Frame Prep?

[Dads64]

What is the best way to prep a frame for painting/coating? I do not have the ready access to blasting so I have been going at it with various wire wheels and cups and of course you can't get in every little nook that way.

Also, what coatings seem to work best outside of POR-15?

Thanks for any and all tips,
Jay

[Rich 5150 69]

If you are using Por 15, that is the best way to handle the cleaning, por 15 is a rust encapsulator/converter it works best that way, if you were sandblasting you would use an epoxy primer like DP 90 to be sprayed on.

[biohazardbill]

On the frame in the pic, I used my 4" grinder and 2 different types of wire wheels you can find at your local Home Depot, Lowes etc. One wheel was the full 4" diameter the other was like a 2" diamer and the wire bristles were facing away from the grinder ( you will see what im talking about when you get there) for the hard to reach spots, each wheel was about $15. Once cleaned I used a 40 grit paper to rough it up, wiped it down with wax and grease remover, and sprayed with Chassis Saver (kinda like POR-15).

[markeb01]

The best tool I’ve found for sanding odd shaped areas is the Black and Decker Mouse Sander. It comes with a variety of attachments that allow access to a bunch of difficult to reach spaces. The sandpaper is attached by Velcro, so once the selected attachment is in place changing the paper is easy. Here’s what it looks like. The Amazon links show more detail, but they don’t want to copy over to the forum. In places where even this won’t fit, I’ve had some decent success using a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a paint stick:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...602&ci_gpa=pla

We did our frame in POR-15 back in 1998 and I’ve been so disappointed in the results I don’t use it anymore. If I need comparable rust type paint I use Zero Rust. If I were to do my entire frame over at this point I’d do what you are doing and clean it up down to bare metal, then paint it with epoxy primer followed by a coat of enamel. Depending on the level of detail desired, if you don’t have spray equipment the epoxy can still be applied by brush. You just have to stay within the induction and cure times same as spraying.

[Dads64]

Great tips guys, I will look into the sander also. Keep them coming.

Thanks,
Jay

[Jeff La]

Originally Posted by markeb01

We did our frame in POR-15 back in 1998 and I’ve been so disappointed in the results I don’t use it anymore. If I need comparable rust type paint I use Zero Rust. If I were to do my entire frame over at this point I’d do what you are doing and clean it up down to bare metal, then paint it with epoxy primer followed by a coat of enamel. Depending on the level of detail desired, if you don’t have spray equipment the epoxy can still be applied by brush. You just have to stay within the induction and cure times same as spraying.

What kind of trouble did you have with the POR 15. I was gonna use this with my frame so I'm curious. Thanks for any help

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

What kind of trouble did you have with the POR 15. I was gonna use this with my frame so I'm curious. Thanks for any help

I used POR-15 in two separate stages, first on the front crossmember and later on the rest of the chassis and bottom of the cab. The 1975 front suspension was wire wheeled and sandblasted to bare metal, then brush painted with POR-15. It looked beautiful in the beginning:



Over the next 15 years some of it aged well and some peeled off. My fault, poor prep didn’t leave a rough enough surface for the POR to stick to.

The frame and floor were prepped differently. This is probably the best example I have of a before picture.



Most of the frame and bottom of the cab showed very light surface rust over very thin paint or bare metal. Up until this time, the truck lived its entire life in California and had no cancer anywhere except the lower front fenders. So we scrubbed the chassis with Simple Green and a second time with a very strong mix of Tide laundry detergent before wiping it all down with wax and grease remover. Then POR-15 was applied by brush. Other than having a slightly rougher surface, it was shiny black and looked just as good as the front crossmember when first done.

Here’s what it looks like today. Again I don’t have any high quality photos, but the frame and control arms speak for themselves. At one time all this was gloss black.







By comparison my previous ride was a 46 Ford sedan. The entire chassis including the floor was bare metal with minor surface rust. I cleaned it up and coated the bare metal with Corroless rust stabilizing primer, followed by a couple of heavy flow coats of hardened acrylic enamel. Here are some in process shots. Sorry about the quality they are almost 30 years old and began life as very small pictures:









Eight years and 300,000 miles later, this is what the car looked like. The chassis remained nice and shiny once the dirt was wiped off. Unfortunately I don’t have any after photos of the bottom of the car:



After all the wonderful things I read about POR, I actually did expect it to perform like my previous effort, since just as much work went into both projects. Had I known it was going to end up looking similar to what I started with, I would have done the truck the same as the sedan since I had experience with the durability of that process.

[Jeff La]

Thanks for the reply, I'm trying to get my game plan down on what I want to do and now that I've seen what you experienced I'll probably not use the por 15. Thanks again.

[kevinc]

Excellent comparison and product testimonial. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Kevin C

[GMR-PERFORMANCE]

POR -15 , I had all my stuff media blasted. I looked around and found a good deal. Guy charged me 1500 for the entire truck. I had it all apart. Under the cab I still had to use a wire brush in a few places. Some of the under coating or what ever it was would not come off. It I cannot get it off no sense in worring about it.. I sprayed my on.

I know guys have used the 4 inch grinders and such. Much more work but you save some money.

[csa daddy]

Por 15 is not a top coat it says it is supposed to be sprayed over top of it the other rust inhibitor you used you said you sprayed several coats of epoxy primer over it an that is proablly why it looks like it does now. If you use the por 15 for a top coat the uv rays will get it I'm fixing to blast my chassis an use the por 15 with a semigloss black over top of it
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[Dads64]

So about how much POR 15 are you guys using to cover the frame and chassis parts? I have heard a little actually goes a long way.

Thanks,
Jay

[biohazardbill]

With the Chassis Saver (which is alot like POR-15) i used less than a quart on my frame and axles, 2 coats sprayed.

[Dads64]

Well guys it has been a long time coming but I finally got the frame suspension parts and rear end all done. I had to get this done peior to shoulder surgery as I will be into winter before I am recovered and can't paint then. I ended up going with Zero Rust and went with a combination of spray and brush. I think it turned out well, here are a few pics.

Jay