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I actually discovered this last October when I was moving but I haven't had time to deal with it till today.

This is most likely due to a hot water heater overflow that ran through my garage. I remember seeing the evidence that there had been some water coming from the overflow pipe in the drain pan but I didn't think it had made it to the safe. I guess it did

Just finished scraping and sanding off the worst of it and I'm going to hit it with some naval jelly. Doesn't seem too severe but it is beyond surface rust in some places. No where near rusting through though. I think I'm going to put a layer of plastic under it when I stand it back up to keep the ever present moisture from the slab from getting to it. Unfortunately the only place I can put the thing is in the garage. I've had 3 of those little rechargable de-humidifiers in it for years and despite needing to be plugged in and dried out every other week the guns all seem fine. I'm adding an electric de-humidifier into the safe as well.

If you have a safe in your garage make sure you check the bottom of it every once in a while.

Perhaps a good coat of paint after proper prep since it was already turned over. ?

flechero wrote:Perhaps a good coat of paint after proper prep since it was already turned over. ?

I considered that and decided against it. I have had some pretty horrific experiences with heavy painted things getting practically welded to whatever they are sitting on. Plus I figured quite a bit of it would be scratched off while my wife and I slid it back into place.

What I did instead was to give the bottom (after prep) a good liberal bath of WD-40. I also sprayed down the patch of concrete in the garage where it will be sitting with a good coat of WD-40. Hopefully this will slow down the problem till I either a: buy a house or b: buy a new bigger safe.

If the safe is not bolted down, why not just put something like a piece of diamond plate under it to allow for minor air flow under it?

Dirthawking wrote:If the safe is not bolted down, why not just put something like a piece of diamond plate under it to allow for minor air flow under it?

I had the same issue when mine set on the garage slab. Sanded & painted again when we moved it. The air flow has worked GOOD.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Preserv ... eel-Iron-/We used this stuff years ago on pipe probes that, by law, couldn't be painted...worked great for us...

RogueUSMC wrote:http://www.instructables.com/id/Preserv ... eel-Iron-/We used this stuff years ago on pipe probes that, by law, couldn't be painted...worked great for us...

I think I've heard of that stuff before. The safe isn't too much of a pain to tip over (yes I know...should be bolted down) so maybe I'll revisit this problem. I think the WD-40 will certainly do the trick though.

Question: There are only some small pits of rust left that I just couldn't quite sand out. Will those pits continue to oxidize and grow even after I've hit the whole thing with naval jelly and tons of WD-40?

Paint the bottom with POR-15

We had a couple of water issues in the house, including one that went under my safe. Now, to give early warning, I use a couple of these
water leak detectors. Cheap insurance.