I got annoyed with the fact that everytime i work on anything under the dash i have to deal with the most rusted bar ever. So i removed it and took it to work, sand blasted and threw it in the paint booth and painted it with some old red paint we had lying around. No more rust!!!

Didnt take to much time with the paint job since you wont see it. But turned out ok.

Are they all rusted like this? the 3 dashes i have ever seen are!

 

Mine is pretty rusted as well. Seems more of a surface rust though. Engineers must have been thinking we could save $0.xx if we don't coat this with zinc or anything, and it is inside the car, so it shouldn't rust as fast.

 

i was thinking the same thing (save a few bucks) your right it is mostly surface rust, but i had a few areas with a little pitting.