C2 63 chassis restoration

[Tom Groves]

Doing front suspension after owning my FI SWC for 38 years. Just when I think I see light at the end of the tunnel, something else slows me down! I have researched the archives but cannot find a difinitive answer (maybe there isn't one). I want to refinish my control arms and fastners for my driver with plans (in 10-15 years) to do a body off show job. I have read alot about POR 15, Chassis Saver, extend, rust bullett, epoxy undercoat and more. I have a sand blaster and desire to preserve the car.
Questions:
What is the best media for the blaster, is fine sand OK.
What is best undercoat after blasting
What is best top coat

I WD 40 the frame and all chassis parts 2 times/year and the components look real solid. Is there something better I can do to help preserve the frame till the complete restoration. Thanks for your help.

[Jack H.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

Media isn't as important as blast pressure and distance from the nozzle to the part. You're trying to remove prior paint and surface scale and not open pockets in the original stamped steel surface. Sometimes that can't be helped when you're dealing with heavily oxidized item. There, about all you can do is switch to a soft media and turn DOWN the pressure; when done you'll need a primer or paint that will flow and fill.

DP-90 is an epoxy based paint that's often used on frame/chasis components because it has good 'fill' characteristics. Plus, as an epoxy paint, it sets up tough as nails to reject the abuse of road debris and wind abrasion.

[Jack H.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

Media isn't as important as blast pressure and distance from the nozzle to the part. You're trying to remove prior paint and surface scale and not open pockets in the original stamped steel surface. Sometimes that can't be helped when you're dealing with heavily oxidized item. There, about all you can do is switch to a soft media and turn DOWN the pressure; when done you'll need a primer or paint that will flow and fill.

DP-90 is an epoxy based paint that's often used on frame/chasis components because it has good 'fill' characteristics. Plus, as an epoxy paint, it sets up tough as nails to reject the abuse of road debris and wind abrasion.

[Joe R.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

Tom,

POR 15 and other products like that are something that people use when they don't want to, or care to, take the time and do the chassis correctly.

There are many theories of how to do a frame/chassis correctly. Acid dip is one that is held dearly by some. Sandblast is another and so forth. Pros and cons for each process. Certainly the factory did not have the best way to preserve a frame.

If your frame is pitted by rust the DP series of primers does not have the fill properties that are necessary to fill the pits. The DP series of primers are great for a frame with little or no pitting. As mentioned above, DP primers are epoxy based and will last for a lifetime. They are also very expensive at approximately $100.00 per quart.

I'm a fan of sandblasting and powder coating a frame. The reason--I'm lazy. Just take it to the powder coat company and pick it up ready to put the parts on. It's also very cheap and will last forever. If your powder coat company will listen and pump the powder inside the frame (mine will) it will be a plastic miracle for a lifetime.

As I mentioned above, they are a lot of favorite methods so looking at local and regional NCRS events and asking a lot of questions would be your best bet. There is more than one way to skin a frame.

Regards,

JR

[Joe R.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

Tom,

POR 15 and other products like that are something that people use when they don't want to, or care to, take the time and do the chassis correctly.

There are many theories of how to do a frame/chassis correctly. Acid dip is one that is held dearly by some. Sandblast is another and so forth. Pros and cons for each process. Certainly the factory did not have the best way to preserve a frame.

If your frame is pitted by rust the DP series of primers does not have the fill properties that are necessary to fill the pits. The DP series of primers are great for a frame with little or no pitting. As mentioned above, DP primers are epoxy based and will last for a lifetime. They are also very expensive at approximately $100.00 per quart.

I'm a fan of sandblasting and powder coating a frame. The reason--I'm lazy. Just take it to the powder coat company and pick it up ready to put the parts on. It's also very cheap and will last forever. If your powder coat company will listen and pump the powder inside the frame (mine will) it will be a plastic miracle for a lifetime.

As I mentioned above, they are a lot of favorite methods so looking at local and regional NCRS events and asking a lot of questions would be your best bet. There is more than one way to skin a frame.

Regards,

JR

[Dick W.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

The DP series is a wonderful primer with zinc chromate. It bonds very well to bare metal, glass, chrome, anything that is not covered and you do not want painted:D It is good to use under a good primer/surfacer, which has a good fill. The last frame we did we used DP-90 (black) with KR 36 primer to fill the pits. Used cheap black paint to lightly cover the frame (glide coat) and sanded the KR. Any pits left we primed again and blocked off. Anytime that we hit bare metal before we sprayed KR on, we put another light coat of DP in this area. Time consuming yes, but worthwhile to preserve a frame. When the frame was ready for the color coat, we used Deltron with flatner added to eggshell gloss. This duplicated the original finish gloss very close.

[Dick W.]

Re: C2 63 chassis restoration

The DP series is a wonderful primer with zinc chromate. It bonds very well to bare metal, glass, chrome, anything that is not covered and you do not want painted:D It is good to use under a good primer/surfacer, which has a good fill. The last frame we did we used DP-90 (black) with KR 36 primer to fill the pits. Used cheap black paint to lightly cover the frame (glide coat) and sanded the KR. Any pits left we primed again and blocked off. Anytime that we hit bare metal before we sprayed KR on, we put another light coat of DP in this area. Time consuming yes, but worthwhile to preserve a frame. When the frame was ready for the color coat, we used Deltron with flatner added to eggshell gloss. This duplicated the original finish gloss very close.

[Mike Cobine]

If you want to preserve the frame

you have to open up the back end of the side rails so they drain. There is a really small hole for drainage, maybe even an accident rather than planned, and it just doesn't drain. Later years they had a larger hole.

Since the area is painted black, you can drill a bit larger hole in there to let it drain without it beign noticed. If you are having the car judged, you need to talk to some '63 judges to see if they check the ends of the side rails or not. Otherwise, you have to open this up so it drains if you plan on driving.

You can follow the basic Zebart technique. Shoot the frame whole of oil. In some rust-loving imports, a friend used to use his old motor oil to spray inside the rust-loving unibody and sheetmetal frames which was an awful mess at the time. But his cars went years longer than similar, and he ran them in all sorts of weather.

If the frame is bare, you could spray the inside with oil and give it plenty of time to drain out. The coating left will protect as well as anything.

Have lots and lots of newspapers under the frame.

[Mike Cobine]

If you want to preserve the frame

you have to open up the back end of the side rails so they drain. There is a really small hole for drainage, maybe even an accident rather than planned, and it just doesn't drain. Later years they had a larger hole.

Since the area is painted black, you can drill a bit larger hole in there to let it drain without it beign noticed. If you are having the car judged, you need to talk to some '63 judges to see if they check the ends of the side rails or not. Otherwise, you have to open this up so it drains if you plan on driving.

You can follow the basic Zebart technique. Shoot the frame whole of oil. In some rust-loving imports, a friend used to use his old motor oil to spray inside the rust-loving unibody and sheetmetal frames which was an awful mess at the time. But his cars went years longer than similar, and he ran them in all sorts of weather.

If the frame is bare, you could spray the inside with oil and give it plenty of time to drain out. The coating left will protect as well as anything.

Have lots and lots of newspapers under the frame.