In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Galvan in Harrisburg nc can do galvanized for you. They do trailer frames and stuff frequently. Today the had 60 ft i beams
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Galvan in Harrisburg nc can do galvanized for you. They do trailer frames and stuff frequently. Today the had 60 ft i beams
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Galvan in Harrisburg nc can do galvanized for you. They do trailer frames and stuff frequently. Today the had 60 ft i beams
I'll keep that in mind, but if I go that direction I'm hoping there will be a place a bit closer to me that can do it (I'd guess there's someplace in Cinci or Louisville if there's not a place here in Lexington, and if not there has to be a place in Indy) as Harrisburg is a bit of a haul from here.
POR-15 applies pretty easily, and holds up well as long as everything is prepped right, and it's not exposed to much UV. But, I'd avoid applying anything until you've got the frame fully mocked up and modified for the new drivetrain. I've heard it is not fun to wire wheel off.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Whatever gets done to rust-protect the frame will be done after everything (rust repairs, modifications for drivetrain, etc.) is done- essentially the last thing to be done before I start putting things back on the frame for good. So realistically, I'm not in a huge hurry for that- especially if getting together things like the batteries, inverter, etc. take a while and I wait until I've gotten everything on the body side of things worked out (which will be a whole other- mostly electrical wiring- ball of wax).
On the Rover, I did minor rust repair then POR-15. It's actually pretty easy to grind off on a small area, weld and repaint. 20 years later, it's just fine. The rear bulkhead is exposed and has seen two decades of harsh high altitude sun, and it's just a bit faded. Highly recommend.
I would not do powdercoat on a project car. That's a show car thing. Project cars are too mutable.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I wonder if there was a formula change at some point. The POR-15 that is most exposed on my Beetle is pretty chalky, it's only about 5-6 years old and the car spends a lot of time under cover. The stuff in the interior is still pretty good, though.
So the place here in town got back to me with a quote- $650 to media blast the frame clean, and $275-$350 to powder coat it if I decide to go that route.
I'm actually a bit surprised that the quote to blast it is as high as it is and the quote to powder coat it is as low as it is- but I suppose that about $1k to clean and cost a frame isn't all that bad these days...
Waiting to hear back from several mobile blasting people/companies to see what they'll charge- but I was able to get pretty much everything else off of the frame last night. The only things still on it are the two front flex brake lines that go through brackets on the front of the frame because I cannot get the nuts on the fitting that goes though the brackets to come loose, in no small part due to the fact that the brackets are just bent sheet metal welded to the frame and any attempt at breaking loose the nut just results in the flange bending and starting to tear away from the frame. I imagine that I'll just have to cut the brackets off completely and make new ones to weld on (and replace the brake lines- I already have to replace at least one hard line that snapped when trying to get it loose).
eastsideTim said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
I wonder if there was a formula change at some point. The POR-15 that is most exposed on my Beetle is pretty chalky, it's only about 5-6 years old and the car spends a lot of time under cover. The stuff in the interior is still pretty good, though.
That was the story 20 years ago too, that it would go chalky. Maybe I'm just not picky enough about the finish on an exposed piece of frame on a 48 year old off-roader :) I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow, but iirc it just looks a bit oxidized. You can always topcoat it.
Here it is today. This has been outside continuously for two decades and is fully exposed to high altitude, high UV sunlight. I think that's dirt on the center section (had a trans fluid spill in the back that covered the center secton mid-trip a while back, and that glued dust to the rear) but the paint is definitely not shiny anymore. I guess that's the chalkiness. I haven't tried waxing it to see if it'll buff up because, well, this is not a waxing kind of vehicle.
Closer.
The sections underneath and inside are still black and shiny when I clean them off. For a frame that's inside/underneath a car like a Delorean, I wouldn't hesitate to use POR again.
I sandblasted and powder coated a Miata chassis (after seam welding). Couldn't be happier.
It's not UV safe, but that's ok.
On a Delorean I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Called up one of the other places I was referred to about getting the frame blasted, and their ballpark was $7-800 and are about 20 minutes away so would have to come and haul the frame there, so it sounds like the local place will be the way to go.
Currently reconsidering the timing of it though since I won't be able to really do anything with it once it's blasted until at least the beginning of the month since the garage is going to be occupied by the non-profit's yard sale stuff until then. It may be a while as well before I really have figured out what modifications will be needed for the new drive train, batteries, and such- and I'll need to figure out a temporary rust-protectant measure between when I get the frame back from being blasted and when I coat it however I end up doing (I'm actually somewhat leaning toward the POR at the moment, because there are several places that will be somewhat encapsulated once I weld up all of the repairs so I'd be able to put the POR on before closing up the repairs).
Over the weekend I got the go-ahead from the place that is going to clean up the frame to drop it off today, so I finally broke out the angle grinder and cut out the really badly rusted part of the front frame box so they would be able to blast off the old epoxy more easily.
This morning I grabbed a trailer from U-Haul and with KYAllroad's help loaded the frame up on the trailer and took it to the shop for them to blast clean. They said it could be from 2-3 weeks for them to get it done (they primarily do commercial stuff, so it will get done when they have the time between other jobs), which works out well for me since it will mean it's not in the way for the yard sale this weekend and I'll have time to do some clean-up and organization of the garage after the sale to things will be better set up for working on it when I get it back.
I'm trying to track down a few cheap engine stands to make into a cheap DIY rotissarie to put the frame on when I get it back so I can easily work on it from different angles.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:I'm trying to track down a few cheap engine stands to make into a cheap DIY rotissarie to put the frame on when I get it back so I can easily work on it from different angles.
I did this with my TVR frame and it worked out great. I did put in a little effort to make sure the pivot points on the two engine stands were both level and at the same height. Beyond that, it was easy and super helpful.
So last Thursday I finally heard back from the blasting place that they were finished with the DMC's frame- they had been very busy with the commercial jobs that had precedence over individual jobs and it had taken them a lot more effort than expected for them to clean the old epoxy coating off of the frame (their initial attempt with just media blasting apparently didn't even dent it). But they finally got it done, and I was able to pick it up and haul it back home last Friday.
The good news is that the frame is cleaned off and I can now get started on cutting out the rest of the rusted sections and start in on fabricating the replacement sheet metal sections that will be welded in. The bad news is that a) the blasting place either made no attempt at cleaning up the blasting media from on/inside the frame or did a very lousy job- I'm not sure which is worse- and b) there's a lot of sections I'm going to have to replace. Before I unloaded the frame completely I went over it for a while with my shop vac to try and get rid of the blasting media- there has to be several pounds of media in the vac after doing that:
It's going to take a bit to cut out the rusted sections and fabricate the new ones. The very front is going to be the most extensive- I already know I need to get a new front frame extension (it's a separate part that is welded to the main frame, so available on its own- though it's NOT cheap, and if it didn't have so many integral fasteners and mount points I'd just fabricate that too and save nearly $1k), but most of the front box is going to need to be replaced as well. I'm thinking for the smaller section in the middle of the 'web' behind the box (lower right in the picture) I'll probably just clean up he rusted out section and weld a sheet over the outside instead of trying to replace the whole section.
I'm not going to be so lucky with the back of the frame though- I don't think there's going to be a way around replacing a both the web and the cap here, which is complicated by an additional piece boxing in the bend on the outside (on the other side that you can't really see).
Finally, the rear 'box' under the engine and between the rear shock struts is going to take a lot of work too.
I have been keeping an eye out in hopes of picking up two cheap used engine stands to use to make a DIY rotisarie, but have had no luck finding any within a decent drive- I may just end up having to buy two from HF and deal with it costing a bit more to make it easier to work on the frame.
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