79 CJ5 Frame Preservation

How much money do you have? Do you plan on a frame-off restoration? What do you plan for body panels? Where do you live? (If you live in New Mexico, West Texas, or Arizona, why are you even worrying about this?) As you can see, there are different answers for different situations and budgets.

Back in New England, where I grew up, people had lots of confidence in "hot oil" undercoating. This was something nasty, like bunker oil, that they heated up and sprayed into all the hidden panel access holes in your car. They swore by it. If you are doing a frame off, and have lots of $$$$, you could get the frame dipped like they used to do with AMC unibodies. (I remember the ads, but as I also remember, AMC unibodies didn't last any longer than other cars.) You could get the frame galvanized, $$$$$$$$.

I think that I would spray lots of paint into the boxed areas, and hope for the best. Pay particular attention to areas that seem to need a drain hole, and don't have it.

Earle

If you're doing a frame off, you have a few options. The one I would recommend if you don't mind spending some money is to have the frame e-coated. There are shops all over the country doing this now. It is a form of electroplating, but is very resistant to corrosion. The finished color is a dull pine green color. The problem with this, or any other coating, is that after dragging the frame over rocks, stumps, etc. most coatings will be scraped off. The nice thing about e-coat is that it will cover every square inch of the frame inside and out. A much more cost effective method will be, like you said, POR-15 on the outside, and some form of undercoating inside the rails. I did this on a truck frame that sees Michigan winters, and after

Chris

Even with the body off he won't be able to spray enough paint through the holes at the end of `79 CJ-5 frame to get enough coverage to preserve it. Got one, been there. He will be able to get a _bit_ better access if he cuts off the rear frame member/bumper, which will allow him to spray paint a foot or so into the frame or about to the trailing end of the rear wheel arch. But it occurs to me that all he'll accomplish is getting a nice coat of paint on the piles of rust and dirt back there inside the box.

Earle Hort> How much money do you have? Do you plan on a frame-off restoration? What

The best solution is also the most expensive. That is to find a place that will dip your frame. One dip strips off all rust and the other coats inside and outside with rustproofing. They usually also have powdercoating or paint options.

One option I have seen for the DIY job is to drill holes in the side of the frame every couple of feet then spray in rust converter and plug with rubber plugs. Not sure I'd recommend that.

Can you run a piece of flexible hose through there, say an air hose? Run the hose all the way through, then slowly withdraw it, blowing air the whole time. OK, now this is the good part. Spray paint in there with an undercoating nozzle, while a helper applies a shop vacuum nozzle to the other end!

Earle

There is a shop near here (central NY) that hot dips guard rails and road sign supports. I understand that their tank is the biggest in the state and could easily fit a truck frame inside. Three years ago they were charging around 65 cents a pound to tank strip and galvanize. I am seriously thinking about taking one of my frames over there. I painted POR-15 on my CJ frame about 12 years ago. It held up very well but the rust inside the frame eventually spread out through the holes in the frame and lifted the POR-15 around the holes, causing some flaking. I never top-coated it and the POR-15 turned a bit milky with UV exposure. Spraying inside the frame with an undercoating nozzle is a great idea, just wrap a bit of wire around it to keep it center inside the frame. Just be real careful of spray out through the holes because you don't want to have to clean this stuff off from anything.

Jeff

"Neil" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...

Chris I live in Michigan. Where is Harbir Frieght? I've heard people talk about it but never been there.

Later Mike

They are a mail order tool supply store, but they also have online and retail stores.

I'm in Michigan, but I'm a yooper, so I go to the Harbor Freight store in Green Bay, WI. ;-)

Chris

Thanks for the info. Happy Jeeping!

Later Mike

It would be a bit like trying to fish a length of Romex up through a wall without a fishtape, but yeah, it would work better than nothing. I'd thought about those wands I hear that the rust proofing guys use to spray inside body panel spaces. In the end I decided that my CJ would probably never again see a salted, slushy road or not be parked in a garage and did what I could and ignored the rest.

Earle Hort> Can you run a piece of flexible hose through there, say an air hose? Run

Over here in the UK we have big rust problems on old vehicles because we use salt on the roads in winter (which are long and wet). We have a product called 'Waxoyl' which is a thick grease like substance designed to be sprayed into chassis members via access holes, you can get presure spraying kits for it. It is fairly cheap (maybe $30 a gallon in your money) and kills old rust and seems to work well (its horrible stuff, based on white spirit). Not sure if its is available in the US though, it is made by Hammerite. Maybe you could order it from here over the web.