Chassis is done

I got another quart and pint of Por15. I couldn't find the foam brushes at the home store closer to the house, so I got these "chip brushes" instead. Chip brushes as I know them are used to brush the chips of aluminum or steel or whatever from machinery like lathes, mills, and presses. I don't know how many machine shops get these there. Perhaps chip brush is just the term for any inexpensive brush not really meant for painting. They actually work better than the foam brushes because they are more durable; they last until you have to stop. It's only like $6-7 for a pack of 15, so when a session is over you just chuck the used brush. I was able to do about 2 hours more during the week. You get used to the gloves after awhile.

Saturday morning (today) I got to work again. I only had about half a day available, as we are leaving on vacation tomorrow. It was a brutally humid and hot day. I don't know how hot it was and I don't want to. I was going to do this anyway. I still had the front of the chassis to do. I set up a box fan and got to it in the shade of the garage. After all of the top was done, I got out the engine hoist and rigged it up. Just getting that thing set up was exhausting. I raised the chassis onto it's side like so:

I had planned to flip it completely over, but when I got it on it's side, I decided just to leave it like that. I could get to the top rail by standing, and the lower rail by sitting. Very comfy. You can see the places I still need to do on the undersides. It was actually quiet stable like this, and the trans and rearend didn't leak out the vents. I kept the hoist hooked up as a safety. You can see the shade from the house starting to come onto the chassis. As the day gets later the shade moves out farther, I was hoping to use that to work in. I got a new brush and want at it.

I was hoping to get as much done as I could today. It would be nice to have it all done today just because it would be a nice milestone to reach before we left. I worked diligently but quickly to some '60's-'70's music. The neighbors now know that I know all the lyrics to Mountain's "Mississippi Queen", among others.

Almost without warning, a disaster: RAIN. I was panicked that all the new Por15 was getting ruined with water spots, or who knows what. By this time I had the upper 2 tires off, so I couldn't just push it over and roll it in. I tried shuffling the chassis into the garage as it was by alternately raising and lowering it on the hoist, moving the hoist a little each time. No good. The chassis was too heavy, and it was taking too long. Soon the rain was coming down pretty heavy. Not a cloudburst, but pretty heavy. I scrambled for a tarp, but by the time I got it, it was clear that the chassis was covered in water beads. Putting the tarp on now seemed like too little too late. The neighbors now also know my vocabulary of words-of-frustration.

All those little bumps you may see on top are the water beads. With nothing else to do, I just left it. Almost like magic, 15 minutes later the rain stopped, and the sun began to poke out. I got out there and kept going. I was running out of time. Most of the parts I still needed to do really hadn't gotten wet, since they were hard to get to areas. Soon I had beat the shade and was out in the sun, but I didn't care. When I was done on this side, I put the 2 tires back on and just pushed it over until it was right side up. I hooked the hoist up to the other side, and raised it up onto that side. There was actually little left to do at that point. I probably did 75% while it was upright, and another 20% while it was on the first side, so there was only like 5% that I couldn't get to the first two times.

By the time I was done, I had just finished off the quart can. Perfect. I still have the pint for other parts and touch-ups. The water actually doesn't seem to have affected the Por15, so all that worry for nothing. Hoist disassembled; another sweat-dripping wrestling match. I flopped the chassis down, and rolled it into the garage. Done, and all before vacation.

It cost maybe $100 for the Por15, and took about 15 hours to paint the chassis. It was a lot of work. Easy work, but a lot of work. But it looks fantastic. Totally worth it. Of course everything that looks fantastic and is totally worth it is a lot of work.

Some of the front brake parts look useable as is. Next time hopefully we'll start on the brakes and suspension rebuild.

It will be good to have a week away to think about things. Thanks for tuning in, see ya soon.

Por15 update...so this doesn't come off, right?

Alright, maybe I got more on me than I thought. I didn't see these parts.

Began painting the chassis...with Por15

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.