What to do about the tub ? HELP !@

[Nate_offroad]

I'm in need of some help and advice. I've been trying to figure out what to do with the 1966 FJ40 tub. There are a few rusty spots on the tub. The owner that had the 40 before my father and I got a hold of it apparently wasn't going to take real good care of her and obviously didn't want to do a frame off restore on it, so he just spray painted the whole outside of the tub. I'm worried sandblasting the entire tube ( top and bottom ) along with the top and bottom sides of the hood will take ages. Then plan is to paint the tub and have Line X sprayed along the inside of the tub. Also if we do end up sanding blasting the whole thing would it be a good or bad idea to apply por - 15 to the tub and the prime and paint over it?

Any and all help would be awesome.

 

[D'Animal]

What are your plans for the rig?

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

My thoughts and experience... Unfortunately is that you do not (maybe minus strength if it was thin) gain much and definately not rust protection if you blast all the rust off, por15, and paint over. I did that exact method to my frame at I can promise you it does not look great right now. Somehow even with POR15 and the proper top coat it has rusted through the material..... I also applied it to all the spots on the tub that I thought might be future rust spots and I didnt wait quite long enough before I sealed over it and it off gassed and bubbled my sealer like crazy to the point where I had to wire wheel it all back off and start over. So my thoughts are if you are going to have it blasted then just seal it with a GOOD two part etching sealer. Which if you are going to do any body work it would be best to seal after your filler.... It sucks becasue all the work you do is only going to be as good as what you put it on so at minimum you are going to have to get an orbiting sander out and go to town.... With all this nonsense stated D'Animal is 100% right when he asked the plans for the rig! That will tell what should be done. If you did all the steps that I did and then took it out and had fun on the killer trails that would be rather ODD.

POR15 I am certain would be great if you used it for what it is intended....on rust, and then top coated

 

[Nate_offroad]

Our plans for the truck are to use her as a daily driver and to doa little off roading as well. So far we are finished with the frame. It has been sandblasted and coated with por-15, the coated with the black top coat. Look really good. The main things we have left to do are finish sand blasting the tub, fenders and the hood. Rebuild the break lines, paint, Line X, purchase new 33 x 12 tires.

what brand of paint is everyone using to paint their 40's with? How much is it coasting to paint the entire thing?

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

It is my experience that real so called automotive paint can range drastically but in general for paper, tape, sand paper, sealers, primers, paint, clear, filler, etc. you are looking at 1200.00 avg. With this said guys can try and beat me up all day about that is low or high but again that is what I call from my experiences average and I too could beat it or exceed it based off of the product choices. This is all based off of what you mentioned about possibly a little rust repair, and needing to remove at minimum the spray paint so now we are way past a simple scuff and shoot...... However I am one to promote a guy can do and many on this site have done great paint jobs for way way way less than i mentioned. You should check the paint section for lots and lots of info.

I dont want to scare you but my frame looked crazy SWEET also at first. I really really hope I screwed up and you have better luck than I did with the POR and top coat on a blasted frame. I left mine in the weather for about a year though!!

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

I should have mentioned assuming what has or hasnt been done to your vehicle so far you have all kinds of cool crazy things you can and possibly should do in order to make it a daily driver as you mentioned such as power steering. Maybe rear disc brakes though isnt a necessity, and definately remove the years and years of dirt and mouse crap from your heater core so you stay warm LOL!!

 

[D'Animal]

If you are going to make a nice daily driver and if the tub is off already, I would sand blast it and fix the rusty spots. Right now you are seeing the rust that is visual. If you ahve it blasted, you can see any body filler that may have been applied by the previous owner. Basically strip it down and do everything right on the reassembly.

You mention time for sand blasting, a commercial sand blaster do the tub in a few hours for a couple hundred dollars. If you plan on doing it yourself in your driveway, it will take a long time.

For a trail rig, it does not matter, the first time you crush your rocker panel, it won't matter if ti has Por 15, Dead Liner or clear coat.

 

[Gusb]

It's interesting to me that so many still recommend sand-blasting sheet metal panels on these trucks. I thought that years ago this was beginning to go out of fashion because of warped panels, thinning of steel, etc. and all the new blasting/stripper processes that have been developed.

I tend to see POR15 as a good solution to rust clean-up and something you might pour into an area you can't reach for a long term "temporary fix" - say inside a rocker for example. I don't think there is any reason to use POR15 on something that has a perfect prep job in place. POR15 deserves it's reputation (IMO) for sealing rust but I don't think many good paint shops would use it on a "proper" paint job. I think POR15 is tough when it "bonds" with rust, not some do-it-all tough paint.

Try use the least destructive process you can afford to strip and prep the tub. If you have "just a few rust spots" I would maybe dig in to each one, see how bad it is and repair it correctly (weld in new material if needed, etc.). I would sand-blast a frame and not worry too much about it.

 

[ken_79-fj40]

I've painted my 40 twice now. First was a quicky to get it looking halfway decent and I just ground out any rust and used eastwood's version of por-15 on those spots, then filler and some cheap primer, then good old centari enamel. Looked pretty good but went to hell in about a year. My truck actually has an aluminum 3/4 tub but the rest of it's steel. The next time around I sandblasted the cowl, nose panel, replaced the hood with a rust free one, put on CCOT fenders (which really kind of suck but they look ok) and welded in new metal wherever there was any rust through. I then did my body work and applied several coats of high build epoxy primer before repainting it with Urethane enamel. The windshield frame didn't hold up and I replaced that a few years back with a heritage one, but everything else still looks great and it's been 6-7 years since I painted it. Epoxy primer is expensive, but it works incredible. You can lay it on thick over sandblasted metal and sand it out to being ready for paint without any filler. The entire cowl on my truck was done this way, and it looks great. I don't see why you couldn't do pretty much an entire tub with this stuff after sandblasting. I spent $600-$700 on paint materials for the job.

