Blasting depends on a few things. My truck 88 is a daily driver and I am trying to keep it on the road for as long a possible. Sandblasting the frame and a powder coat paint job would be the job of preference but is the cost and time worth it. For my needs I am happy with a good cleaning with a small grinder #50 grit paper ,wire wheel and a ton of elbow grease. I work on it every weekend and it is back on the road for Monday. I figure I will never get rid of the rust completely but I can control it. If you are going to remove the bed and cab( a huge job) you might as well blast it with sand or any other media that does the job. I have never soda blasted so I cant help you there. Did you check any professional shops on what they would charge to blast the frame and put a coat of the appropriate primer on it. I sand blasted a vehicle once and it wasnt much fun,however I think it is the best way to remove rust.

 

Depending on how much rust you are dealing with, (the entire frame?) a sandblasting service might save you a month of Sundays.

Powder coating is great but a spendy process.

Take a look at FTE sponsor: http://rustbullet.com/Products/Autom...Automotive.htm

Highly recommended my many on FTE.

 

I checked on the link looks like a good product. I wonder if it is similar to herculon and rhino liner type stuff?

No, I haven't checked but I got a card from someone who did and he said their rates were reasonable. I think he said around $200. The thing is, I've got the bed and front clip off but not the cab. The cab needs floor pans and has some corner rot. I was just going to blast or clean the area I could get to readily then paint it. I'd have to rent a trailer or other arrangements to take it there, and then pick it up, and pay more $. I'm thinking not.

As to it not being much fun, I can relate to that. The small job I tried to do using a siphon system was really a mess and not at all something I'd want to repeat without a full hood etc. . Even then it'd be a miserable thing in this Georgia heat. I guess I could have a mister spray going or something to suppress dust and cool things a bit.

I was thinking maybe soda is better. The company's video clip showed them blasting a monument wet and their guy wasn't wearing a mask, though I would have been.

I dunno, I'm trying to save money so the elbow grease option is sounding better all the time.

 

Looks like whether you decide on sandblasting or soda, you will still be getting in to some bucks. ...

You are at the crossroads now , the same roads all of us had to come to whenever we decided to restore one of these old trucks . You need to have a plan established as to what you desire for the truck to be and look like when it is done. This will determine how much money, time and labor you will be putting in to it. This is a very important decision /plan to have , before a person takes out the first bolt on these old trucks. ...

I found this out the hard way ,and I am speaking from experience here. I started out to just "freshen" my 79 F150 4x4 up to make it a daily driver 6 years ago (that idea has been blown away with the gas prices today) . I figured I would just clean and paint underneath, paint interior/exterior, rebuild engine etc. These type notions SNOWBALLS greatly in money and labor expended, because as you make one part of the truck look clean and nice, the section next to it then looks like crap. So, you keep going and going with new parts and paint. I now have over $18K and 6 years of my labor in to my restore and it is just now roadworthy , and I still do not have the racetrack trim back on it yet...

Anyway, now that I see your budgeting concerns, you may want to do what I did. I left the cab and front fenders/clip on, because I did not want to replace all the bushings and do all that labor removing and reinstalling them. My truck came from california and had good cab corners and had rust thrus in only three spots that were quarter sized. I removed the engine for rebuild, then cleaned painted the frame, chassis, and engine compartment while the engine was gone to the rebuilders . ..

I put down a 30' x 50' vinyl tarp down and folded it back over to make it doubled. I did this to catch ALL of the degreasing /cleaning/painting debris. You dont want a EPA citation for contaminating the soil. I rolled the truck back and centered it on to the tarp, jacked it up and put in on on jackstands, then removed tires, p/u bed with a engine hoist, dropped the trans and transfer case, along with both gas tanks so I could clean and paint them, all by myself. ..

I scraped all the heavy mud dirt and grease off of the frame/suspension parts first. Then I sprayed all parts /frame with Simple green and hot water mix, then scraped/wirebrushed/ washed and repeated the process over and over, until I was pleased with the cleaniness of it. I put clay kitty litter all over the tarp after each session to gather up all the mess...

