I have a 59 f100, (pics up soon by the way) right now being restored on jack stands with the seat, gas tank, truck bed, front fenders removed, except the cab and hood. Im standing there looking at the frame with 50 years of road tar, dirt, oil, etc etc. Whats the best way to clean all that crap off? any body have a certain secret to help remove most of it? Thanks in advance! ......And let me say that this website makes my life a whole lot easier!!

 

Howdy,

I'll pressure wash my frame and take it to a local sandblaster to have them sandblast and epoxy prime it.


Cheers,


Rick

 

Can you take it to a wand style car wash? How about $ 10,000.00 for a high pressure hot water pressure washer? No? Ok, many buckets of Varsol (or kerosene) and lot and lots of elbow grease via wire brush, scraper, and parts washing brush. CAREFULLY using a grinding disc can help, not a good idea to mix the two at the same time.

 

Have kids! No wait, that might be more expensive. I got a Harbor Freight sandblaster and did it myself. You need a good air compressor however or it will take forever. Not much fun either.

 

Thanks! Ill have to borrow a pressure washer (father in law) and hopefully get that gunk off, Another question: Now how deep do I need to get into the frame? I got as far as some black paint, is it better to get ALL off or just some parts that have some surface rust?, and paint those certain spots when cleaned, Ive come to realize that to make it look like the frame came off the line will take A LOT of work, i figured just to take care of those (surface) rust sections, spot paint (black) and continue

 

The way I see it, there are three reasons for cleaning / painting the frame, it looks good (to you and the experts), it makes it much easier and cleaner to work on (most important) and stops the rust (mostly aesthetic).

Clean the frame and use a rust covering paint, ……..keep in mind that the real truth is that the first time you go on a dirt / gravel road (in a rain storm) it’s covered in mud.

 

There are sandblasting attachments for pressure washers. There's no dust, so if you live someplace warm and dry (where the frame can dry off quickly without rusting), that could be a good option.

A cup brush in an angle grinder is good for getting dry/solid gunk off, and will get rid of flaked and surface rust. Not easy to get inside the frame rail channels, though. It won't gouge the metal like a sander can, and is fairly fast, so you could try that after pressure-washing, before sandblasting.

I've heard that places that make gravestones use sandblasters to etch the lettering into stone, and may be willing to blast frames cheaper than regular paint/sandblasting shops.

Another idea I considered when I was living in the city: rent a towable compressor and a pressure pot sandblaster, and do the work in a gravel pit or other vacant lot or wasteland.

As for how far to go... the more you do now, the longer it'll be until it needs to be done again. But if you actually have original chassis paint there, it sounds like it's in better condition than my trucks. So, get it clean, then sandblast or otherwise treat the rust spots, and put some good paint over the lot.

 

Before you borrow that pressure washer I would recommend that you soak the greasy-oily areas with something like kerosine, gunk, whatever at least a day before you PW it. Pressure Washering it is gonna be a dirty, wet, messy affair ; so prepare.
Sandblaster places like to take a bare frame and flip it , turn it, etc to get to all of the areas......and you have the cab still on.....so.....

....and welcome to the boards.

 

You could always be like the rest of us and strip it down to the last nut and bolt sandblast paint/ the whole works and be on here wishing that someday it will all be back together and happily be motoring down the road looking for our next project,although some uo us do that while still trying to finish the first one,lol. Thanks for joining us to this great hobby. John

 

No truer words have been spoken!

Welcome to FTE!

 

It's funny how we all wear the some shoes isn't it,lol

 

Here are some pics of what im working with.....(hope this works)




Isnt she beautiful!!? It was my wifes grandpas truck, and her dad was supposed to restore it but it wasnt just his thing. So after me and his daughter got married... it was a gift, so now here she is

 

Great! and a big window to boot!!, and a nice start to a project I'm sure you'll have fun doing. Good luck!

 

I find Simple Green used straight with a stiff brush works great for cleaning. Please everyone throw away all your power wire brushes! They are extremely dangerous and there are better replacements on the market, used them instead. My brother is legally blind in one eye due to a life changing moment of using a wire brush on an angle grinder.
3M makes abrasive inpregnated rubber cup style brushes, as well as radial bristle brushes that come in different grits that work well, but do wear somewhat quickly so buy them by the box. There is another company that makes abrasive impregnated nylon brush wheels in cup and wheel styles. The bristles look like stiff scrub brushes and come in 3 flourescent colors matching the 3 grits available. The unfortunate choice of colors make them look like less than a serious tool, but they work extremely well, actually better than a wire wheel and are much longer lasting than the 3M ones. I found them at my local ACE hardware store. Highly recommended! No matter what you use protect your eyesight with safety glasses and/or a full face shield EACH AND EVERY TIME you use a power cutting or spinning tool!!!! They are inexpensive and take but a moment to put on, but ignoring this warning for that moment can easily change how you look at the world forever after!!!
This has been a public safety announcement, we now return you to your reading already in progress.

 

Your truck looks to be in very good shape and in deed is a very nice project. With the frame being so excessable I'd do as suggested using a degreaser, let sit for a day or so and then pressure wash,actually the pressure washer alone does a great job before the degreasing stage and will lift any loose paint. After you get it cleaned, the wire cup on the grinder works wonders. If you still have a noticable layer of paint I'd sand with 80 grit to feather blend and the use a rust encapsulator over the rusy areas and then paint with a chassie black from a rattle can, the only place that would be hard to get to would be the top of the frame rails under the cab where you may need to use a brush. Just me thinking to myself