My father started this project in the late 70s before I took it over about 3 years ago. Its a 38 Ford. He stripped the car apart, and about ten years ago took the chassis away to be sand blasted, to remove several decades worth of gunge. The chassis came up nice, but he didn't apply a primer, just left the chassis bare. Now its covered in surface rust. What is the best way for me to remove the surface rust? When I say its covered, I mean there are no areas where there isn't surface rust. It really is covered. I don't really want to have to take it away to be sand blasted again, but will do if there are no other realistic alternatives. Any suggestions?
Cup brush on an angle grinder. Be sure and wear goggles those things really fling wires off. Ya might try renting one of those high zot power washers, like up around 1500 PSI or whatever they are. I've seen then blow paint and everything else off an old chassis. That might just work for ya. But the cup brush is a sure thing.
Sandblast or chemical dip is really the best way. You'll have a hard time getting it all with a wire brush or hand-sanding
gonna paint it up pretty or just spray bomb or por 15? if you are going pretty another sandblast would be the best way. if not the wire wheel should get it good enough.
I'd media blast it. Don't sandblast it, though, as that can warp the panels. A good soda blast should get it, though. Or get it dipped.
Cup brush is the cheapest - Eye protection and wear a dust mask unless you want black boogers. Use coarse sandpaper or even small wire brushes in hard to reach areas.
DOH! Big misread on my part. I was thinking...well...something else. I'll shut up and sit in my corner.
I would carry it to a local powder coater and have them blast it and powder coat it in the color of your choice. Around here I can have a frame sand blasted and coated in one day for 350 bucks. No way can you blast, prime, and paint it for that.
KBS sells that rust blast. It is some type of acid that converts the rust to an inert state. I just used it on my 37 chassis nad on light rust it worked pretty well.. Didn't come out perfect (like blasting) but I was happy with the end result.
I have the same situation to a lesser degree on the partially built Brookville '31 roadster I'm hard at work on these days. The car had sat in a garage with a primed body and an unpainted new frame for probably 3-4 years after the guy bought it. The frame has gotten light surface rust, no pitting. That is the condition it was in when I bought it The primer on the body, I will block sand off the exterior, scuff with scotch brite inside, and plastic media blast the underneath floor pan. I have the body off and set to one side on a dolly now and the frame on a rotisserie working it over now. I'm hitting the parts of the frame that will be exposed (hiboy)with 80 grit disc, mainly to get out disc marks left from manufacture. My plan is to wash frame thoroughly with purple cleaner, and then use a commercial phosphoric acid neutralizer solution which kills the rust and converts the iron oxide (rust) to a coating of zinc phosphate. Then comes POR15, 2 coats, next is a coat of self etching primer from POR15. Then I'll hit the exposed areas of a hiboy with a coat of their "tie coat" primer, which is a high solids buildable and sandable primer. Finally, a coat of their topcoat for what I hope will be a decent paint job on the frame. I'm trying to build a nice car, cause at age 70, I suspect it's the last I'll build. But it's gonna be a driver, not something to trailer to shows and put on display with mirrors under it. Dave
sounds like you wanna do it yourself, I vote cup wire brush, and like porknbeaner says, you must wear excellent quality eye protection. You want to be able to see to drive it when it's done.
Hey everyone, thanks so much for your help. I'm going to phone around a couple of sand blasting companies today, and get quotes for doing the job. The body on my car has seen better days, but I'd really like the chassis to look nice, so it looks like sand blasting is going to be my best bet. Unless its massively over priced, it seems like my best option, given there is so much else to do on this project. If it turns out to be really pricey, I'm going to try some of the options listed above. Thanks again.
Hi Steve. I got 4 wire wheels blasted and etch primed recently, cost me $260!!! I feel like I was robbed to tell the truth. I should've got some quotes first. It's definitely the way to go, but based on my experience, I can see it costing mebbe $5-600.
Get wire wheel grinder with braded wire instead of straight wire ,they dont fling off high speed wires
For this type of stuff, I wire brush it then use Picklex then paint with KBS or Hirsch Miracle paint (rust encapsulator) then cover that with Hirsch Chassis Black which has been salt tested for 500 hours. Wire brush gets off the worst of it. The Picklex converts the remaining surface rust and can be painted over. I use Picklex because you don't need to wash it off with WATER (rust creator) as most other products recommend. The encapsulator seals off everything with a super hard finish and Chassis Black gives it a stock look with UV protection and salt protection. A couple of my customers skip the encapsulator stage and just use Chassis Black. These have received rave reveiws from owners and the cars are very top end restos.
Thanks for this. With surface rust providing quite a rough texture on the chassis, what sort of finish do you get, given you don't wash it off? Or is it the wire brush that smooths the surface?
Marty, check out Bishops post above. Sandblasted and powdercoated for $350! Sometimes living in NZ can be a bit depressing.
But we live on a Tropical South Pacific Island... Paradise !! Either take it to Doug Green at Kiwi Metal Polishers in Rotorua www.metalpolishers.co.nz In fact get a quote for the whole car at once it is much cheaper than doing a bit at a time. or blast it or if you want to do it yourself Try tergophos http://www.tergo.co.nz/Tech Data/HTML/tergophos.htm or rust killer http://www.tergo.co.nz/Tech Data/HTML/rust_killer.htm Don't go buy it from Mitre 10 or similar , buy direct from Tergo Industries http://www.tergo.co.nz through your business....$43.00 a litre from Mitre 10.
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