Cleaning your frame for paint

[mark '87 930]

just curious as to how the rest of you go about cleaning your frames to paint them. I only want to do a bit at a time (like maybe just under the bed this winter.)


I can't use a sandblaster as it's in my garage, but I need/want to get it clean for paint..

[slowcpe]

When I built my mustang I spent many nights underneath the car scraping with a putty knife, degreaser and sanding before primer/paint. This truck build I'm going to have the frame sandblasted and powder coated. Can't beat it for the money.

[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.

[mechanixman]

after scraping off what you can, and the degreaser (like dan said)
I like to use a wire wheel on a grinder the one in the picture is mine. I bought that wheel for $4 at menards. Been 4 months, and I haven't had to replace it yet.
But MAKE SURE you've cleaned all the sizable chunks of dirt/grease off the frame first. Otherwise they hit you in the leg and get a bruise you can't see. (ask me how I know )

[1952]

save yourself a lot of" I should have had it sandblasted and zinc coated at the powder coating shop" after getting covered head to toe in rust, gunk and degreaser.
Wasting your time and money on wire wheels and degreaser etc....
for a couple hundred or so they sand blast and acetone clean the frame and coat it in zinc and oven bake it on
Done nice and clean protected from rust and ready for you to paint it if you don't decide to powder coat the paint on
I tried it one way and after the sand blast routine I will never do it the hard way again

[av8tr33337]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6hSteQoazw

Originally Posted by mark '87 930

just curious as to how the rest of you go about cleaning your frames to paint them. I only want to do a bit at a time (like maybe just under the bed this winter.)


I can't use a sandblaster as it's in my garage, but I need/want to get it clean for paint..

This is what I did but my frame was not as bad as some of the original truck frames as far as rust goes. I just had a lot of surface rust, dirt and grime. took be about 20 hours using a grinder, knotted wire cups. also you cant get into all the nooks and crannies around the cross members, etc. I did it over several days and spayed WD40 on it overnight to loosen up the surface rust. You can look at my build for more details. Good Luck.

[_Ogre]

i did my frame in 3 steps; pulled the bed, cleaned up the rear and hung the new(er) axle;
then i pulled the front clip and installed the ifs; and finally pulled the cab to finish the frame.
i scraped and degreased most of the gunk off, but there is no substitution for getting it sand blast clean.
i hung tarps and plastic to box in my truck when i sand blasted my frame for each step.
my sand blaster was an eastwoods blast-in-a-bucket. it's slow but effective

do you plan on pulling the bed, cleaning up the frame, reassembling everything and driving your truck in the spring?
that might work if your staying stock, but any customizing and that plan will go to heck in a hand basket quickly.

rear


front


under cab

[Dan in Pasadena]

Sorry, duplicate post.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

i did my frame in 3 steps; pulled the bed, cleaned up the rear and hung the new(er) axle;
then i pulled the front clip and installed the ifs; and finally pulled the cab to finish the frame.
i scraped and degreased most of the gunk off, but there is no substitution for getting it sand blast clean.
i hung tarps and plastic to box in my truck when i sand blasted my frame for each step.
my sand blaster was an eastwoods blast-in-a-bucket. it's slow but effective

This is the sequence I plan to follow. But I likely won't get to pull my cab til after I retire. It HAS occurred to me to try to do under the cab while its still on the truck. I think its doable but would be a nasty, dirty, PITA job that - I mean more than it will be already. I plan to use my old Craftsman siphon feed portable sandblaster just for the tight areas I can't get to with a wire wheel.

Ogre, what paint did you use? Sprayed or brush/rolled?

[OrrieG]

Power wash, 3M purple shreaded wheat 80 Grit disc, wire wheel for stubborn places. It helped that I had completely done it once before when I installed the axles in 85. That effort was a week of long evenings and ended up burning up a 1/4" drill. It was winter, I remember the condensation from my breath freezing on the metal above. Turned out to be -5...

3 coats primer, 3 coats Nason single stage chassis black.

[1958Warrior]

I used a wire wheel on 4" grinder , used a die grinder with some Harbor freight wire wheel assortment for some tighter spots, washed and scrubbed with Dawn dish soap and scotch brite pads , Primed with rustoleum rusty metal primer Let it cure for 3-4 days, painted with Rustoleum gloss black ,protective enamel ,Let it cure for 3-4 days,
I've done mine in stages, did my Camaro clip , then did the rear ,as I did the rear axle flip, still have to do under the cab in a few weeks. 1 qt of primer-$8.50, 1 qt of black paint -$8.50, probably will need a little more it goes on thick.
$25 bucks + some cheap harbor freight 1-1/2" brushes and some elbow grease. Can't beat it, save the $300+ to put in the tank, Buy parts to make it stop and go AND BEER. Powder coating the frame isn't necessary, a well painted frame will withstand dirt and mud puddles, just fine.

[mr48chev]

My frame is crud free but has surface rust and after i get everything off it that it doesn't need it goes on the boat trailer and up to the sand blaster. It's a bare frame sitting on saw horses now though.

As you don't want to pull the cab, I'd say that if it still has all four wheels on it I'd scrape as much of the crud off as I could with a putty knife and then roll it out and soak it down with Oil Eater or the purple stuff and get it down to the local car wash that has the strongest pressure (or is the closest) and wash the daylights out of it to get the oil and grease of it as well as you can. You want to do it when the manager isn't around though. If you have access to a pressure washer you could roll it out to a spot where you don't care if grease and oil get on the ground or lay that old tarp that you were going to throw in the trash under it to catch the crud and wash away. I'd still wash it off away from the cement or pavement even with a tarp under it. Then when it drys start in with the angle grinder and wire brush and the little sand blaster.

