In a perfect world, I would take the chassis completely apart, have every part sandblasted, then prime and paint each part, before reassembling them with all new hardware. However, I am not doing a restoration, so I didn't do that. But I do want to refresh the chassis, and make it nicer than most. The chassis is solid, with surface rust on it. I don't want to sandblast it all, since that's time consuming and expensive, but just painting over the rust is not going to last for long.
I had this small can of Por15 I had bought at a swap meet probably 10-15 years ago. Never did try the stuff. I began by wire brushing some of the frame and suspension parts. I stirred the Por15 for a long time, then I began applying it. It is a rust converter. This is a coating that is similar to paint, but it has chemicals in it that react with the rust on metal, turning the rust into an inert, hard, um, substance. This stuff is well known in the hobby for just this kind of use. It supposedly works best on lightly rusted metal. Bingo!
No, I do not know what became of Por's 1-14.
I will be honest and admit that I soon pooped out on the wire brushing part. Borrrring.
I painted the stuff on with inexpensive foam brushes. It was actually kind of fun, and as I say, I just sort of kept going, only wire brushing very scaly areas, or to get dirt off.
I wore latex gloves, as this stuff reportedly will not come off skin until it wears off. Nonetheless, I did get some on me, as well as some on my wife and daughter (don't ask). Anyway, I put on some Creedence Clearwater Revival, and soon got into a bit of a groove. It is kind of difficult to do an assembled chassis, but I am putting it on literally everything that's attached, so no need to be overly neat about it. It dries in just a few hours.
I just kept going until I finished the entire pint, and I had used 11 of my 12 brushes by then also.
As you can see by looking at the pictures, I got somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of the frame done. It is hard to estimate, since I didn't get a lot of the inside of the frame rails done, and I want to do all that too. I still have to do the front suspension, and there is more to that then the rear. Finally, I am going to flip the entire chassis upside down to do the complete underside! I did about 3 hours today, so I am estimating 10-12 hours for the chassis painting.
As soon as I had begun this today, I was wondering if I should bother with it at all. I would bet that 99% of the people that do an electric conversion don't bother. It is a lot of work, and it will not make the truck run any better. But hopefully it will be worthwhile, when people ask to see the electrical parts, and they see an immaculate detailed and painted chassis. I may be off on my own here, but this is going to be so cool.
I don't know if I'll have any more for your this weekend, as I have to order more Por15. Hopefully more next weekend.
I took a trip to the Tractor Supply store in Highland. Man I love that place. You feel like a rough and tough cowboy, or at least a rugged, rural farmer just walking in the place. It's all farmer/man stuff, a modern day version of a general store in the dusty old west. I got a gallon of gloss black truck & trailer enamel. Enamel! Where else could you get enamel paint anymore? The big box home stores don't sell it. This is the kind of stuff a farmer would brush paint on a tractor or something. Real man paint.
