Posted by Ken See on Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 8:43AM :
In Reply to: Frame Off or not? posted by Ray Fried on Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 1:01AM :
I started out with the same plan as yours, do the body only. But then I realized that the springs, axles and frames on these trucks are just much as part of the overall appearance of the truck as the body. It seemed to be a only a half job done to have a nice body sitting on top of a rusty greasy chassis. So I took the axles and springs off, and sandblasted and painted everything. Although I would recommend this if you can do the sandblasting yourself. As pointed out, the grease is a problem and has to be scraped and brushed off as much as possible, since the blasting will bounce off it. When you hire someone to do it, they will not take the time to remove the grease 100%, or the rust for that matter. So prep for painting would be a problem. My brother did his wdx by simply wire brushing as much as possible and using Hammerite in a rattle can and it came out great with about 10% of the effort I went through. Whatever you do, it’s more work and cost but in the end you’ll be glad you did it. All the brakes on mine had to be replaced anyway, as well as the spring bushings and shackles and u joints. Anything you want protected from sand just wrap in duct tape and plastic and keep the nozzle away. The way I figured it, I’m only going to do this once, so might as well go the whole way. It was recommended to me to actually take the springs apart and blast and paint the leaves separately. I didn’t do that but I wish I did because I have rust running out between the leaves. Before I started, I saw a couple for Fords and Chevy ½ tons with real nice paint jobs, and then peered underneath to see 40 years worth of road grime. That convinced me.
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