Painting Technique For Inside Frame Rail

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texas dogman

texas dogman

10 Year 15 Year
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Longview, Texas
With warmer weather on the way, getting ready to paint (POR) frame. Any body have any good tips on painting inside boxed frame rails.? Best idea I have is to spray inside each hole with paint gun and then with different type long handle wire brushes, make some swabs and just mop the inside the rails best as possible.

Any other ideas?? Thanks.
 
Buy an undercoating gun from Harbor Freight. Try to fing one with the long spray attachment like for doing doors or rockers. Might spray a little thick due to viscosity differences between POR and under coating but it is the inside of the frame.
 
Below is a quote from this guy's restoration... don't know if he's a mudder, but wrote to him years ago... hadn't seen much progress. It does give you an idea of what he used. He used ALL KINDS of things..lol.. Hope it helps:
http://chucksfj40.tripod.com/frame.htm


Quote: "...used a variety of tools to get every inch of the frame covered during both coating steps. Besides standard brushes, I used the items shown below. The bottle brush was used on the inside of the frame rails. The basting brush with the bent wire handle was used to get inside the frame rails just above and below the large holes in the side. I went back over everything with a drop light and a little mechanics mirror to make sure I had covered every last bit."
 
texas dogman said:
With warmer weather on the way, getting ready to paint (POR) frame. Any body have any good tips on painting inside boxed frame rails.?
Click to expand...
texas dogman said:
Any other ideas?? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I did this last summer and it was worth the effort. If i were to do it again I would recommend 4 things.

Take your time on the prep. I spend months cleaning my frame, and I could have spend twice as long. I did a pretty good on this part, but I could have had a super nice, super smooth finish if I wanted. I wasn't overly concerned with having a photo finish frame. I figured any good photos are ones where you can't see the nice finish thru the MUD. :flipoff2:

Use the marine clean and the metal etcher! Once you have the frame looking as good as you want it too, use the marine clean and the metal ready. Make sure you give it a good rinse, to get the excess zinc phosphate off. When it's dry it should have a good even light coat of white power.

Thin even coats, it makes working in sections easier. Buy the time I got thru the 1st coat it was time to start back at the beginning. 2 hours if I remember correctly. It went on beautify and set nice and level.

I wish I had done a better job in frame rails. I used a brush for most of the painting. I did try the aerosol spray thing, not totally convinced about these, but i might have had better luck if I had used the POR solvent. If anyone has used the sprayer...

http://www.prevalspraygun.com/

With the Solvent...

http://www.por15.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1276/.f

Let me know.

I would have tried this...

http://www.por15.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1558/.f?sc=2&category=156

But i was cheap and thought I could find something like this, but for less. I didn't find anything, and didn't want to wait to find it, or order it online.

Anyone ever try tried this or found something better, let me know.

Good Luck Texas Dogman, and take some photos!
 
Tresseh,


Good ideas, cheap and effective, my favorite combination

Here is a before and after of my frame...






IMG_3764.JPG

IMG_3764_RS.JPG




 
Great Job :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) . You Can Thank My 3yr Old Daughter On The Ear Plug Idea. I Make Her Wear Them In The Shop. She Took Them Out, Rolled Them Up And Stuck Them On The Bumper Holes To Hide Them From Daddy. When I Found Them Days Later I Was Very Happy With The Idea And The Fact She Did Not Eat Them Haha.

USING WIFES BRUSHES COST ME..............OPPS
 
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This was my method.

Hope yours turns out OK. If you do not want a pool of POR at the bottom of the Frame, do the bottom and then flip the frame to do the top.
por 2.webp
por.webp
por 3.webp
 
Also, you only get one try with the Exterminator so you have to be quick. If you let it sit for the POR to dry, it will also dry in the Exterminator gun. I had to use two of them.
 
IIRC, I diluted the por15, stuck it in regular cheepo spray bottles and sprayed away. I also made swabs with coat hangers and cut up sponges. You can double over the coat hangers to make 'em more stiff. I plugged the bolt holes with pieces of rolled up paper towels. Most of them were easy to extract when the por dried. Good prep work seems to be the bees knees. i highly recommend the metal ready and water wash. If you're doing it with the body on, I'd also think removing the tires and other panels-heat shields, etc... help you to get into hard to reach areas. Best of luck! ty
 
Thanks!

I'm getting a lot of help and ideas from all of you, i have a frame thats been blasted and primed with epoxy primer and waiting for paint. I don't have any more questions now!! so thanks alot!!
...ps, love the foam earplug trick!
 
Got a tip from a local auto resto place here in rusty New England.

Buy a garden sprayer for $8 at Lowe's. Pour 1 qt of auto transmission fluid in it. Stick the metal sprayer end in the frame holes and have at it.

They have done it for years on very expensive Mopars that they mainly restore. The ATF fluid is viscous enough that it clings to the metal but fluid enough that it will wick throughout the frame while you drive. It's also heavy enough to cling and not run off like a thinner oil (ie WD-40)

Messy but cheaper than anything. If you miss a spot or prep wrong with POR-15 there will be rust. The paint won't wick to unpainted areas for protection like the ATF fluid will.
 
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