight, bring their 20%off coupon and their free item coupon and pick up some of this. $4/can with 20%off coupon. There's a HF nearby where I work, where I stop in and pick up a can on my lunch break and a pack of their free micro fiber towels which are always useful so I'm not paying the full price of $5/can.
https://www.harborfreight.com/9-oz-i...int-60788.html

Get on a creeper, roll underneath and inspect all chassis/suspension black parts searching for any surface rust and spray it liberally over the top of any rust spots. It takes about 20-30 minutes to fully dry. What I do is start at my front driver's side and move around clock-wise and by the time I'm done making my way around, it's dry at where I started.

It sprays on clear, and then turns black as it dries as shown on the can. It kills and stops the rust from continuing to grow and prevents the rust from continuing to spread and dries as a paintable surface needed for Step 2.

The 1st time I applied it to my complete under side it took me about 3 cans to cover all the surface rust, pick up 4 cans to be sure you're covered.
Total Cost=4cans @ $16

Step 2: Cover and Prevent (Iron Armor Truck Bed Coating)
You're going to essentially paint over all chassis, axle, and suspension parts (everything that's black underneath) with the Iron Armor Truck Bed coating. It's $8 per can (bastards it used to be $6.50/can until I let everyone know how good it is....supply/demand. ) Again buy it with their 20% off coupon making it $6.40/can and don't forget the free item coupon as well, maybe get yourself a free flashlight or magnetic screw tray holder, etc. which always come in handy.
https://www.harborfreight.com/16-12-...ing-60783.html


Here's what's good about this stuff for this application.
- It sprays out very directional in a 2-3in diameter circle. This makes it very simple to not get any over spray on any surrounding sheet metal parts, thus eliminating the need to spend all day taping off surrounding parts.
As an example, check out my wheel well. I can paint the top of that frame rail without getting any paint on the plastic fender liner that is right next to it.

- Does not come out with a misty over spray. So if you're painting your outside frame rails, the last thing you want is a bunch of paint mist floating around and settling on your body paint. No concerns here with this stuff.
- Sprays on thick. It will only take you one coat to cover an area, and when it dries, it dries on very durable where it will resist rubbing off and essentially forms a nice protective outer shell coating. It's not as durable as powder coat, but it is very similar to powder coat. It does also have a slight texture in it like powder coat. It is also very difficult to make it run, unless you really intentionally try to make a paint run or mess up badly enough. Therefore you end up with a very even coat of paint once it dries.

The 1st time I applied it to my under side chassis and parts, I used about 5 cans. Get 6 cans to be sure.
Total cost of IA Truck Bed Coating= 6 cans @ $6.40ea= $38.40

The Truck bed coating takes about 1-2hours to dry but that's it, you're done for a full year

The purpose of the Truck bed coating is to seal off the surface rust that started to form from getting exposed to any further air and moisture. Bare metal + Air + Moisture=Rust

Therefore, the rust reformer kills and contains any existing rust and the truck bed coating protects and seals.

Here's some pics of how it looks when you're finished. It's a flatter black finish, but not a total flat black which is what I prefer.







Just to give a better idea of what the IA Truck bed coating looks like close up and under the light, here's a pic where someone used it to repaint their bumper. Personally, I wouldn't use it to paint my bumpers because it has a tad too much texture for my taste, but I think it's perfect for my under carriage.


SIE
Simple: No need to wire brush, or do any special protection of surrounding parts, it's as difficult as point and shoot with a spray can. My index finger gets tired is about the extent of it...I may pick up one of those spray can triggers to help alleviate that problem.
Inexpensive: $55. You're looking at around $55 total to get rid of any existing under carriage rust and add future rust protection.
Effective: I do a once a year spring detailing thorough clean up and it easily lasts for the entire year. After that, it's just some minor touch up work every spring. The first time I did it, it took me the longest with the most amount of reformer/paint used since I had to do the entire underside. Now when I do my spring clean up, it's mostly to touch up joints where parts move, and any parts that may have gotten rubbed on against ice/snow during the winter such as skid plates, gas tank skid, and bottom side frame rails since I tend to off road in the snow. My touch-ups consists of me getting 1 can of the rust reformer and 1 to 2 cans of the truck bed coating every spring. My JKU is a 2009 with a 150K DD miles on it, living in rust belt Michigan. I feel it's been really effective.

Another thing I typically do, just to be more thorough and to ensure my JK is protected from rust as much as possible is that every time I do any mods or have to replace any parts, I will apply the 2 step process to any areas that opened themselves up to the opportunity. For example, last summer I removed my stock rear bumper and installed a 10A bumper. So that back area that usually hides behind the bumper got a good treatment. I changed my trans fluid, and had to remove my T-case skid plate to do so, so the skid plate got treated on both sides while it was off.

 

It did take me a few trial and errors to get to a process that I thought was effective.

I never heard of products like POR15 or Fluid Film prior to coming up with my own method. I developed my method based off of knowing paint is one of the best products to use in protecting metal from rusting and is relatively inexpensive. Originally, I started with just using Rustoleum Truck Bed liner on the frame rails. What I found was that the Rustoleum was very misty spraying on, where I really had to make a lot of effort to not get any of it on my surrounding body paint, it rubbed off real easily from the frame rails and the surface rust bled through it after a couple of months. Since the IA truck bed liner was less expensive and more came in a can, I decided to give that a try instead. I found it to be much more directional where I could easily paint areas that were within 1inch of the body paint and not have to worry about over spray. I could paint those frame rails inside the wheel wells and not get any paint on the plastic fender liners. The IA also sprayed on much more thicker, only one coat was needed instead of 2 with the rustoleum and the IA was much more durable when it dried. Overall, I found the IA truck bed coating cost less, you got more of it in each can, and was a much better product than the rustoleum. Then while using the IA, I found I would still get some rust that would bleed through the IA after a few months. So then I decided to pick up a can of the IA rust reformer that was sitting right next to the IA truck bed coating at HF and spray that surface rust with it, then apply the IA truck bed coating over the top of that. That has been the magic bullet that has worked the best for me. The rust no longer bleeds through the truck bed liner and the truck bed liner looks good and seems as tough as nails to resist scratches and wearing off. Dirt doesn't stick to it and rinses right off with water.

 

Mine and Karls method are essentially identical, just using 2 different products that perform the same tasks.

Ospho