1981 Ford F100 Revival (Parked for 12 years)

[Jonathan]

I purchased a portable sand blaster from Harbor Freight. I couldn't get it to work very well. I think it is because my air compressor is too small. I returned it and will try a wet blaster that attaches to my pressure washer. It took a long time to get it to work for only a minute and then it stopped working.

[Jonathan]

Using manual methods of a wire wheel on a grinder I made some more progress. I just don't like all the metal splinters I get stuck with.

[rcarlisle]

Geez dude, you are doing a frame off restoration with it put together.  

[Jonathan]

I tested the wet blaster from Amazon. It works good but makes a mess.

https://amzn.to/2ZBC0eZ

[Jonathan]

Yeah, it makes it more difficult. Slow process. I will just do it where I am working in that area anyway.

rcarlisle wrote

Geez dude, you are doing a frame off restoration with it put together.

[Jonathan]

The wet sand blaster saves a little time but really makes a mess. It is good for the hard to reach places. The rust process starts very fast after using it too. I still have to go back with manual methods after to remove the rust and smooth things out. I like the crushed glass from Northern Tool the best. Better then the coal slag from Tractor Supply.

https://amzn.to/2ZBC0eZ Wet Blaster

[Jonathan]

Fender well cover had to come off. It was blocking progress and parts of the frame. Now I can sit inside without hitting my head. I guess I will restore the plastic cover too since I can't find it new. This is going to take forever to finish.

Now you can see how the blasting media gets everywhere.

[nic55kel]

Man that is a crazy amount of work.
I admire your ambition.
Looking really good.
There is a product called Ospho that you might want to investigate. I have tried it on rusted steel and I am very impressed with it.
All you are trying to do is prepare the surface for painting so that the paint will durably bond to the metal.

[Jonathan]

I got the old rubber body isolator out. The bolt was very rusted and I will need to pick up a new bolt.

[Jonathan]

Thank you Bob. I have some rust converter but I want to remove the rust too so I figured I will just grind and sand it smooth. I did try and experiment on one part where I didn't remove the rust to smooth metal and just cleaned and painted it. It came out looking like a hammered finish. Didn't look too bad actually and a lot less work. But I should of painted on some converter first. Now I don't know if that section will still rust or will the paint prevent it from rusting more due to lack of oxygen?  

nic55kel wrote

Man that is a crazy amount of work.
I admire your ambition.
Looking really good.
There is a product called Ospho that you might want to investigate. I have tried it on rusted steel and I am very impressed with it.
All you are trying to do is prepare the surface for painting so that the paint will durably bond to the metal.

[Jonathan]

I was going to order a replacement frame bracket but after cleaning it up and testing the thickness I think it will be fine for now even it is very pitted. I didn't want to grind off or drill out the large rivets and take a chance with a poor fitting aftermarket part. I will paint it and run with it.

[Jonathan]

Back to grinding away with a wire wheel again.

[Jonathan]

I needed to remove the front bumper to get to the rest of the body mount and frame. I also did some touch up polishing of the metal.

[Jonathan]

Masking and final prep.

[Gary Lewis]

Wow!  You are really doing a thorough job!  And that is a LOT of work!  

But are you saying that you got the bumper off by using a wire wheel on the Dremel to clean the threads and then hit them with PB Blaster?  And they came off ok?

[Jonathan]

First I applied the primer. Notice the cab body mount I didn't do any prep work to it other then spray it with brake cleaner. I wanted to see how it would turn out since it was hard to get to. I figured I can address later if I was not happy with it. I forgot to put rust converter on it at least. I hope that the lack of oxygen will stop the rust.

The brake line I needed to pull away from the frame with a wire so the paint could get behind it.

[Jonathan]

The paint came out good. I used the recommended paint from VGG on YouTube. The cab body mount came out much better then I expected with very little prep work to it. Just cleaned it off lightly with no scrubbing or anything. It has a bit of a hammered finish look to it. But the paint may not stick as good as the areas I prepped for over a month.

[Jonathan]

Here is a summary before and after.

[rcarlisle]

Looks great.  Keep going.  

[Jonathan]

Thanks Gary. Yes I used a wire wheel on the rotary tool to clean the threads and then I soaked it with Deep Creep. After that I used my Milwaukee impact driver to remove the bolts.

Gary Lewis wrote

Wow!  You are really doing a thorough job!  And that is a LOT of work!  

But are you saying that you got the bumper off by using a wire wheel on the Dremel to clean the threads and then hit them with PB Blaster?  And they came off ok?