Factory hitch corrosion control

[bogie514]

I was working on my 2008 Silverado 1500 and decided to drop the factory hitch to clean it up, remove the rust, and repaint it. I would like to do something to the inside of the tube that runs perpendicular to the frame rails to clean it out and control/prevent/slow down any further corrosion. Any suggestions?

Tom

[Lynnmor]

A friend lives in salt covered Maryland. His 2006 Chevy had a hitch rusted so bad that it was very unsafe. He replaced it with a heavier after-market hitch. Look for damage before covering it up with paint.

[Dave_H_M]

That Must For Rust sure intrigued me.

To this point I always thought rust had to be treated with something like phosphoric acid to convert the iron oxide to iron phosphate.

Anybody know how the must for rust works chemically?

[bogie514]

I had to get my truck back on the road quickly to tow a trailer. What I ended up doing was loop a rope through the hitch tube and run a several wadded up orange/onion bags through to loosen up and remove as much of the crud as possible. I banged the hitch vertically a few times to remove the loosened material. I then took a few rags soaked in Rustoleum that I had on hand and ran it through the tube a bunch of times, adding paint to the rags each time. For a quickie fix it seemed to work ok.

[Adam_H]

K Charles wrote:
POR-15

+1. Don't need to clean the rust out, it reacts with the rust. Fill the tube, shake hitch to get the POR-15 to cover the inside, dump excess. Will not rust again....

Adam

[Hondavalk]

Maybe have it powder coated.

[bogie514]

The outside of the hitch is not problem - it is how to get inside the hitch tube which has a bend in the middle where the square receiver is welded.

[Swell1]

If you have access, sandblast the hitch then apply a 2 part zinc rich epoxy primer followed by a urethane top coat. that would be the best you could get.

[K_Charles]

POR-15

[2_many_2]

I use Must For Rust on everything. The nice part is, it is easy to use, you just spray it on and leave it.