Stripping Frame

[Soul_Man]

Anyone have any good suggestions on stripping out the inside box sections of an FJ-40 (1978) frame? I need to strip all the rust so I can paint or powdercoat the frame. I'm not sure how to get at the inside box section, especially to get along the corners (dremel with flexible shaft and small wheels???). Is it possible to get a frame dipped/stripped down to bare metal?

Doing a frame-up resoration/salvage of my '78 FJ-40.

 

[kc_chevota]

had mine sandblasted at a local body shop they did a decent job of getting inside the frame i had to do a little finish work with a dremel and wire brush. btw they only charged me 125 well worth my time

 

[SNLC]

I have done both blasting and the good ole hard way, manual labor. This not on a FJ40 but a frame very similar. Blasting is great, goes fast if you have the right blaster and compressor. You can also get into all the nooks and cracks easily plus blast the inside a bit. But you will never get the inside completly clean on a box frame. One prob with blasting is you have to clean it up a ton before paint. That means get all the blasting material out of the frame. A real good pressure wash can do this, not much else will. If you don't clean it up after the blast you will have sand all over the place when you paint.

Manual labor is a dirty job but gets it cleaner in the end. This being wire brush, dremel, sanders. If it is real dirty start with a puddy knife and scrape. Then wire brush on a drill or grinder. I find a soft wire brush on a Dewalt angle grinder works good. Then dermil for detail and then sand it starting with some 40grit.

You want to remove all rust so you may find it requires grinding and sanding a lot. A blaster with a coarse grit material will get the rust out too. Once it is clean treat the frame with a rust nuetralizer. Try to get as much nuetralizer as you can inside the frame.

If you can get the frame blasted for cheap, $125 is cheap, then you sure might want to consider that. Cleanning up a dirty, rusty frame is a lot of work. But if you do it yourself you get the rewards of your own work!

Powder coating the frame will be the nicest route. Last a long long time too and takes lot's of abuse. If you go paint I reccomend and industrial type paint such as is used on heavy equiptment or a marine type paint used on ships....even tractor paint is good and any of the three will last a long arse time. Proper prep and priming is important to get your top coat to last.

I am nearly done with my latest frame resto. Just need to do a little welding and then I can paint it. Like I say it is not an FJ40 but is very similar...here is a link, 67 Patrol frame resto

 

[rusmannx]

you could always have the frame hot-dipped.

 

[Lusedekache]

I've been looking for a place to hot-dip my frame but such services seem to have gone the way of the Dodo. I've put their scarcity down to enviornmental regulations being on the up and up. Anyone have a line on a dipper in the upper mid-west?

 

[tobydog]

Cleaning frame

Use a frayed steel cable to clean inside of box

 

[Trevor]

Like I say it is not an FJ40 but is very similar...here is a link, 67 Patrol frame resto

Thread Hijack:

There's an old Patrol rusting away in a field down the road from me. Kinda sad.

 

[SNLC]

good point on the frayed cable...won't do a real good job but definately will do more than nothing at all. Without dipping though there is no real way to get it all coated inside the box.

Trust me...I seen lot's of Patrols rotting away. But you could get on some Nissan boards and post up the info....Patrols east of the rockies are hard to find and come by. I know a number of nissanheads on the east coast who would pick one up if they could find it close enough to them.

 

[labartonmd]

I found a strip and dip in Tupelo, MS. I'll have to search again to find it. I think I used metal restoration as a keyword.

 

[dd113]

We have a dip shop in Atlanta. it runs around $600 a frame. The only issue I really have with it is that it gets ALL the paint and rust off the frame and it is almost impossible to paint ALL the frame. I would go with wire brush and time.

 

[Trevor]

Is "dipping" the same thing that the machine shop did to my cylinder head? It took EVERYTHING off and looked nice. What exactly is it?

 

[labartonmd]

Dave, where's the dip place in Atlanta? I couldn't find it in the internet yellow pages.
Trevor, yes the dip for the frame and body is the same principle as the dip for the engine parts but the composition of the dip tank varies. Some of the extra money for frame and body dips is because they do several dips in different vats; one to degrease/ strip paint (base) and another to derust (acid) with lots of hand labor in between.

 

[Soul_Man]

dd113 (or anyone else): what do I look under in the Yellow Pages or online to find a places that dips frames. I don't even know where to look.

I wouldn't mind stripping absolutely everything, in fact that is exactly what I'm wanting (demanding, really ). I'm going to get the frame powdercoated, and I think that sticks electrostatically so it can get inside all the nooks and crannies. after the powder coat I"m going to paint/undercoat or rhino-line the crap outta it!

 

[Degnol]

Try anyone you know in the local hotrod community, they have great sources and connections. You can also have it soda blasted, but it won't remove rust, just dirt and paint. You have to network this one in your locale. Caustic metal stripping is not that expensive in KC. I've had an iron bed done, some old retro metal patio furniture, You'd just need to find somebody that can dip a frame.
GL
Ed