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Question on frame sandblasting/ how far to tear down

dheavychevy38

dheavychevy38

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So I have a frame I acquired for a build I’m gonna do. I am going to sand blast and then epoxy prime and then some form of paint or coating to protect it.. My question is anyone that has done this how far did you take down the frame as in did you knock out all the rivets and doing everything individually?? Not going for show quality but I also don’t wanna look at it in 5 years and go that was a waste.
 
Haven’t done it but I wouldn’t take out any rivets or suspension mounts. Unless you see them coming off in the near future.

If you end up changing something later, you’d have to grind through the paint anyway so taking it off just to paint underneath wouldn’t count for much.
 
You might want to consider getting a set of these front spring hangers from DIY4X. Even though these are mostly used for installing 52" rear springs, they are great for upgrading a known weak point the old GM 4X4 frames are known for. The front spring hangers on the old GM frame are known for having all the rivets that hold them together come loose. I installed a set of these because many of the rivets on my front spring hangers where loose. These bad boys from DIY4X are a beefy one piece unit that do not use rivets to hold them together. It is also a lot easier to remove the old spring hangers and install the new ones during a frame off resto.

full
 
dheavychevy38 said:
So I have a frame I acquired for a build I’m gonna do. I am going to sand blast and then epoxy prime and then some form of paint or coating to protect it.. My question is anyone that has done this how far did you take down the frame as in did you knock out all the rivets and doing everything individually?? Not going for show quality but I also don’t wanna look at it in 5 years and go that was a waste.
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I did the frame blasting and no need to remove the rivets unless you see damage.
The sand gets in really tight places as long as the one doing the blasting knows what he is doing.
 
I think that you have to think thoroughly about what the build will be used for, what the end result is in your mind, and if you may change things down the road.
Is it going to see lots of water on the road, road grime, salt and mud?
Are you good about washing your truck?
The more harsh the future conditions, the more you will want to get it sealed against corrosion.
I personally haven't completely disassembled a frame to clean and coat it all, but I don't live in a humid area that tries to rot everything.
If I did knock out all of the rivets and pull it completely apart, I would try to keep the coating mil thickness to a minimum before assembly. I have been taught that paint in between some mating surfaces can let movement begin.
But doing a final finish coat can be challenging, but in a different way when compared to painting a everything in pieces and then assembling.

So I just left mine riveted together and primed as soon as possible after blasting. Some paint and primer combinations will let you shoot paint without scuffing the primer, it just needs to be applied in a specific time window.

Good luck with your project!
 
I removed all rivets due to some poor installations. But replaced with Grade 8 hardware. Before I installed hardware, I reamed Every rivet hole To that next larger Grade 8 size. And made sure it was All shank through the frame AND brackets being bolted on. Everything is like a dowel pin tolerance, but easily removed.


I use only flat thick HD washers. Never split lock washers ever. All nuts are Grade 8 locking nuts.
 
I had a frame sand blasted a year ago. It was an 87 C10 frame for my 59 apache project. The only thing I left on it was 4 crossmembers and the mounts that the front suspension crossmember was attached to. The front suspension crossmember I also had sandblasted, but that was taken off the frame so that it made the sandblasters life a little easier (my decision)

Since this was a body swap project, the body mounts had to come off anyways and since I had to adjust the wheelbase, the rear suspension mounts had to come off as well.

I primed the whole thing in my garage
 
rdn2blazer said:
I removed all rivets due to some poor installations. But replaced with Grade 8 hardware. Before I installed hardware, I reamed Every rivet hole To that next larger Grade 8 size. And made sure it was All shank through the frame AND brackets being bolted on. Everything is like a dowel pin tolerance, but easily removed.


I use only flat thick HD washers. Never split lock washers ever. All nuts are Grade 8 locking nuts.
Click to expand...

Why no split lock washers? I've done my front hangers and replaced with Grade 8 bolts, washers and split washers.
 
imiceman44 said:
Split washers can break and fall off and you get a loose bolt
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I have seen some low grade ones open up and I have seen grade 8 full metal lock nuts back off. The best thread locker seems to be concrete, and some of our drivers use it too generously!

jeff in co said:
Interesting and good to know. I'll check mine out and see what they look like.....
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Look for the diameter of them to check if they have opened up.
 
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