 

[71-CRUISER]

If you are in Buford than you aren't far from the Sand Blaster that we use for all of our tubs. His name is Lanny Porter and his Company is called Nu-Tech Sodablasting (he does sand and soda). Nutech Refinishing, Inc. - WHAT IS SODABLASTING? 770-367-8107 He does a great job and is very reasonably priced.

If you have already gone to the expense of blasting and painting the frame than why not do everything? He will blast everything and prime it for you. At that point I would do all the rust repair that is necessary and then on to paint.

This is the tub and hood that we recently got back from him as well as some other small parts.

 

[D'Animal]

It really depends on the skill level of the blaster and the media being used.

It is getting hard to find shops that soda blast anymore.

I took a 1974 FJ40 hood to a sand blaster and he had it done in under an hour ($45). No warpage at all.

It's interesting to me that so many still recommend sand-blasting sheet metal panels on these trucks. I thought that years ago this was beginning to go out of fashion because of warped panels, thinning of steel, etc. and all the new blasting/stripper processes that have been developed.

I would sand-blast a frame and not worry too much about it.

X - 2

 

[cruiserjunkie]

I blasted mine then used the por15 on the bare metal. I like the way it gripped the bare metal and hardend but my 40 is mostly a trail rig I think a ecthing primer would be the same thing only eaiser to work with and seal as goog with a quailty paint over it. I durbaked over the inside of tub and it bonded soild with the por15.

 

[rusty_tlc]

...

For a trail rig, it does not matter, the first time you crush your rocker panel, it won't matter if ti has Por 15, Dead Liner or clear coat.

You can do this and still have a reasonable looking rig. I have a cheap set of dollys and hammers from Harbor Freight and use lots of bondo and Krylon Hunter green.
Of course my tub was so wracked and rusted to start with there wasn't much point in trying to repair it.

I also agree that if you have it down to the frame already you might as well go all the way and repair the body correctly.

 

[Coolerman]

New car thin sheet metal, yes, easy to warp. Early 16 ga metal a bit tougher.

You can sand blast aluminum/brass/pot metal if you follow some simple rules...

Keep the sand/air ratio low, (More air, less sand), a bigger gun nozzle helps also.
Keep the air pressure lower.
Keep the gun moving.

Practise on scrap first... I ruined a glass fuel filter top because I didn't realize how soft it was, and I had the cabinet set up for heavy iron rust removal.

 

[Stumpalama]

I vote for blasting and sealing right away. This allows you to work on the truck without worrying about flash rust etc. I did this about 8 years ago an my truck is rust free and is a daily driving trail rig. I had it blasted and sealed an brought the tub back to the garage and spent months cutting out the bad rust and welding in new metal in southeast Virginia summer humidity. I would re prime sanded or welded areas with galvanized primer, the good high solids stuff. I then wiped the sealer with cleaner/xylene and roll-on bedlined the underside all the way up the firewall and the interior before mounting the body and driving it over to the paint shop for a $1500 (including the windshield frame, hood, fenders, doors and bib) 2 coat prime and paint with 3M Toyota factory 857 blue.
It has held up outstanding, including being left outside (I was told it would be kept in a warehouse)for two years, in Eastern PA, while I was in Japan.
I will probably repaint it at some point in the next 5-10 years.

Needless to say, what you do now will pay for itself and cause less hassle in the long run. Do it right the first time,

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

Another thought is to whip out the big obvious repairs now prior to sand blasting so that you dont have to redo the areas such as sealing them and then DAing it all back off and then doing the repair and then having to degrease it all, reseal it all, etc. If you pick your large areas such as probably the rear sill etc. you could take a DA to them and you will have no problem chasing the rust back to identify the true area with out blasting. Then when you get it back from the blaster (which mine wasnt warped because I spoke to them prior about it, used a trusted blasting outfit, and the metal is crazy thick as mentioned) you could seal it and hopefully have a lot less suprises to have to redo. The other advantage is that possibly you wouldnt have any crazy suprises and you could lay a lot of your filler on the bare steel that has a TON of tooth because of the blasting prior to sealing. Also an FYI I think I payed around 300 to have the entire tub and tranny cover, and a couple of other dumb things done. I only am providing this thought incase you don't have a sweet hookup like 71-cruiser had where they can seal it for you right away or the ability to whip a sprayer out so that you can utilize a good true two part sealer. Last thought incase this is new to you I dont believe you need a 500 dollar gun to spray sealer. The wal-mart special will work just fine assuming you are planning on at least spraying and blocking at minimum one coat of sandable primer later. Just heat your garage up the best you can it seems to help the sealer lay flat.

Good luck

 

[Stumpalama]

I'm not a fan of filler/bondo on 40's... They were manufactured with all the spot welds showing and puckered body panels from the factory. Some thin light filler to smooth really warped metal and misaligned patches is necessary, however trying to make a perfectly smooth cruiser is an exercise in futility and, IMHO, takes away from the utilitarian character of the truck... It was perfectly imperfect from the factory. Seal it up real good, spend your money on the primer and prep and slap a decent paint on it and it will hold up great for years.