I started working on the rust that is around the license plate light fixtures on the tailgate yesterday. I found deep rust both inside and outside of this area and realized that it wouldn't be long until the metal was completely ate up. I took some photos and will take more as I progress with this job.



I first removed the two light fixtures that are secured with two screws each and twisted the bulb socket out of them and pushed the bulb wire leads out of the way. I then removed the carpet/trim from lower tailgate to get to the inside areas and then had to remove the tailgate latch release trim and then remove the complete latch assembly (6 screws) to open up the hole that you see in the 3rd pic. Once I had access to the inside area I used a metal file to scrape the loose rust from the inside (4th and 5th pix) and then was able to just barely get my hand in there to do what sanding I could accomplish (not very damn much). After that, worked on the outside where the rust was much worse (1st and 2nd pix) - scraped and sanded until I was pretty confident I'd removed enough for POR-15 to bond to it and do its job.

Here are a couple of pix after scraping and sanding:


This morning I am going to try to locate some POR-15 rust treatment somewhere. Once I have that, I'll treat inside and out with it and it is my understanding that you can sand and paint POR-15, so when it comes time to do the paint, there should be no problem............and in the meantime (could be years before I get around to that stage of the restoration) NO RUST!

More later, SMD.