When I was looking over the 1989 Jeep Comanche trying to figure whether I wanted to jump a few steps outside of my budget to pry the Jeep out of the old-mans hands, I was amazed at how little rust there was on this particular MJ. My previous ventures into the XJ world (two 1989’s and a 1996) I knew that in the north-east, it is hard to come by a unibody XJ/MJ (or any Jeep for that matter) that didn’t have its share of floor board rust. My initial inspection only revealed one spot, just above the drivers side rear fender flare, of rust. I crawled underneath looking for the “poke my screwdriver through” type rust that I have come to expect, and found nothing. So an extra $100 outside of my budget didn’t seem like a huge jump for not having to weld in all new floor pans.
So I bought the thing, drove it home and within a few hours began my initial “I don’t need/want this on my Jeep” tear down. The cap came off, and surface rust was discovered below the rear sliding window. Not a big deal, a wire brush and an afternoon and that will be taken care of.
A few days later, I began tearing out the blue interior with a bench seat in favor of a donor 2-door XJ interior. That’s when I discovered the surface rust on the floor boards. Again, not what I was used to seeing, but rust non the less. It was only a few days until I was scheduled to take the MJ to A to Z Fabrication for custom bumpers and rocker guards. So I hit the rust with a wire brush, and sprayed some Rustoleum over it and called it done.
Three months later my Maggie was returned to me… and the rust had cancer-ed its way through the previous coating.
So, a new plan needed to be established. Because I had carpet ready to go in I really didn’t feel like pulling it out every 3 months to keep my floor boards from disappearing. I heard good and bad reviews of the Por15 line of rust-preventative products and keeping in mind that the MJ build up is just a the pre-amble to my YJ build… I wanted to give their products a whirl. And what better spot then the floor boards.
I purchased the following:
The first step was to remove all flaking rust. A quick run with the wire brush followed by a blast of air from the compressor, clean up things quite nicely. Next was to remove any grease and impurities from the area with the Por15’s Marine Clean. I diluted the product into a spray bottle, sprayed the area, then after pulling the drain plugs hosed it out and let the floor boards dry. The final step before painting, was to use Por15’s Metal Ready. This product etches the surface so that the Por15 can bite into the rusty metal a lot better. Again, I had to let the application dry. Finally, I was able to apply the Por15 black to the floor boards. Using a regular bristle paint brush, I used one 4oz can per side. Again… let the stuff dry.
Looks pretty good ‘eh?! My initial impression is that Por15 puts a real impressive finish over existing surface rust. It leaves an almost ceramic, glossy finish that is in no way reflective of the rust that was/is underneath. My only prayer is that it holds up to the test of time. At least better then the 3-months that Rustoleum gave me.
A quick note: Por15 is UV sensetive and should pretty much only be used in a primer type application. They recommend top-coating Por15 with their BlackCoat or Chassis Coat. I would not doubt the quality of those products, however, since my goal was to simply stop the rust and provide a good surface for my carpet to cover to up… I went back to Rustoleum and covered it in 2 coats of Black Hammer Tone Finish.