Then one section at a time , I did the whole underneath with Eastwoods encapsulater rust primer( then called corroless) then finished coated with the Eastwood black chassis primer. It worked great. The only mistake I made was , I pushed my self too hard to finish up was really tired, and did NOT scuff all of that encpasulator before I brushed on the chassis black finish coat, as the instructions on the can said to do. So,now I have some flaking off it small spots that did not adhere to the primer well and will have to re-do...

Would I do this much work again on a old truck ? NO WAY, but at 48 years of age back then, I had more energy and a real passion for the truck. Both of those fade with age , as a project wears on. Never let a project last too long, you will lose heart for it, as I have. Hope this helps and all jmo... ..

P.S. Here is a pic of my engine section. The red on the stump is the corroless (encapsulator primer) , the black is the finish coat Eastwoods chassis black..

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ght=frame+prep

Check out my little write up on my psuedo-frame up resto I'm doing. I wire brushed and ospho'd my frame. Then I hit it with Industrial Enamel. Started the second coat yesterday, looks purty

 

Congratulations though on your projects, the both of you. Good advice too, but a little late for preplanning on my part. I still am not sure what to do from here but after reading your post I know I need to lay the rest of it out.

I know that I wouldn't have attempted all this had I known what was before me. I've wanted to have it towed away a couple of times, but I reckon I'm seeing it through now, though I don't know exactly what I'll end up with.

I want the cab cancer fixed, the frame clean and painted, and probably the body too. I'm going to paint the body myself even if I end up with orange peel.

 

Great thread, Crawlfish, lots of good advice from everyone!!! I have been "restoring" the frame on my 84 Bronco for the past 6 months. With only time to work on weekends, I decided to leave the body on, just raising one side at a time while working on the frame. Removed loose undercoating and rust scale with a wire brush in a drill, and applied OSPHO. After Rustoleum primer, I sprayed on Dupli-Color bedliner. Pics are at Superford.org:

Cleaning & Rustproofing frame

Did I mention it took 6 months of wkends??? JSM84

 

Nice work justshootme84. The bedliner finish looks great.

 

You know crawlfish beside the satisfaction of doing the work yourself, the skills and things you pickup along the way are invaluable. I know at times I have said to myself "why bother". I guess because I have had the truck for 18 years,bought the manuals and books and can pretty well fix most things on it myself I want to keep it and not let it rust into junk. Besides , the price of a new vehicle gives me inspiration.You can tone the project down to suit you skills and budget and I am sure it will look great.

 

Good point!!! I spent like $30 on the D-C and $10 on the OSPHO. I could've paid someone to sandblast, epoxy primer and paint the frame for $500-$1000 and it would be done in days instead of months. While not as thorough as sandblasting, the rust-proofing I did will help cut down on the rust for 3-5 years. I had previously coated the axles with "Restore" rust converter ($15/ quart) 2-3 years ago, and they still look O.K. after a little washing. One bit of advice before spending time or money on the frame, and it's been brought up already. You should repair any rusted out or cracked areas. The body/cab mounts are often wallowed out or rusted, and some of the underbody crossmembers can rust out. And tag & bag all hardware as you remove it. You can prolly remember what you did yesterday, but can you remember where those bolts you pulled 6 months ago belong?

 

thanks for jumping in justshootme84. mississauga brought the thread together for us, it's something I say myself when I start questioning why. I am enjoying it and talking about the obstacles in know why conveys how very satisfying bringing a beautiful machine back from the brink ... just hope I see it to conclusion.

You had me thinking I could lift the cab up where it is and get to it enough to do what I needed in place, but after talking about the wallowed out body mounts I'm wondering what I got...

i got to go now i'm running late for work so I'll check out your pics later...

 

Thanks! I did the same procedure as if I were installing a body lift kit (which I'll never do) and lifting one side enough to place a few 4x4 blocks between the frame and body supports. The body mount bushings and hardware are a royal PITA to remove, esp the front core supports. The passngr-side next to the battery is often rusted solid, and that mount on the frame can be rusted or even cracked. Since the body mounts are most often neglected and never replaced, the OEM rubber bushings are often cracked, worn thru or just gone from age. I mention this for the fact that if you're planning to spend time and money on sandblasting or restoring the frame and/or body, these are one of the systems you'll work on. It's hard to tell what shape the mounts are in until you take them apart, but it's a must if you want straight body lines between the fenders and cab. Keep the thread going, JSM84

 

well, i'll have to study that mount and take your advice and look at the one under the battery box first... I think i saw a kit for bushings somewhere too... anyway that being contemplated.

