Cleaning your frame for paint

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Kabwe

Cleaned mine with degreaser and water hose to remove the greasy build up and then I removed the paint with a wire brush on a grinder, I removed the rust with phosphoric acid.

This is plan. Except my frame won't be fully naked.

"snehpetsffej"?! I think I'm just gonna call you "alphabet"

Was that a big commercial blaster or a little siphon feed?

[mark '87 930]

"so just like the fat girl at the bar, Any love you show her will be appreciated", now that's funny.

Ogre, when you say blow apart the springs, do you mean each individual leaf?

I don't plan on using blocks.... I have a hoist a will do most of it while it's on there. I have to park my daily driver underneath during the winter months.

[1958Warrior]

Yep , and you actually save money on the drinks cause you don't have to get them drunk ,but you may want to be.

Mark, when I took my springs apart they were pitted pretty bad from the rust plus there was a impression 1/32" or better worn into the leafs of the springs by the other leafs rubbing them. Best to take them apart clean them up and paint and install leaf spring liner between them to let them slide, will eliminate the squeaks also .Not hard to do at all ,but will need to make some new straps to wrap around the assembled springs and tack weld to the lower spring like the originals just to keep the springs inline. Easy to do on a Saturday .
I know Ogre had some liner left over for sale cheap in the Classified section, wish I had seen it before I bought mine.

[G&R's57GMC]

I got lazy on this one and had it blasted and powder coated Red & Black $ 350

[55metalmonkey]

After $40 in strip discs and only having 1/4 of one side done and doing little better than buffing rust with a wire wheel I broke down and had it media blasted. Best $300 I ever spent, got it back 3 days later, soaked it with zinc phosphate and sprayed a few coats of epoxy paint. As much of a DIY guy as I am, sometimes its just cheaper,faster and better to send it out.

[roger55]

Blasting mine in the carport as we speak.
It's about 3/4 done and I have about 6 to 8 hours in it.
I'm going to finish it up as soon as it quits raining.



Afterwards, I'm going to paint it with SPI epoxy primer and leave it just like that. I'll do the first coat in gray and the second in black. I've found I can get the second coat more even that way.

[mark '87 930]

that's wonderful, to be able to strip your truck entirely and rebuild it piece by piece.. i don't have the time or motivation to do that. I put about 7K miles a year on mine.. unless it becomes a show truck, i have no need to do that other than for ****s and giggles...

1958warrior, I'll have to look and see if i can source some leaf spring liner and a new clamp locally (read Canada).

[roger55]

Originally Posted by mark '87 930

that's wonderful, to be able to strip your truck entirely and rebuild it piece by piece.. i don't have the time or motivation to do that. I put about 7K miles a year on mine.. unless it becomes a show truck, i have no need to do that other than for ****s and giggles...

1958warrior, I'll have to look and see if i can source some leaf spring liner and a new clamp locally (read Canada).

Yes, I'm into a chore no doubt. Not a show truck though. But, the cab had to come off for me to deal with the rust issues it had.

[1958Warrior]

Your springs have a clamp with a bolt holding it ,and 2 straps close to the ends. My straps just broke when I spread them to disassemble the springs. here's a pic of the kind of strap I'm referring to:
http://image.circletrack.com/f/chass...uspensions.jpg

I just cut the old strap off with cut off wheel on the grinder and replaced them with some flat stock I picked up at home depot $5:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded...7920/202183541

I tacked it to the bottom spring (no major weld, don't want to heat the spring too much), used a dead blow hammer to bend it around the spring and tacked the ends together on top (but not to the spring)

Ogre still has the spring liner in his ad $10
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=541659

[Dan in Pasadena]

Roger, What kind of blaster are you using, and what media?

[roger55]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Roger, What kind of blaster are you using, and what media?

It's an HF blaster. I don't think they carry the model anymore.
The media is Black Diamond from Tractor Supply.

Here's a photo that has the blaster. I was doing my Bel Air frame in this one.

[Gippetto]

I power washed then wire pushed, rust treated and painted in that order. I did that in sections.

A note to "1952": They wanted $400 to sandblast my frame with no mention of painting anything. I am in the Boston area if that makes a difference.

[roger55]

I sprayed my '57 3200 frame yesterday.

Here it is all blasted and ready to spray:



After the first coat of SPI epoxy primer in gray:





After the second coat of SPI epoxy primer in black:





Just for information, I used 2 1/4 quarts of epoxy (mixed) per coat. So, total thats 4 1/2 quarts and is a little under $100 worth of epoxy. I used about 3 bags of blasting media max and at $8 per bag that's $24. So total, it cost right about $125 for materials to do the frame.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Roger, for the info AND for the photos. That's what this palce is all about, sharing.

I can't tell you how much I wish I had the space to tear mine all apart to do it like you have. It would be SO satisfying to drive a truck you knew down tothe last nut-on-bolt.
But I admit I'm worried that if I ever did that I might get "stuck" and take forever to get it all put back together again.

