Frame cleaning & restoration

[Bob Lanham]

The frame on my 69 has surface rust all over it. I don't think any of the paint is left anywhere or any stencilling etc. I don't have the room or the courage to pull the body off. I was thinking that next winter I would try to clean the frame and maybe paint it. Would the best method to remove the rust be sand blasting or is there another method? What about rust removal and protection inside the fram? What kind of paint should I use for NCRS guidelines? Is the entire under body painted or just the frame?

I bought a couple of resto books, but they don't really tell you whats preferred to remove the rust and what paint to use for resto. Thanks

[Jerry Clark]

Re: Frame cleaning & restoration

Hello Bob:

I don't think sandblasting with the body in place is an option, too much chance of body involvement and physically difficult to accomplish. I have had good luck with both air and electric powered tools and various wire brush attachments , flap style emery wheels and even grinding stones where necessary, ( much care taken here) the sandblast, glass bead process can be very helpful in hard to reach areas but on a very limited basis with the body on and it will be very messy in addition as there is no way to contain the media. As for the frames interior, I don't know of any method of removing whatever rust is already present and applying anything over the already existent rust would be counterproductive. Question three would best be answered by advising the purchase of the Judging Guide, you will need it anyway. You have the option of working on the frame a bit at a time this way, clean a section, paint it, walk away, have a beer or two, go back when you feel the need.Best of Luck with your 69 Bob.

jerry

[WayneC]

Re: Frame cleaning & restoration

Seems to me you have several choices of how to proceed.

I would think sandblasting would be difficult, since it all has to be done underneath the car, and you'd have to carefully shield the fiberglass and suspension parts to keep from ruining them. And of course, there's the huge mess in the garage.

Whatever you do with the body on the car, there will be many places on the frame you can't reach, like the all-important kick-up rust area where the trailing arms attach, spring pockets, top surface, etc. With the body on, I would be more inclined to use a 4" grinder with a couple of different wire brush attachments, and even here you'd need to shield the fiberglass with metal sheets as you go along so as not to cut into it with the wire brushes.

As another approach, you might want to try a chemical rust-removal jelly, then a rust stabilizing chemical and/or paint (ie, Rustoleum, POR-15, etc).

There's not much you can do with the inside of the frame except to spray it with a rust-inhibiting undercoat; you can buy undercoating kits from J.C. Whitney or Eastwood for about $75 including the chemical, airgun, and reach rods. You need a compressor. But without de-rusting or even cleaning the inside, results would be dubious.

Or you could just clean the frame thoroughly and paint over the rust with POR-15 or Rustoleum to extend its life a few years beyond doing nothing.

All of these approaches require many long days and nights of tough work on your back, unless you have a car lift in the garage!

Lastly, you could research body removal to get more comfortable with that procedure (books, videos, help a friend, etc) and do the complete job of removing body, then engine, suspension, differential, gas tank, etc. which of course, leads to more restoration and replacement (ie, "while I've got it apart, I might as well....etc"), extending the project indefinitely. But this approach allows you to send the bare frame out for chemical rust stripping, after which you can have it lightly sandblasted and then paint it (or have it powder-coated) and undercoat the inside.

[Jeff Gunn]

Re: Frame cleaning & restoration

I did a body-on cleanup of my frame from the firewall forward this summer. I used an air-powered die-grinder with various wire wheels and abrasive attachments to clean most of the frame. I also used an electric drill with various abrasive attachments on some areas. I did quite a bit of it the old fashioned way, elbow grease and a scotch-bright pad. I used a metal cleaner solution to help cut through and convert the rust. After I got it all cleaned up I primed it with a DP-90 primer and top-coated it with black enamel, forget the name. I think that a high-quality spray paint would have been alot easier, about as durable, and a heck of a lot less expensive than what I used. Looks good, too. Best of luck! Jeff


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[GaryC]

Re: Frame cleaning & restoration

Bob,

Jerry and Wayne gave you good suggestions for the question you asked and the point you made about not taking the body off. If that is your limitation then I would just use something like POR-15 and forget it. That way, you will not need to brush or sand anything. (Note: Be careful with this stuff, it will NOT come off of you or anything you put it on! It will be very messy.)

BUT, if you want to do it right (here is my 2 cents that you may not want to hear), then take the body off and have it dipped and blasted. Then you can primer and paint it correctly. I don't mean NCRS correctly, but good protection correctly. The reason why I am saying this is to help you be realistic! There is no-way you can do even a halfway decent job (no offence to you) of hand-sanding and painting the frame while it is still attached to the body. First off, you will not be able to work on the top or the inside of the frame. Or the kickup section. The inside is where most of the rust is at. It will just be a waist of your time!