I just picked up a '72 F100 4X4($400!!) with trashed sheetmetal and a great drivetrain. 360 FE NP435 and 201? transfer case. Super straight frame with a 3 inch lift and somebody did one hell of a fine job adding power steering sometime in the distant past. My oldest son and I removed the box, cab and front clip last weekend and called the hulk guys to pick up the rusted, busted,dented and bondo'd remains. No-nothing was worth saving..We have a super nice '68 F 100 with a V5 in it that is going to donate its great sheetmetal to this project.
Here's the question-What is the best way to clean off 33 years worth of road grime, engine oil, 90 weight gear oil and all the other junk on here? My kid say's we should spray the whole thing with engine degreaser and tow it down to the local pressure wash car wash place and have at it. Any ideas?

 

Where the pressure washing idea might sound good, I dont think they(owners of car wash) would approve of it, as most of them have signs stating: No heavily mudded trucks, cleaners, oil, ect. So while they may not say anything, I wouldnt chance it. I'd scrape the large amounts of dried dirt, oil and crude off as best I could, then use a degreeser and wash it off. If you plan on painting the frame you can wire brush it or sandblast it, but before you do the grease definitly has to be off because a wire wheel and a sandblaster have a hard time with it.

 

I cleaned all the oil and grease off my 78 F-150 4X4 frame and then I wire brushed the whole thing.
U might wanna try sandblasting though it won't probally won't take as long as wire wheeling.Then I coated it with anti rust primer and then rolled and brushed some gloss black enamel on.
Just make sure u get all the rust and loose paint off and apply metal conditioner to kill the rust.

Dan

 

I like the pressure washing idea, but what I did was get out a putty knife and scrape. And scrape, and scrape.... It took a while, and the cleaner works better on light film than heavy grime. What cleans better than engine degreaser is oven cleaner. It takes off paint, though, so if you get it on anything important, you will be sorry.

 

Buy two gals of castrol super clean $6.99 each, buy 2 BBQ brushs, brass with scraper on one side ($1.99 ea at harbor freight)

Scrape off the thick grease with the scraper side of the brushes then wash with garden hose, apply 1/2 gal castrol super clean, let soak 10 min, brush with brass bbq brush, hose off

repeat about 4 times so that you get all the corners. This will have it ready for sand blasting or small detail wire brush and gasket scraper to get the small areas.

Grease doesn't sand blast or wire wheel very well at all.

Phosproic acid works well on bare metal after it's fully cleaned, then you can use some good paint or POR15, ZeroRust ...

 

How much does it cost to sandblast?

 

depending on where you live (epa guys frown on this ) i have mixed kerosene with dawn dish soap and (not hot but real warm )water and it seemed to take alot of the gunk from my frame off . then you can either sandblast , scrape or wire brush the rest of the stuff. by the way do you have a black 63 falcon?i had one it was my first car , boy i wish i kept that one. lots of fun and cheap to run they just dont make them like that anymore .

 

Thanks for all the info everybody. I ended up wire brushing the dry dirt/surface rust areas and degreaser on the front end and the 9 inch. I've heard of the oven cleaner idea before-just concerned about the aluminum top to the top loader in here. And 1955effie the answer is no-not a black one but a 631/2 futura hardtop. My first car was a 1955 t-bird.

 

I cleaned of a 76 crew cab long bed frame with just a 4" wire brush. took 4 weekends and alotta beer but it worked.

 

alotta beer always makes a difference. sometimes good, sometimes not so good. ben'ere, dunat. <TABLE style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 3px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

Does the beer lubricate the wire wheel????
Just kidding.

 

do it makes sure the bearing inside the p[erator dont "squeak" during all that work

 

I used various widths of putty scrappers, screwdrivers, a hoe and a nail puller (the one made of spring steel) to get the worst of the stuff off and then I sand blasted.

 

I used a welding hammer to pick away at the heavy rust and loosen it from the frame before using wire wheel or grinder. Use some hearing protection though or the ringing will go in your head for hours.

 

Don't know how much sandblasting cost. I do my own. Spent $70 on a tank type blaster at Harbor Freight. It requires an air compressor which I already had. I use silica sand at $6 for a 50lb bag. (be sure to use a respirator. Silica sand can cause you problems in 30 years if it gets in your lungs, according to OSHA). The sandblaster is worth every penny of $70. Its messy. All the sand goes on the ground. I have a 10 foot section in my yard that looks like a sandy white beach.