So is the SPI black primer your finish coat or will you put something else on as a final topcoat? Whatever you do, it looks great as is. Huge congratulations! Thanks again, Dan

[roger55]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Thanks Roger, for the info AND for the photos. That's what this palce is all about, sharing.

I can't tell you how much I wish I had the space to tear mine all apart to do it like you have. It would be SO satisfying to drive a truck you knew down tothe last nut-on-bolt.
But I admit I'm worried that if I ever did that I might get "stuck" and take forever to get it all put back together again.

So is the SPI black primer your finish coat or will you put something else on as a final topcoat? Whatever you do, it looks great as is. Huge congratulations! Thanks again, Dan

Thanks for the nice compliments!!!

I'm just going leave the SPI black epoxy as-is without a topcoat. After it cures, it loses a little of the lustre that you see in the photo. But, it's stays as a nice semi-gloss that I think looks a lot like chassis-black.

[BIG10SILVERADO]

I've cleaned a few frames by hand and I found a spray bottle of mineral spritits and a wire brush work wonders.

[49gmcsteve]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Scrape the chunks off with putty knives.
Wash w/ heavy duty degreaser. Harbor Freight actually has some radioactive-waste-colored electric yellow/green stuff that is relatively cheap. Then used a knotted wire wheel on a 4 in. grinder or even a drill motor if that's all you have. Final wipe with acetone and prime paint. I'm gonna use Rustoleum brushed and rolled because my truck will be a driver and I want to be able to touch it up easily.

what he said....

I took the whole truck apart and sandblasted it. now I'm reassembling

[roger55]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Thanks Roger, for the info AND for the photos. That's what this palce is all about, sharing.
I can't tell you how much I wish I had the space to tear mine all apart to do it like you have. It would be SO satisfying to drive a truck you knew down tothe last nut-on-bolt.
But I admit I'm worried that if I ever did that I might get "stuck" and take forever to get it all put back together again.
So is the SPI black primer your finish coat or will you put something else on as a final topcoat? Whatever you do, it looks great as is. Huge congratulations! Thanks again, Dan

Here's another photo that shows how the SPI epoxy looks after it's had a few days time to cure. The lustre has gone down a little but still looks semi-gloss.

[musgrave]

Go buy your self a small sand blaster & save your self a lot of time & Money

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by musgrave

Go buy your self a small sand blaster & save your self a lot of time & Money

I actually have a little one like that, that I got as a gift and never used about 20+ years ago! I think the hoses dryrotted on it, so I have to replace them but otherwise it oughta work fine. Anyone know if ordinary heater hose or fuel hose will work ok or if something special is required?

I now have a 60 gallon single stage upright Harbor Fright compressor to use with it. Hopefully that will be enough to run it as long as I'm in no rush.

My problem is I don't physically have space to completely tear down my truck so I'll be masking and doing from the cab-backward, then paint. Replace bed and doing the firewall-forward, then later I'll get under the cab and see what I can do with wire brush for the majority of it and use the sandblaster for those (hopefully few?) areas I just can't get clean enough.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Roger & Musgrave, How did you lift your frames and carry them inside after they were painted without dragging them and screwing up your new paint?

Roger, your floor shows no evidence of dragging. Stupid question coming: Can a bare frame be lifted by two men or is it a 4 guy job?

[roger55]

Dan, my frame is a '57 long bed frame. It's pretty heavy for 2 people but can be done by 2 big guys. 4 people can move one real easy.

You can move one around pretty easy with 2 hand trucks and 2 people. That's what I did. Got my neighbor (Clay54 here) to help me.
2 people can put one up on saw horses one end at a time pretty well too.

An AF frame looks lighter to me but don't know that. I do know my '55 Bel Air frame was way, way lighter. I could move that one around myself really easy by putting one end on a dolly. I could put it up on saw horses myself too.

I do agree with Musgrave about blasting being cheap. I did mine with three $8 bags of Black Diamond media from Tractor Supply. I reclaimed my media and reused it.

[G&R's57GMC]

I used a my engine hoist to pick up and move my frame, also used it to flip it over. Used it to mount the frame to 2 engine stands also.

[1958Warrior]

While I had my axle out to do the flip, I had taken the bed off ,I sat the cab on 4 jack stands, lowered rear of the frame, onto a 4x4 on a 4 wheeled (HF) furniture dolly . The front of the frame (cab forward) was painted when I did the Camaro clip. Had the front wheels on the frame just rolled it forward out from under the cab and raised it back up and put on jack stands . With 2 furniture dollies it would've work also.
The frame is pretty much straight it went quick with the 4.5in knotted wire wheel on the grinder. I removed the cab mounts and painted separately and bolted back on with grade 8 bolts. Part that was tough was the 2 cross members , they have a "V" shape brace coming off the bottom of the frame. Had to use a die grinder and some small wire wheels to get in there , I would think it would be hard angle to get at with a sandblaster also.

[mark '87 930]

you guys have done wonderful work of the frame. My catch is i don't have time to take everything apart and reassemble before spring. I may look into a syphon type blaster and roll the truck (minus bed) outside the garage and do that part.

nice work Roger55 and musgrave. that looks nice.