I have a question as far as rust removal goes. The truck has spent its whole life down south so there's not a whole lot of deep rust if any. It's all just surface rust built up over the life of the truck. Mainly the frame. I want to paint it but before I do that I Wana get the rust off. What do recommend?

There's also some spots on the roof where the paint is coming off and I need to get that removed and painted too.

 

A Harbor Freight needle scaler will do a great job on the frame.

 

I'm convinced these trucks would rust in a vacuum sealed container. Be sure to really check the truck for rust - behind the bed side panels, the bed supports, underneath the doors, etc. Last thing you want to do is paint over legitimate cancer.

 

I'd like to get most of the metal I paint down to bare metal then hit it with a rust preventing primer and paint. A lot of work but I don't want to deal with rust for a while. I'm probably going to remove my bed and start at the back and work my way forward as time permits.

Are there any chemicals/paints that y'all recommend?

 

Has anyone on here gotten their frame powder coated? I know it would be a lot of prep to get to just the frame but would it be worth the hassle?

 

I spent probably 3 years preparing for my restore project. A lot of wasted time since I only acquired the right info from body guys whom do this for a living. There is a ton of misinformation on the internet about this. There's only one way to do this correctly. Well, okay, two ways when considering body panels, but LOTS of wrong ways. I'll make this as short as I can and let you ask the questions. Well, I'll try I expect.

Some wrong ways;

Rust converters, rust encapsulaters DO NOT WORK. I've now seen the many process fails. Even Por15 will fail eventually. These are expensive mistakes. However, they will hide it from the nekkid eye for a time, but rust NEVER sleeps and oxygen will eventually find a path here and there speeding up the corrosion process.

Here's some of the important notes I have saved on file, - what you want to know:

Rust will not come back if repaired properly. The only way to get rid of rust is,

1) Cut it out and replace with new metal.

2) REMOVE the rust by blasting or, some like to use a acid solution (I won't be using this as it can inhibit primer adhesion) . By acid solution, I DO NOT mean a product you squirt on with a squirt bottle or rub on and it "converts" the rust or "stabilizes" it. That always kills me...."stable rust"

After one of those are done, epoxy primer over the clean metal and will be fine longer than any of us will be alive.

I also live in a area where rust is a major problem. Replacing the panel with a new one would be best but sometimes when that's not the case sandblasting is the ultimate rust killer, followed by properly cleaning with a wax and grease remover than an Acid etch or epoxy primer. Its important to get all exposed metal in primer as soon as possible because the moisture in the air can cause flash rust. And Stay away from those magical " Rust Converters", they can cause a paint job to fail.

Note: It will be necessary to apply cavity wax to back side of panel at heat effected areas to restore corrosion protection.


Granted, some of this info is for body panel restore/replacement since I'm doing a total vehicle restore. You must blast the frame especially because it is full of pitted metal. Blasting is no fun and you ABSOLUTELY WILL REQUIRE RESPIRATOR PROTECTION. This stuff can really screw you up, life changing in the worst ways. You can get away with a 3M and P100 filtration..about 30 bucks. That said, I use two 28" metal fans and work in a direction to where the dust is pulled away from the work area. Don't mess around here I'll reiterate , this stuff can really screw you up! For the frame.


Tip,-get rid of the heavy rust first with a DeWalt cup wheel, then blast. You can us a needle scaler where the the wheel can't reach if you want.

Prepping for blasting will speed it all up. You want the blasting to go quickly as possible.



Good Luck

 

So far most of my rust is on the surface. Nothing pitted yet. Same on the roof. I'm trying to stop it in time before it gets deep and I have to have stuff replaced.

I'll probably save up and have the frame blasted. And since it'll be all separate I'll have the frame powder coated since I can get it done for 500 bucks locally.

As far as the cab goes, should I take it to a body shop and have them deal with it? There's a couple places that have some scratches and dents I would like to have repaired. I plan to wrap the truck in vinyl at some point I just don't want it rusting underneath the wrap. If that makes sense