Post 14: Frame cleaning, day 2 (of 1)

My wife has an algorithm.  She says however long I tell her a job will take, she multiplies that time by 3.  I don't like it, but she's usually right.

Case in point: Last weekend I told her it would take me about a day to clean up the frame.  I spent last Sunday cleaning, then I spent most of today.  I'm not done.  It will probably be another day.  Three days total.  See what I mean?

Anyway, today I cleaned.  I really didn't want to use the sand blaster because it makes such a mess, but after working on the frame last weekend with the angle grinder and wire brush I realized that at least a little bit of blasting is required.  Aside from all of the little nooks and crannies, I'm finding that the old POR-15 is really hard to take off with a wire wheel or sanding disc.  I painted that stuff on the front clip about 10 years ago, and now I'm glad I didn't get any farther back than that.

I thought the sand blaster would do the trick, but as it turns out the POR-15 is just really stuck on there.  I guess that's a good thing - it's doing its job.  Again, I probably should have left it alone and painted over it, but I'm already neck-deep in frame-off restoration and taking things down to bare metal is the name of my game.

The going is slower than anticipated but the results are good.  Another day or so and I'll be ready to do some fabrication.  I will be moving my rear shock mounts, taking a look at a bent piece of frame and corresponding broken weld, and I'm about 90% sure I'm going to cut out and replace my engine crossmember.  Then I'll be able to prep and paint the frame, and soon I'll be putting things back together instead of taking them apart.