My 06 is starting to show some small patches of rust on the tailgate. The bottom right corner has a strip about 4" long and there are a few random spots in the middle of the tailgate.

I tried using a dremel to remove the rust and some surrounding paint last fall and then taped it off and sprayed with a color matched paint but it looked pretty bad. When taping off the spot, you can't tape to the shape of the rust spot, so you have a perfect square which is a brighter white than the rest of the truck, due to fading paint over the years and rust has already come back through my paint job.

Any suggestions?

 

It's hard to fight rust. Try using some rust stop liquid. I think napa sells it. you just brush on and it drys as a primer. top coat and you are done. Works good if you have rust in a seam where you can't get to.

 

take the tailgate off, sand it down so the rust is gone, throw some kind of rustproof compound, prime it, paint it and your dont

 

I tried using rust stopper paint on the wheel wells on my bed last year and sprayed over the rust with the color matched duplicolor paint and some clear coat. It looked good from a few feet back, you really didnt notice the difference unless you looked for it. But now the rust is back after a few months. I've heard good things about POR15 rust prevention paint so I'm going to try that next, might be worth looking into.

 

POR15 is the best stuff around for rust prevention.

 

Once you have rust showing through, there is nothing you can do, other than cutting it out and patching with new metal, or covering it like above said. There is no other way.

 

That product is for preventing rust. Once you have it, that product will do nothing to stop it.

 

Incorrect. It is suppose to seal, cover and completely stop rust! Hence the name Paint Over Rust! It actually bonds to rust better than bare metal.
Eastwood has mimic'd POR15 by calling their product 'Rust Encapsulator'.
They use a Urethane which cures by way of Moisture. it sucks all of the moisture out of the rust and this is how it seals. Rust needs moisture to spread. No moisture, no spreading.

I've used POR15 on both bare metal and rusty metal. It's by far a better product and adhere's much better to rusty metal that had been cleaned and prepped for paint.


OP,
Completely sand and then use an epoxy primer, the a sealer. Re-spray entire gate to paint match. Only way to get it done besides buying a new tailgate.