Frame and Drive Train Restoration
I began to use my knotted wire wheel and I had at this thing like you've never seen. You probaby cannot tell the difference from the photos, but after 8 hours of wire wheeling, sweating, breathing through a lame-ass respirator, grinding, and cleaning, I got the following small bit of satisfaction:
Looking at the next image, you will think that there is a ton of loose rust still on the cross-member and box support. However, I had that thing wire wheeled until all that you are actually seeing is pitting and shadow from the poor light:
That was really about 8 hours of labour and it sucked from start to finish. The next day I got to work on taking off the axles and hoisting the frame up onto blocks so I could lay under it on my creeper and move along wire wheeling all the bleedin' live long day. It was another full day for what I perceive to be very little progress..... and I took a week off work to do this....
Sorry for the shoddy pictures of this stage (those axles are finally off):
It was now time to turn to the fun process of using the POR-15 system. For the uninitiated, that involved grinding down to as close as bare metal as possible, washing down the metal with de-greaser, and applying the "metal prep" solution. The metal prep solution is what turns the rust into a black and white hammer-hard crust that when painted is nearly indestructible. Now, before people fire me off angry emails, I know there are POR-15 haters and POR-15 lovers. When it comes to body panels, the stuff doesn't cut the mustard, but on the frame, it will outlast the rest of the truck, it is hard has you can imagine, and is relatively inexpensive. I would have preferred to have had the frame sand-blasted and/or powder coated, but this isn't a show-truck build, and I'm sure I am going to beat the life out of it anyways.
This next series of three shots is with the POR-15 metal prep compound fully applied and still wet. Note in these pictures that the bare metal is exposed all over the frame as I finally degreased it, finished wire wheeling it, and finished the prep:
It was at this point that my friend from whom I was borrowing the digital camera decided he should take it back a a couple days. I continued to labour at this process. I painted the frame in POR-15, and let it cure for a few days in the summer heat.Then I began to slap it all back together...