Well, now I did it. After letting my 8 year old watch car restoration shows I let him talk me into taking the body parts off of my 77 F250. I have the front end completely off and really I just want to clean the frame up the best I can without taking apart the entire thing and running it to a blaster. I also plan to make the body repairs I can while it is apart. Any suggestions to attacking the frame section-by-section? what to clean surface rust with and what to treat it with once it is clean? I won't mind taking the bed off to do that work but the cab I would like to just get away with lifting it off enough to change bushings.

Or should I just bite the bullet and rip the entire thing apart and go for broke? I don't want a show truck, I just want it to be a real nice truck.

 

for metal treatment I like Picklex-20, followed by a coat of "Zero Rust" on the frame.

 

It all depends on your money situation. Id say if you got the front clip off already then you take the bed off you might as well pull the cab too. A little extra work tearing it down would make life a lot easier when you are cleaning the frame.

 

Taking it apart isn't really that bad. I took my 76 F-100 apart by myself with only a cherry picker.

Here is what I learned:
1. If you are going the route of cleaning up and painting the frame,hire a pro to come out and blast it. Cheaper than buying the equipment to do it right.
2. Use good quality paint on the frame, and follw the directions. I had good luck with POR 15. Some guys like zero rust. Others like a good epoxy primer followed by chassis black. Stay away from Rustoleum, it just peels off.
3. Plan on using a gas wrench on the cab and radiator mounts. price new ones, but they should still be available through your ford dealer.
4. With a little planning you can get away with a cherry picker to flip the frame around. Get a set of car dollies to put under the tires, this makes it easy to move around the shop.
5. In the long run, unless you are doing a show restoration, you are better off replacing hardware.
6. If you are going to remove doors and hood (which I recommend) mark hinge locations.
7. Use a camera, preferably digital to take a lot of pictures before you twist a wrench.
8. As you take her apart, put pieces in packages, and label the packages. Even if you plan on replacing a part, keep the old part until you get it back together. On several occasions, I had to use parts of the old piece, or when something doesnt work, I will set it next to the old to figure out what is wrong.
9. Get your son involved
10. Open an account at your local florist
11. have a blast

 

Currently I've got a 77 F-150 4x4 swb frame sitting in my drive way thats on its way to being painted

But I'm not going all out , just a drill with a wire brush to knock the surface rust off and a bunch of cans of Rustoleum Stop Rust Flat Black spray paint



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1977 Ford F-150 4X4 SWB Ranger XLT
1971 Volswagen Beetle

 

My money situation is good, but not unlimited. The florist idea is obvious good one. Keep that account open. I suppose I will just take the entire thing apart and go from there. It just seems like EVERYTHING on the underside has surface rust on it, axle housings, diffs, leaf springs and such. As a matter of fact one of the front leafs is hosed and the passenger side of the truck sags, I suppose I am going to at least have to replace that one and the driver's side to make it equal. My son is involved in a big way. My old man got me doing that stuff when i was a kid and it taught me everything about wrenching. I knew more about it by the time I was 14 than most of the older guys did working in service stations. It paid off in my later years.

I say screw it, rip the entire thing apart and go for the empty wallet. I will post progress picks. Sometime in 2010 - 2011 it should be done OK, maybe 2012. As long as I keep the kid involed, the wife should stand behind it fully... hopefully.

 

Cool. Go for it.

FYI. I put new leafs and coils in all the way around. Price wasn't too bad, and with the front clip off, its easy with the coils. Just heat up the old ones and they just want to fall out. Easy to get the new ones in. Leafs aren't bad at all.

The other thing I did was got my hands on all of the catalogs for the major suppliers. LMC, Jeff's Bronco Graveyard, NPD, etc. Got a few parts from Jeff's, and have been happy with them. Wouldn't know whae LMC, they are too over priced. BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they have some good diagrams, and you know what retail prices are so you can shop ebay. I buy a lot of parts over ebay, but always know the value of what I'm bidding on. You can easily get sucked in and over bid on stuff if you don't know what you could turn around and buy something retail for. Sometimes you have to buy stuff that you don't need right away cause the price is excellent. It sucks to need a part and have to pay top dollar for it.

Mike

 

I also think tearing it all down would be the best bet. However, when you do tear it down, expect replacing things on the truck that you don't expect. It's amazing what you find you need to replace when you tear a truck down. Like all the hidden rust you may find. Have fun with your project.

 

It might not be best for your 8yr old to try but Muratic acid (used for cleaning mortar off bricks) in a spray bottle does wonders on surface rust. Its pretty cheap, about 4 bucks a gallon, and can be diluted. Spray it on let it soak in 30min to an hour and wash it off. It takes it to bare metal so its a good idea to paint it asap or it will flash rust. It kills the grass and smells aweful so take warning.