Cleanup that rusty battery tray

[70torino429]

Well.. this might be a weird sight for some of you southern guys, but all the trucks I've had up here have accumulated some nasty looking rust on the battery box. So Instead of buying a new one or trying to dig around the junkyard for one mint truck, I figured I'd put some love and care into the old one to make it look decent again. It don't look factory now IMO, but it looks better than rust.

Here's what I started with,

After about an hour of cleaning it up, got some primer on it

And, I forgot to take a pic of the bottom side, but the bottom side I did in high heat flat black, the top I did in flat white with a coat of clear on it.

Just waiting on my next paycheck so I can get a nice new battery to go with it. Now it really shows how crappy the rest of the engine bay looks but oh well, it's a start. For the tiny investment, I like how it came out. Doesn't look brand new, but looks alot better.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

Looks good!

 

[Austin]

Looks nice... I don't think that I've ever seen so much rust on a battery tray. I don't think I even have that much on the truck!

 

[73F100Shortbed]

Mine has a hole in it!

 

[Austin]

Mine has a hole in it!

Yea, it should have a couple! How are ya gonna bolt it in?

 

[LEB Ben]

Nice turn around. What did you do/use to clean it though? Muriatic acid, wire wheel?

 

[70torino429]

Mostly a couple different styles of wire-wheels. For a few of the rust pieces that were about to come off when I took it off I just used sort of a thick-bladed gasket scraper.

 

[smokey]

Nice job cleaning it up. The salt up here eats everything to peices in no time at all.

Looks nice... I don't think that I've ever seen so much rust on a battery tray. I don't think I even have that much on the truck!

Come up north and all the vehicles have rust like that or worse.

 

[dixie_boysles]

looks alot better! paint it black though, stands out like a sore thumb where its so clean and fresh and white

 

[crzybil87]

looks good, just gotta clean up the rest of it Fightin the rust is an ongoing battle

 

[70torino429]

looks alot better! paint it black though, stands out like a sore thumb where its so clean and fresh and white

Yeah I'll probably go with black if I decide to do the one on my '91 also (this thread is the one on the '94) but it should match better when I cleanup/refurbish more parts, brackets, etc. in the engine bay. I'm trying to do a budget-limited resto to the truck piece by piece.