Cleaning up the frame and prepping for paint.

I spent a lot of time pondering how to attack the frame and finally decided to paint it with POR-15. I was seriously considering powder coating the frame, but I decided against it because I don't have a truck and trailer and tearing down the suspension and transporting it all would have been an extra cost and hassle for me and I also didn't want any issues with bolts not fitting properly and cleaning out threads. The cost of powder coating is pretty reasonable I thought, around $300.00 + blasting labor. It was a money and convenience issue so I went with the POR-15 treatment, Metal Prep, Marine Clean, POR-15 and some chassis black paint.

The good thing is I’m a nut, so I ended up wire wheeling just about every speck of the rust off of the frame. I probably went way overboard and instead of painting over the rust I am painting bare metal, the metal prep did leave a nice coating to paint on so I hope it sticks. The plan is to paint the majority of the frame the top, sides and bottom, out in the driveway since the weather is still somewhat nice here. I want to be able to roll the frame in and out of the garage and work in the driveway to keep the dust and fumes out of the house. After that is done I will pull it in the garage and tear down the front and rear suspension and either paint or possibly do a little powder coating on the A-arms, sway bar etc… haven’t decided on what to do with those yet. I will be brushing the bulk of the POR-15 on, I do have the option of spraying it but since the stuff is fairly toxic I will try to keep that to a minimum and just spray when absolutely neccessary.