To pull the body or not?

[D-n-Tyke]

So the picture below is the current state of our build. Have the front clip off and the frame from the trans crossmember forward stripped. Getting all the suspension components blasted and ready for paint. My original plan was to sandblast from about the firewall forward and paint it. But now I am wondering if I should pull the body and do the whole frame. This ofcourse was supposed to be a "budget" build and I am trying to keep build creep to a minimum. However, I also don't want to cause myself more work later, or worse have to redo work later. I am already planning on replacing all the body mounts so will already be touching those. Need some advice here, pull it or leave it on the body and work around it.

For those that have pulled their body off the frame how difficult was it. I don't have a lift or anything like that so it would mostlikely be 4x4's under the bidy on jack stands. Any advice on how you did it without a lift.

[Accelo]

Repeat after me, budget builds are a figment of imagination!

For me it would come down to "will I drive it in the rain"?
Some POR and a brush work will clean up a frame nicely.
Way more work, I know of some great restorations done exactly that way.

However, it it's going to shows only in the summer I would pull the frame.
Have it blasted and powder coated.

Keep track close track of the body mounts, reproductions I have seen are all crap.
(My core support rubber mounts cracked before the truck was back on the road)

Pull the brakes off the differential. Just leave the backing plates on it. Leave the rest together and have it blasted at the same time they do the frame. Then paint the diff, not powder coat, then rebuild the wheel and pinion seals. Cleaning these up by hand is a PITA. Especially the heavy 3/4T like yours.

Most powder coating business have a oven that will bake the steel to remove the hydrocarbons from the steel before blasting. It get to 900 degrees. My front cross-member was full of oil. They cooked it and blasted it and powder coated it. Even the inside looked like new and was coated 100% or at least as far as I could see.

No springs allowed in the 900 deg oven as it will remove the temper. 400 degrees used for power coating is fine for springs. Some think it is to hot, it has worked out fine for me.
The price for powder coating varies a lot in my area. By shopping I paid almost half the first quote.
Nice rig. Looks almost rust free. You have a keeper there.

[BAD1916]

I was in the same boat. I had it up on jackstands in the driveway with the engine,trans all front and rear suspension exhaust, lines, rear end and gas tank out. I kept going back and forth on pulling the frame. My truck is a driver so I decided just to really clean up the frame firewall forward really good and the rest I hit quick with a wire wheel and blacked it out. It came out good enough for me and is clean enough to work on without getting too dirty. I agree with Accelo on cleaning the rear ends. It was a bear moving it around by myself to clean it up and paint it. Everything else got powder coated and hardware got plated. Rest of the truck still looks like crap.

[HO455]

For me it would depend on the condition of the sheetmetal.

Are the body mounts and floor pans solid? If so then I would raise the body a couple of inches so I could clean and wire brush the frame and then coat it with POR.

If you have rust that requires anything more than a simple round piece of sheetmetal to replace the rusted area, then having the frame out of the way will definitely help with larger rust replacement.

[CG]

Pulling the body is not creep ... Its all in. We pulled the body on my panel, those suckers are heavy. It took seven of us to get it up and on to the stand I built.

Ive got a Burb going now and Im not taking the body off haha.