 

Crawlfish
"Dolly and casters would do me no good as I'm working in my backyard under a temporary shelter building (tent) with thin plywood floors over plastic."

I grew up on the jersey shore without a garage or even a soft tent or tarp for cover. I can relate. I do remember having to install a complete front end on my 70 olds during a blizzard. At that time I had gotten an old mesh pool cover and borrowed a section of construction scaffold from my uncle. Man my fingers were frozen. the pool cover stopped the snow but the wind came right on through. You could leave the Cab over the frame and just build Horses or cribbing on either side of the frame. If you can weld a triangle up or bolt it in you don need to have the cab on casters. You could just roll the frame out from under it when your ready to work. the benefit of the pivot is it allows you to weld in the new sheet much easier but if all you do is lift it tall enough so you can squat underneath I think it'd be a lot easier then tilting side to side. The last thing you want is to dump the thing off the frame and tear your tent.
Now an A frame with a boat winch. That could get you rotating too and depending how tall your tent is you could lay some boards acrossed the Trucks frame you could stand on it and not have to roll the frame out. Just be sure to clamp or bolt the boards down to the frame. The boat winch I have here was like 10 bucks at grainger for a 900 LB cap. I didn't do the a frame for the cab because I have a lot of work and I plan to MIG the thing. I have to reconstruct the bottom end of the cab and it will be easier indoors. I also have welding to do on the corners of the firewall.
Can anybody tell me why Ford put such a small drain in the rain cannel of the cab. The water drops down the grate by the wipers and has a 8x8 path side to side but when its half way down the side of the cab they restricted it to 2x2. I have to cut the passenger side almost completely out bellow where the H/AC draw air. That's where the water seeped through and soaked the carpet padding which caused the floor to rot out. the Passenger floor isn't to bad but the drivers side is shot. I plan to redo the drain opening almost to the channel walls. doing that will give me access to popping out a crease dent in the cowl on the drivers side and allow me to Por 15 the entire channel as well. You may want to open up the channel yourself. In my case leaves collect in there and create a dam trapping a bucket of water in there.
The biggest thing I am doing is cutting out the rear of the cab and making it removable. I am still looking for a commercially made latch but I haven't found anything I feel will look good and still pull the panel in tightly. I also will be making the very front of the bed removable too.
The law says young children can't ride in the front of any vehicle. So I am planning to build a crew compartment that will drop into the bed, mate/lock to the cab, and bolt down through the frame. I basically plan to build a roll cage and skin it. I have two daughters, one 4 and one 2, and by adding buckets to the front and making the removable rear cab I can use the truck for work and family. I have dual tanks too so part of this is plumbing the old cab tank fill down through the floor and acrossed to a newly fabricated tank on the passengers side. As much as the customizing may adjust the authenticity of the truck, doing this right may actually add to the value and keep the truck road worthy longer. Besides if I ever have to convert to Alcohol I will still be able to retain the dual tanks. I don't think you can get a plastic or stainless cab tank. besides removing the tank from the cab gets rid of the fuel smell. In my experience while we men don't mind it usually the women, mainly my wife do not enjoy the odor. It can get sickening on a long trip too. I'm running stainless pipe for the fill with only one flexible joint at the tank. For now that's going to be rubber, but could easily be replaced if I have to go stainless. The tank will be a custom fabrication from steel sheet right now but I'll save the pattern anyway.
To do all I want I needed the rotisserie. I can do all the fabrication I just built my riggings on a budget because I would rather plop 1500 into the project then on a tool I might use once a year. If I find I'm in-between projects in the future and I find I have the cash maybe but not now.
latter
John

 

Well, I pretty much am impressed and intimidated, but appreciate the detailed explanation. I just have my front end in the tent, the rest of space is more or less a shop (this is high end shade tree)
I've got the space to do the sawhorse thing, but have to contemplate the bolt in or welded triangle. How much does the cab weigh? what size pipe bolted to the latch mechanism on either side, if that's what you mean. You gonna be around Friday day? I might want to try rigging up something though I haven't got a handle on the boat winch I'll reread this again see what I've digested>