Is it really necessary? My frame is in pretty good darn shape - only surface rust and some scale...nothing big though. The only things rusted out are the body mounts. Please, I need comments.

 

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Home Page:
http://www.geocities.com/carlclub2/
this cheesy *** free web page shows my body off, the frame was purchased from manns connection down south, 73 4 speed frame, already sandblasted inside and out, por-15 coated and we top coated g m chassis black,,, then sent bare frame on a flatbed to z bart dealer and shot the inside rails,, i believe 250.00,,,then every time you want a going over its 75 bucks,, when the entire car was completed i drove it to a dealer in illinois,,,(manns corvette is in indiana,,,(one of top 100 in nation per corvette fever) who re-shot it to get anything the first guy missed,,,,from what i hear the dirt gets in all the frame factory holes and when water also gets in it(mud) rots the kick ups,,,rocker channells and then moves up the body mt#2 and birdcage pllars,,steve mann replaced my rockers also the body#4 mount is steel reinforrcement that on mine was totally gone,,there's a photo showing the busted fiberglass where the body mount broke thru,,rear *** end then leans,,,i wanted to get a z bart tool at that time (2002) and thin por-15 and shoot it in my frame rails,,,por recomended using a rag and pulling it thru the frame,,,since i couldnt get the z bart tool,,and had to move on w/ project i went with the z bart------------------------------------------------

 

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Just did the inside of the frame of my 67' last year using 10w30 oil. From what I read I found motor oil to be the best thing and the cheapest thing to use on the inside of a frame. I used a undercoat gun with the quart bottle filled with 10/30 and 10% kerosene with the car up on my lift. I made a wand out of steel brake line and fuel line hose and shot the mixture throughout the holes in my frame after doing a total clean out of the frame using compressed air. As I mentioned I did plenty of reading on this subject, spoke to knowledgeable people and checked endlessly on the net to find the best solution to protecting the inside of a car frame. Here is a link to an article that I found and one that convinced me that plain motor oil was the way to go: http://www.zealandpublishing.co.nz/freerustproof.html

 

I used a $30 Home Depot Garden Pump-up Sprayer with the longest wand I could find.

Pressure wash the intside of the frame to get all the dirt and debris loosened up. Roll the frame to different positions and follow the pressure wash with a garden hose flush to get all the dirt and debris out. Let it dry for a day or so and use your favorite paint/primer/rust converter in the garden spayer to apply to the inside of the frame.

 

I've used fisholene (fish oil) before and that works well...

 

A couple of things to consider.

Although you don't see the rust inside your frame and feel that it is fairly solid, (and it may well be), you only want to do this job once and do it right. Sooooooo.

If I flushed it with water (high pressure or otherwise) this is a prime rusting agent. You want to make sure that you get all that water out of the frame. Letting it sit for a day or two would not IMO be sufficient. If possible, put that frame out in the hot sun for a week. Shoot compressed air thru the frame openings and move the old air out of there. You'd be surprised how that water will collect at every joint and do it's dirty work. It was work to get that water in there and it will be work to get it back out!

Once you are satisfied that the interior has all the loose rust and dirt flushed away, it is time for an rust proof coating. Check with your local auto body guys and get the name of the products they use to penetrate and neutralize rust. They make some really good products today. You can order long wand type spray kits from JC Whitney that are intended for this exact process(spraying inside a frame). Spray the rust neutralizing compound inside the frame.

Now if you want overkill (that is my middle name) you can come back with a produce like SP400 corrosion shield. Peralkitone is another shield that you can use. This will guarantee that rust will not form in your lifetime inside that frame.

With that done, you can crack open the beers and know you have done the best job and your Corvette will last longer than you will. :-)

RGDS

Bob

 

Why spend all this money as you said its overkill when a quart or two of 10/30 motor oil mixed with a little kerosene will do the trick for a lot cheaper. I actually didn't spend anything for oil doing my 67's frame. I used collected new oil from whats left in a plastic quart oil bottle after doing a oil change. You see I keep 3 empty windshield washer gallon bottles on a shelf. Everytime I do an oil change I take the supposely empty quart oil bottles and stick one bottle upside down into each of the empty plastic windshield wash gallons over night and then put another in a day or so later. You will be surprised at how much oil you accumulate in those gallon bottles over a little time. This is the oil that I used. It is clean and has virtually no odor at all. I would use this before using old used oil which has a strong odor. I smell nothing coming from my Vetts frame and looking into it with a small light one can see that it is coated well inside with an oil film.

The use of some of the antirust products isn't as good from what I read and from what I know of some of the products from use. Most of the products out there need to be top coated. Inside the frame this would be hard to do. Some of the products get hard and will crack in time letting moisture into the cracks causing the same rust problem. Some of these products will also clog areas inside the frame holding in moisture. Oil will do not do any of this. In other words a product such as Por-15 is great on the outside of a frame but no good on the inside of it from what I understand.

