What's the best way to clean up a frame?

I have the bed off my truck and will pretty much rebuilding the back half of the truck. while it's apart, i want to clean it up and paint it. I have access to a good paint gun and air tools.

should i use a grinder w/ cutoff wheel to remove rust? should i just use 80 grit paper? What works best w/o leaving marks that you will see through paint?

also, is POR15 the way to go for paint?

First, Pressure washer with some degreaser to get rid of the grease and grime. Next best to sandblast to bare metal, but if you don't have a sandblaster or the budget to do it. A wire wheel in the drill works. It takes longer but does the job. Then you can paint with your choice of products. POR 15 is ok it just fades if exposed to UV light and containes volitale chemicals so use a respirator. If you get most of the rust off you can use either rustolium or eastwood's rust encapsulator and you are set.

Just don't use a cutoff wheel to remove rust you will cut through the axle tubes use a wire wheel or flap disk.

try using some paint remover either the stuff you spray on or brush on. i used it when i did the frome on the diesel and all that nasty undercoating camer right off. just use a paint scraper.

Go to your nearest Dollar General store and buy yourself about 8-10 cans of their oven cleaner ... spray it on ... let it sit ... spray more on ... let it sit ... hose off, or even better is to pressure wash it off.

WARNING: Wear eye protection, long sleeves and gloves ... this stuff will burn ya.

Go to your nearest Dollar General store and buy yourself about 8-10 cans of their oven cleaner ... spray it on ... let it sit ... spray more on ... let it sit ... hose off, or even better is to pressure wash it off.

WARNING: Wear eye protection, long sleeves and gloves ... this stuff will burn ya.

Oven cleaner works good but I had mixed results with the generic stuff I got from the Dollar store. The name brand stuff never failed me and when the cheap stuff didnt work I found that a can of Oreilly's house brand degreaser worked well. Let it sit and use a pressure washer. Definately take Shane's advice about the eye protection...degreaser or oven cleaner in the eye will make you lose your religion in front of the Pope.

I thought I was satisfied with the way my frame looked after a good cleaning so I opted to not blast or wire wheel it...bad idea. Every time I look at it now I wish I had done that in the first place. I got a quote from a local powdercoating shop to blast and powdercoat my frame, trailing arms, front control arms AND my ugly yellow springs for under $500. I may just blast it and go back and roll on some flat black rustoleum again.

sounds like i'll get myself some Oreilly's degreaser and work with the wire wheel and/ore flap disk. Not sure why i said cut off wheel... i was thinking flap disk in my head, but cut off wheel came out :)

Since this will be the first paint i have ever sprayed, i think i'll go the POR 15 route.

my truck is 2 hours away from where i live, so i can only get to it on the weekends. usually every 3rd weekend or so.... with that said, if i clean it down to bare metal, i'm assuming i should paint it right away. Maybe do one frame rail at a time? that way if it takes me a day to get one done, i can slap some paint on and call it good.

I got a quote from a local powdercoating shop to blast and powdercoat my frame, trailing arms, front control arms AND my ugly yellow springs for under $500. I may just blast it and go back and roll on some flat black rustoleum again.

Can you just drive the truck in and have them do it or do you have to strip it down to a bare frame?

Be very careful spraying POR15 ... a fresh air system is highly recommended.

This is just me, but I wouldn't think of spraying it with a standard filter-type respirator.

Can you just drive the truck in and have them do it or do you have to strip it down to a bare frame?

That price was for me bringing them a bare frame and dismantled suspension pieces. I would think they either would not take a whole truck or would charge waaaay too much to be worth it.

sounds like i'll get myself some Oreilly's degreaser and work with the wire wheel and/ore flap disk. Not sure why i said cut off wheel... i was thinking flap disk in my head, but cut off wheel came out :)

Since this will be the first paint i have ever sprayed, i think i'll go the POR 15 route.

my truck is 2 hours away from where i live, so i can only get to it on the weekends. usually every 3rd weekend or so.... with that said, if i clean it down to bare metal, i'm assuming i should paint it right away. Maybe do one frame rail at a time? that way if it takes me a day to get one done, i can slap some paint on and call it good.

Dont under estimate the power of plain jane Easy Off oven cleaner....just dont buy the el cheapo stuff.

I would think that you should cover bare metal asap but if you had yourself a full weekend I would think you could strip it all and lay some paint. Keep us informed.

putty knife and torch worked on my undercoating.