Am I the only one?

[jmonica]

Man every place I look on my Envoy is nothing but rust. It drives me crazy. Here's a look at the liftgate striker. Is this normal? Does anyone else have rust like this?

I took it off and electroplated it in nickel/cobalt. I will post pics back in a while to show how it held up. I am not optimistic but we shall see I guess.

 

[Maverick6587]

Yup, both my 06' and 07' were pretty bad. Do you have a link from where you bought the replacement from?

 

[Reprise]

Man every place I look on my Envoy is nothing but rust. It drives me crazy. Here's a look at the liftgate striker. Is this normal? Does anyone else have rust like this?

Umm... most of us in The North wouldn't even consider that striker 'bad', IMHO. There are many who've lost their frames to corrosion (see: Sparky, as just one example). But, yeah, the entire tailgate area tends to suffer. Many have issues with the liftgates rusting in the bottom corners - mine was starting to exhibit it from the inner side (normally covered / obscured by the plastic trim). There's a seam right in that area that joins the inner / outer skins together.

Thankfully, I had my trim removed, and discovered it early enough to put some rust converter on it. But that won't last forever. I've also got some 'bubbles' lifting under the paint on the outer skin, in that same corner. They haven't broken, yet, but when they do, it's gonna look ugly. They'll be the first really visible signs of rust on my body ('03; I try to keep up with the touchup paint, etc., at least 1x a year, just before winter). Having running boards helps, too (I have the LWB).

 

[jmonica]

Yup, both my 06' and 07' were pretty bad. Do you have a link from where you bought the replacement from?

Me?

 

[Maverick6587]

Yeah, were those last two pics of yours (replacement parts) @jmonica ?

 

[Mooseman]

Yep, normal in the north. All of mine are like that.

 

[wstuckey1]

Yeah, were those last two pics of yours (replacement parts) @jmonica ?

He said in the original post that he removed it and electroplated it in nickel/cobalt.

 

[jmonica]

Yeah, were those last two pics of yours (replacement parts) @jmonica ?

Hey Maverick,
Sorry for the delayed response. Unfortunately I wasn't unable to find new replacement strikers so I ended up having t try to refresh the existing one. If I do locate the I will definitely let you know. I have the parts list for the vehicle but it doesn't show that part. I "thin" the door ones at the same though so let me take a look. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into finding new ones.

 

[coolride]

Soak mine in WD40.

 

[hockeyman]

If you can remove the parts, soak them overnight in MetalRescue to see if it removes the rust. Once done, I'd either submerge the part(s) in motor oil, have them powdercoated/galvanized/anodized, or apply a durable epoxy paint to protect them from getting any worse.

That MetalRescue stuff works pretty good, but you usually have to soak the parts in it for about 18-24 hours. Maybe longer...depending on the rust buildup.

 

[JerryIrons]

My rear hatch got so rusty I ended buying one from a junk yard and putting it on in december. I'll see if I can get a pick of the old one, it's terrible. Doors are getting bad now too, but my son turns 16 soon and it will be perfect for him to learn to drive.

It really ticks me off because it seems like everywhere I go, I see a trailblazer with barely any rust.

 

[jmonica]

So it's been a little over 3 years since I posted about my rusted rear latch on my '06 Envoy. Every time I I opened the rear hatch it the latch was always encrusted with rust and so I'd wire wheel it and lubricate it but it always came back fairly quickly. I believe other guys said they had the same problem.

So that's when I decided to plate it in nickel. I had a small nickel plating kit from Caswell.

And so I thought I'd post an update while I am sitting here waiting for some RTV to setup.
After 3 years, it still looks pretty good. I haven't cleaned this or anything and its not lubricated. I can see a small amount of rust underneath it. I'm not sure what that is and I'm not checking because I have enough problems to sort out on this thing for now, but the latch and the bolts were plated and they still look ok.