looking at possible buy of a 72 454. Frame is dirty & has rust flakes inside at usual spots, but is very solid. How does one one cleanup this condition?
Car is nice otherwise. Whats it worth?

 

You can try what I did, my frame was solid but there was a lot of dirt and grime inside the frame and crossmembers. I took it to a car wash (late at night) ran it up on my portable ramps. Put on a pair of coveralls and climbed under it, spraying high pressure water into every hole I could find in the frame. Tons of mud and surface rust flakes came out.
I drove it home and blew everything out with my air compressor.
Then got a cheap garder sprayer, you know the type that has a wand and you pump it up to spray out the wand.
With my car up on stands I positioned coffee cans under all the obvious holes in the frame.
Then I put 2 quarts of POR15 in the sprayer along with a small amount of thinner. Pumped up the sprayer and started squirting into the frame and crossmember holes. I had the car slightly lower in the front than the back so the POR15 ran out into the cans at the front of the frame.
I really crammed the wand up in holes and wiggled it around as much as possible.
I collected the paint in the coffee cans that ran out, strained it and put it back in the sprayer.
Then I lowered the back of the car and sprayed again. I did this until I didn't have any paint left in the sprayer.
I was not sure how much of the inside of the frame I got covered, but certainly the areas where moisture collected were covered.
The outside of the frame and the crossmembers I scrapped a wire brushed down to bare metal and coated with POR15, and then a top coat of Krylon semi-flat black, which is a close match to the original paint.
POR15 is a premier rust preventor and will actually stop rust from forming or growing. The POR15 is used was the original formula that was quite shiny in appeareance, I used the Krylon to cover the gloss and add UV protection so the POR wouldn't turn chalky (not that the underside ever get much UV.)
This wand and sprayer method is very similar to the aftermarket rust proofers do with their tar based product.
This might be overkill, but I want my car to last as long as possible and POR15 is a great product to help that.
I did this about 2 years ago and have since had a chance to look inside my frame with a borescope, I was amazed by how much paint actually go into the frame and covered the metal.
good luck!


[Modified by Smokehouse69, 10:52 PM 8/28/2002]

 

Wow!!! Great job!! :cheers:

 

I will be doing the exact same as Smokehouse this winter, POR does have a pre-solvent that cleans the frame to the metal as well, I will use that before I use its paint, I will use the sprayer and a cloth soaked in POR-15 to run up and down the inside of the frame as well, as you said it maybe overkill but when going to this trouble why not. Great job Smoke :cheers:

 

If you are doing a frame off and really wanted to go all the way, look into having it acid dipped and then rust inhibited. The process is somewhat pricey, guess it all depends on what you're after. Had mine sandblasted and powder coated after repairing the rustout areas. Had about 1,300 into it at that point, dipping would have easily doubled.

 

Dipping -OUCH !!

I am planning on doing the POR15 thing inside the frame. I'm "Lucky"
enough to have some frame repairs that were done to the end-caps
behind the doors. Those are coming out, with full access to the main
rails. Look out rust !! I'm also welding inside reinforcements in the rear
corners, where the rot is notorious. Then new end caps.

Good to hear that you got it so well with a sprayer. I saw the posts of this
previously, and decided to go that route - then plans changed.

:seeya

 

guess what? When you remove the rail caps (a good idea) you will not have access to the entire frame rail unless the main rear crossmember is completely rusted out inside the rail. That crossmember goes through the frame rail and welds to the outer edges on the inside. :eek:

 

I had the frame on my 72 dipped by Redi Strip and it cost less than $500. After that POR 15 was sprayed and the frame is better than new. I feel it was well worth the extra cost and would recommend it to anyone considering it.

 

I too also had my frame dipped at the Redi-Strip just outside of Toronto for $300 Canadian ($200 US)!!!! I would definately recommend this route to anyone doing a frame off, the results are nothing short of amazing!! That stuff strips away all organic materials such as dirt, oil, grease, ect, as well as all rust without removing any solid base metal and not affecting things like rubber bump stops!! I was amazed at the results my father had with his 1939 1/2 ton Ford pickup's frame so much, that I did the same thing!!

 

.Damn !!
Well thanks Big Fish. That's an eye opener. :eek:
I guess I'm back to the original plan of spraying the snot out of the
inside. The end caps will still be repaired back to original, since the
repairs only cover the bottom 2/3 of the cap area.

These corners are the weak link of the vette frame. I'm gonna do my best
to make 'em as strong as I can. Stay tuned in the next couple months ...

:seeya