Frame Rust

As for in the frame rails, 'they' make a gun that has a long wand on it, that is possible to shove in the rails, and if you spray as you twist, it does a nice job coating inside. 

   If the rust is flaking the frame on both inside and out . In no time it will be soft and a hole will come through. Then cut and welding a good frame part will be in the order. Some places do require the total frame be replaced or a certified welder sign off on the job.  One way to slow rust is a good penatrent (PB blaster)and finish with Spray grease in a can or (Fluid film). Por 15 is great for easy to get to areas . Also rust converters will help. Tremclad paint and primer ,made for steel are better suited for body panels. These are  things I have done and have happened to me in montreal. With 30 years of driving North America made strong cars ,but car companys would want us to buy cars every 3 years.

But, if you are the kind of person that just wants to drive for crying out loud, I suggest that every time you change your motor oil to take the old oil and mix it with some kind of thinner for oil paints to thin the oil. Take that mixture and put it in a spray bottle or old air paint sprayer (very effective) and get the car up on jacks. Get some dirty cloths on and GO WILD.  Cover everything in oil (except brake rotors and pads). Get it in the frame and in the wheel wells, bolts, suspension, and if you do get it on the exhaust expect to smell oil for a week. I guarantee the car will pretty much never rust if you do this as often as you change your oil. It's messy and doesn't look that great but very effective.

I don't use anything other than silicone grease in spots here and there on my torino but before I tore the thing down this summer I drove it all winter last winter in slush and mud and didn't see any problems with using the oil. I still cover my little 89' Honda Civic with oil and even bare metal spots that where starting to bubble a bit when I got the car still in the same condition after driving it all winter.

I am not a chemist at all so I am not going to go into anything involving Oxygen combining with Iron and catalysts in water and electrons jumping around but Oil DOES suffocate the steel which prevents oxygen in any form from getting to the steel and in order to make what we call rust an O needs to be consumed to make the combo so if there is no left over O lying around then rust does not happen.  

Helpful.. seems to keep things from rusting too me.

Hazardous.. ya, probably

Dirty.. ya, who cares?

Ineffective.. maybe in some cases 

Actually makes the situation worse.. Please explain.

Don't want to hijack this thread with this but I am really curious on this.

Any other thoughts from anyone else?

  There are not to many good old cars that you can claim that are not winter driven here. It is only the lack of them here in Montreal that poeple are more and more taking care of them.

  I got lucky with my ex-police 75 torino it too has seen winter ,but for about 3 to 4 years only. And it is  pretty solid with original paint .

     In warmer areas the main cause of rust is near the ocean (salt water) or hot day and cool nights. This creates condensation on the car. You will see a sheet of water that coats the car in the early morning. This will also collect on the insides of the car metal. As in roof pillars, trunks, hoods ,rookers panels ,  doglegs and any part on a car. By midday it has drip down and collected and pooled or driped out through the drain holes. The insides are just bare metal on many cars and rust starts. Always keep drain holes clean on a car.

Paul is right though, get at what you can if you can't pull the body.

To be honest though, if you can rent two large engine hoists, you can pull the body pretty easy for working on the frame.

Ask me how I know...

 

Now, granted, I was able to use a forklift to lift the body off the frame for sand blasting, but you can use a single large cherry picker providing you safely support the tub.

Not the white trash method I devised. I nearly killed myself.

 

I will mention Eastwood recently started selling cans of rust converter/encapsulator with a long tube hose and radiant nozzle. Thinking of getting it for the GTS.

Otherwise, I was going to harbor freight, and buying an undercoating gun kit, and using por15.

My problem is {face palm, please, Paul...actually start trek double palm} I never thought to do the inside of my frame after blasting.

Amazingly enough, after 8+ years of abuse, the por15 on my frame has held up AWESOME.

 

 

 

as for saying a wasted frame off...

 

I think IF you have a decent car then for a couple weeks worth of work to just pull the body off, run a wire wheel over the frame and paint to preserve it from worse and run the wire brush on the body bottom and paint it too then you are doing a GREAT preventative measure.

 

The problem is when you do that then you start thinking... well IF I do that then I should do this and that and TA DA... FULL RESTO!

Now if you go in to it with a FOCUS... painting a frame to prevent future rot by pulling the body is do-able.

That is the route I HAVE to go on Ol' Brown. I have to replace the rear half of the frame with the one from the yellow 72. Ol' Brown is ROTTED BAD! but I am not doing a frame off RESTO, just a rear frame replacement with a good clean up and preventative clean up and painting. 

Do you want a garage ornament? Or an actual functioning vehicle? I've had both.  . I prefer the latter, lol. The snowball effect is in full play here. If you are going for a full on show car that you intend to show, it's necessary. Investment value? Defintely, go for it. For the experience? By all means, whatever floats your boat. 

Case in point. Father's 57 Bel Air. He's had it since 1979. Drove it for a year, parked it. finished it in 1991 (blame myself for that, ha). Cruise nights, daily driven a few days a year, driven far (MA to PA, etc), rain or shine, for shows. Car is "usually" garaged, but not always. No winter driving. Frame just got an ungodly dose of industrial undercoating in the early 80s. 

Guess what? it's fine. He doesn't regret not doing a frame off. He actually is pulling it apart this year to redo the interior and paint (color change, not from issues). Again, no frame off. He works on the car one day a week for a few hours... We both agreed he'd probably be dead by the time the car was finished if he did a frame off (half joking). 

The main point is  -- do whatever you feel comfortable with. Personally I'm not losing any sleep at night by not pulling my body off my frame, small wire brushes and paint brushes worked just fine for me in my situation.