I think I would just go with the rustolium or other tough industrial style paint and brush or spray it on.

Personally I am not a big fan of powdercoating frames on these trucks as it always seems that I am making changes that would screw the powder coating up and it wouldn't be repairable. It is probably ok for vehicles with stock frames that will never get modified but I'd rather just repaint any area that I worked on and go again.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by 1958Warrior

I used a wire wheel on 4" grinder , used a die grinder with some Harbor freight wire wheel assortment for some tighter spots, washed and scrubbed with Dawn dish soap and scotch brite pads , Primed with rustoleum rusty metal primer Let it cure for 3-4 days, painted with Rustoleum gloss black ,protective enamel ,Let it cure for 3-4 days,
I've done mine in stages, did my Camaro clip , then did the rear ,as I did the rear axle flip, still have to do under the cab in a few weeks. 1 qt of primer-$8.50, 1 qt of black paint -$8.50, probably will need a little more it goes on thick.
$25 bucks + some cheap harbor freight 1-1/2" brushes and some elbow grease. Can't beat it, save the $300+ to put in the tank, Buy parts to make it stop and go AND BEER. Powder coating the frame isn't necessary, a well painted frame will withstand dirt and mud puddles, just fine.

This is my plan exactly. If someone WANTS to powder coat their frame, by all means have at it. But for my budget and the way I'll use my truck a nice gloss black from Rustoleum will be excellent.

[mark '87 930]

Thanks guys. I do plan on just doing the under bed section this winter as this is my daily driver come Spring time.

I don't plan to do any mods. I have to remove the spring perches and weld up some cracks as it's leaking... I also have to change the drive angle a little as it's off slightly in the back (and i already have 2 deg wedges). I like the wire wheel idea, it should go quickly as my frame is in very good shape with almost no rust, but the sheer amount of dirt and great near the suspension mounts is unreal!

[oldcouple]

And use good jack stands, not cement blocks.

[_Ogre]

dan, i used por15 on the frame. brushed on it flows out well. 20k miles and no rust or chips.
the only other product i would recommend would be zero-rust, a marine grade paint.

orrieg, we were younger then. bullet proof

mark, while that sounds like a good idea for the bed area, it won't work up front too well.
while you have the bed off, rebuild the rear suspension. blow the springs apart, clean them up and paint the parts.
it's an amazing transformation, i still have stock rear suspension in truk

[Russell Ashley]

POR 15 or powder coating are good ways to go with a frame, but for a driver Rustoleum paint at about $10 per quart is hard to beat. This is especially true when you are doing it like many of us do, section at a time. This is my third truck that I have used black Rustoleum on the frames with good results. I spray mine but you can brush it on with good results. It flows out good.

[1958Warrior]

The good thing about the rusty metal primer is you don't have to get all the rust off, just knock it down to get any loose rust off, wear a dust mask, but do get the old grease and oil good and clean.

Ogre has good advise there, when I took my springs apart I had some bad pitting in between the springs, and also on the frame when I took the rear mount off to put it on top of the frame. Also, found out my leaf spring bushings and pins were seize up ,all that grease that was caked on the outside had come from the inside and never got re-greased. My truck was from west Texas and it had red sand in every nook and cranny.

I'm concerned about the cracks ,they're on the axle? Did you ever get the vibration problem figured out?

[1958Warrior]

Remember these trucks have been abused and neglected for years, so just like the fat girl at the bar, Any love you show her will be appreciated, I've even been known to talk dirty to my truck when working on her,... She responds well but she's stubborn.

[G&R's57GMC]

I had a rusty frame that I stripped of everything that was not going tone used in the rebuild. I did this on my car trailer.

I took it to the powder coater and had them blast it, took it home and painted it with 2 coats of Duplicolor self etching primer followed by 2 coats of Duplicolor semi gloss black.
It took 2 cases of rattle cans. Total cost $200.

I painted it while still on the trailer on a drop cloth. I used my engine hoist to flip it over to get full coverage.

Now it was ready to be boxed and the suspension installed.

Its so much better to work on a clean frame then a rusted one. Just grind off the paint where you need to weld then prime and paint and go on to the next part to be welded on.
Now your ready to assemble the components.

First pic shows the factory front cross member fresh from blasting, the self etching primer on the rails and the finish semi gloss paint .

Second pic: the finished chassis.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by 1958Warrior

Remember these trucks have been abused and neglected for years, so just like the fat girl at the bar, Any love you show her will be appreciated, I've even been known to talk dirty to my truck when working on her,... She responds well but she's stubborn.

Oh man, you just opened a memory I had done a good job of suppressing. All I'm saying is rich big girl with a 69 Indy PAce Car Camero in 1969.....

[HUSSEY]

I power washed my frame, completly degreased it. Hit it with a heavy twisted wire wheel on an angle grinder. Wiped it down with wax and grease remover. Applied Ospho, let it cure out. Scuff with a Scotch pad and applied Rustoleum enamel from a can. There are better methods but I find this quick, easy, and cost effective.

[1958Warrior]

MMMM....Pace car, ..Yep any love is good love !!!

[snehpetsffej]

I blasted mine in my drive way

[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.