My drive shaft was extremely rusty and I did not know if I should to try and remove the rust or get a replacement. I decided to try and clean it but how? I decided to jack up the car on all fours and treat the drive shaft like a lathe. I started it up, put in drive and craweled under the car with sandpaper, wire brush, file and steel wool. I first used 36 grit in line sander sandpaper, then 80 grit and finished with 120, then I went up and down the drive shaft with the wire brush, then up and down with a flat file and finally finished with steel wool. I was able to get all the rust off for most of the shaft except at the very ends due to the balance weights. I removed the drive shaft and finished the ends of with a wire wheel and wire brush. Once that was done I sprayed the whole shaft with brake clean and wiped it dry. Painted it with rust reformer, then primer and finally hammer coat. There is no more rust but it is still pitted but I do not think that is going to pose any problems. It's kind of funny most of the underside is clean but there spots that are very rusty and it mostly bolts or part of the transmount. The underside of the body looks good. The frame looks good. It's like someone did not clean the underside after 4 wheeling. So my continuing project will be attacking the rust front to rear.

 

did you use Rust Ole-um rust reformer?

i did a test on that stuff and it doesn't work on "normal" rust. very light surface rust it barely works on.

 

Dude you will not get that time back in your life, why would you do something like that for one you are taking one hell of a chance crawling under a vehicle that is running and in gear(WOW I hope you don't have a family) the rust is not causing a problem or you did not mention it unless you are taking it to a show with mirrors where people can see under your vehicle NEVER ever crawl under a vehicle while it is running, nobody sees your drive shaft why would you care what it looks like?????

 

x2 i just finished reading the rest of it. thats reallly really dangerous. unless you have a lift and another person. even then its still dangerous but safer then a small jack and leaving a vehicle in gear with no one in it. better to be safe then sorry

 

Blueblazer you are correct but still the question has not been answered why would you do something like that???????????

 

I plead the fith. Actually, the car was on solid jacks all the way around there was no movement and not really any difference then if it was on a lift. This was no mere surface rust it was very severe caked on rust. It was just like working on a lathe with the exception of exhuast nearby and a rotating tire. I was not going to do it if I felt that it was not safe to do so. Once I started the engine and put in drive there was no movement, I slid under car and had plenty of room to work. Once I started with the sandpaper it was very easy and straight forward and never felt at risk.

Note: As you can see from the pics that the drive shaft is very pitted, but no more rust.

 

Aside from a very quick way to end up with a Darwin Award, I actually like your approach. Not something I'd have thought to do, but it really did the job for you, and you seem to have gone at it in the safest way possible. Kudos for some slightly questionable innovation, and as long as it makes you happy to have gotten rid of the rust, then good on ya.