 

Another inexpensive option is chainsaw oil. It has paraffin in it that makes it sticky so it will adhere better to the metal. Any of the oil treatments need to be repeated periodically but if you only drive in good weather you can probably get by with a yearly treatment.



Rick B.

 

Rick for the kind of use that I get from my cars only using them in good weather I expect the treatment to last for a few years if not more since they are garage kept and I don't put a lot of miles on my cars. I doubt that the oil inside the frame is going to dry up like WD-40 or CRC protectant. You always seem to find a film of oil on or around the oil pan that never goes away unless you wipe it down some.

 

I use the same product I used on my British cars - Waxoyl. Go to Waxoyl-usa.com
If anyone knows rust, it's the Brits

 

Has anyone done this with the body on?

 

I am about to try to do this with the body on. Except, I am going to replace my body mount bushings, so I will be raising the body a little and that will help me coat the tops of the frame rails. Waiting on those back-ordered bushings from Doc Rebuild now. Removing 30 year-old hardened undercoating is my biggest challenge now--some places where it looks good has minor rust underneath.

Using compressed air with an extension from Harbor Freight to get stuff out of the frame has worked fairly well but I am going to have to use water too. I have a LOT of dirt and rocks in my frame. The previous owner lived on a dirt road while he was building a house and I can still spot dust collected in corners and overlaps--even after much beating around with a hammer and rubber mallet. I plan to use lots of air and time (and tilting the car/frame around as much as possible on jack stands) to get the water out.

After my research, I bought a "rustproofing and undercoating" felxible wand sprayer kit for frames and body cavities from Eastwood for about $50. I may use the rag trick too. I also bought their rust converter, rust encapsulator, frame paint and HD anit-rust prevention paint. The rust convertor is a two parter to kill the rust, the rust encapsulator is claimed by them to be better than POR15 (who knows?) and has built-in UV resistance , the frame paint is a top coat that provides chip resistance, and finally, they recommend using their HD anit-rust paint inside frame rails. (The first three items will mainly be used as a system on the outside of the frame.) Anti-rust (for inside the frame) is a paint that drys but stays somewhat soft and self repairing from scratches (they say). It cannot be painted over however so I guess it has some wax or something in it. My thought is that it might be preferable to chain saw oil (that I had considered) because anti-rust will dry and not attract and collect dirt and should not have to be reapplied for a long time because it will not wash off (needs a solvent to remove).

This all may be overkill, especially since my frame is in very good shape, but I am only planning to do this just once and a frame-off is (hopefully) NOT in my future. This is costing me north of $250 for everything from Eastwood. You could definitely save money going some other routes.

FWIW

 

I did using 10/30 motor oil. I did mine with the car on a lift and the side exhaust disconnected to get inside the frame. The use of a undercoat gun and a compressor is the way to go. I think I paid less then $10 for the undercoat gun years ago from Harbor Freight. Didn't come with the plastic quart bottle though. Picked 2 up from Eastwood. Eastwood also sells a undercoat gun pretty cheap. Under $20. Someone mentioned using a garden sprayer on this thread. I don't really think that is the way to go. Maybe ok for spraying water or chemical in the garden but to spray oil I doubt it will work well.

 

Here is a link to a rotating sewer nozzle for a pressure cleaner.

http://www.jackssmallengines.com/barens_nozzle_sn.cfm

You can feed it thru the inside of the frame rails. If your press washer is strong enough it will flake of rust. I use 3500 psi.

 

Thanks, that should do the job nicely!

 

What about using por-15...anyone done this before? Was it really hard?

 

POR is kind of dangerous to spray unless you have a really good respirator. It cures by absorbing moisture so imagine how fast it will harden inside your lungs.



Rick B.

 

I need some more suggestions guys...I'm still unsure of what to do. I am planning to use this device on the end of my pressure washer hose...http://www.jackssmallengines.com/barens_nozzle_sn.cfm. I've seem them in use before and they exert serious amount of pressure, enough pressure to cut through your skin with ease. I'll feed it throughout my frame rails to remove scale/rust until it is completely clean. I'll then dry/turn the frame until all the water is removed. But what do I do next? I'll be powder coating the outside of the frame if that is any help to you guys. If I paint the inside of the frame, I'll be using high quality paint that can exceed high temperatures, probably por-15. I contacted the por-15 guy and he said that powder coating the frame after the inner frame-rails had been coated with por-15 would not be a problem - The stuff would not be affected by the heat. any ideas to properly apply this stuff ? It's a 3 step process, and the surface must be extremely clean for the product to work as it says on the package. The por-15 website, www.por-15.com, explains the procedure they use.