All of that is either lots of elbow grease or blasting the choice is yours as to how to clean that thing..I am getting lazy in my older years and send that out to be blasted..be ready to paint immediately on the return of the chassis so it does not rust again and you have a do-over..

Sam

 

i have a 72 chevy p/u that the frame needs to be cleaned. what about the crossmembers? do they need to be removed? if so what kind of bolt should i use in place of the rivets?

 

HF has a pressure blaster for 100.00 ...either have it blasted or blast it yourself but blasting is the way...

 

This is what I use, click here for "Super Clean"
Here is a review I did on it a while ago. (Click here) I was just out there today cleaning up chassis parts from my Rambler using it and the same brush I bought back when I did the review (where to get it is in the review as well) and I am still amazed at how well it works.

The frame pieces had a very thick coating of a grease and mud combination. I scrap it off as best I can with a gasket scraper. Then spray the Super Clean on it (straight). Then let it sit, brush it good with that brush and spray it some more. Let it soak up real good and maybe brush it again and spray it again. Then hose it off, the stuff comes out spotless!

I dust over it with the little sand blaster I have and you are ready for primer and paint.

Brian

 

i have a 7 hp pressure washer. it will knock off 90% of it then i soak it with dawn soap for a few hours then wash again. from there you can wire brush it. but it's still going to need blasting to get it to white steel.

 

Do they make any kind of blasting wands to use on the inside of a boxed frame????

 

when i did the frame on my 77 f150 i used a cup brush on a good 4.5in angle grinder on it. it had some under coating on it and sand blasting didnt work on the undercoating. it took a while with the grinder but it seem to work good. i also used these grinding wheels called strip it wheels or something like that. they are for removing old paint they worked extremely well but they wore out quick and were like 1o bucks a peice to expenpensive for me. i used grade 8 bolts the biggest i could get in the holes for the places where i removed rivets. i pressure washed it as good as i could before i started

 

For close to a hundred bucks you could have it blasted. Worth every penny.

ntx_gearhead, I wouldn't grind out any rivets unless you absolutely have to, to make a repair. If the crossmember is bolted in and you need to remove it, or the piece needs to be replaced, I'd use at least a grade 5 bolt to replace it. There's a great article in this months Auto Restorer about automotive bolts.

 

For close to a hundred bucks you could have it blasted. Worth every penny.

ntx_gearhead, I wouldn't grind out any rivets unless you absolutely have to, to make a repair. If the crossmember is bolted in and you need to remove it, or the piece needs to be replaced, I'd use at least a grade 5 bolt to replace it. There's a great article in this months Auto Restorer about automotive bolts.

Me no like grade 5 bolts . Of course I worked on heavy equipment for 25yrs and only used grade 8 . Our trucks cost 2.5 million a piece so we didn't take chances I still don't .

 

Me no like grade 5 bolts . Of course I worked on heavy equipment for 25yrs and only used grade 8 . Our trucks cost 2.5 million a piece so we didn't take chances I still don't .

Please re-read my post. I said at least a grade 5. The manufacturer would probably have used a grade 5 or grade 8 depending on the application. In fact, if the engineers wanted a bolt to bend rather than shear on impact,they might use a lesser bolt.

 

Me no like grade 5 bolts . Of course I worked on heavy equipment for 25yrs and only used grade 8 . Our trucks cost 2.5 million a piece so we didn't take chances I still don't .

Collision repair procedures dictated drilling the previously riveted hole out to the next size bolt, (i.e. 7/16 becomes 1/2) then using grade 8 hardware with thread locker.

 

Please re-read my post. I said at least a grade 5. The manufacturer would probably have used a grade 5 or grade 8 depending on the application. In fact, if the engineers wanted a bolt to bend rather than shear on impact,they might use a lesser bolt.

I hope I didn't sound like I was critiqueing your post . I didn't mean for it to sound that way . I was just stating my personal preference . I found and replaced a lot of grade 5 bolts on my T-bucket with grade 8 'cause I have stripped or broken a LOT of grade 5 bolts when tightening them , then it is off to Lowe's for new grade 8 bolts . The local parts stores ( NAPA & Advance ) sent me to Lowe's cause they don't bother to carry many bolts .

 

3200 psi preasure washer and oven cleaner all grease and grime will be gone. let the oven cleaner soak for a half hour or so (depending on temp.) and wash away. then sand prime paint