Big, heavy, greasy, rusty mess.  That’s what I will remember when I think back to working on the frame!

Once I removed the cab, engine, bed – and everything else non-frameish, the grease had to be removed before blasting.  The rear of the truck wasn’t so bad, but the engine support was coated – plenty of scraping and pressure washing.

I wasn’t about to blast and paint in my suburban driveway, I had to bring it out to my in-laws farm.  To do so I could of had it towed, or trailered.  I don’t feel like paying $150 for each 1 way tow, and I don’t have access to a big enough trailer – so I decided to make the truck a trailer!  I welded up a mount for an A-frame tow bar, and pulled it with my Jeep.

Once the truck was at the inlaws, I removed the front and rear axle before having the mobile sandblasting service visit.  The company is VANS Pressure Cleaning, and these guys did the whole truck in 3.5 hours, for about $500.  I opted to not blast the axles as from what I’ve read, you don’t want sand near anything that moves.

Next the application of primer – I didn’t choose to go with any fancy POR products.  After much reading, and reading various opinions – I had to agree with the facts.  The fact is the there was no fancy POR paint 60 years ago – and my frame survived!  I put on a oil based Tremclad primer.

Two days later ( battling weather!) I got the gloss Tremclad black on.  Needless to say, the transformation was jaw dropping.

A weeks worth of sandblasting and painting, completed.  At this point I’m pretty sick of cleaning up sand in everything, paint guns, paint everywhere…  But I could finally start putting “stuff” back together, and thats where the fun is.

I put the axles back on, strapped down the cab and brought it home!  Although very incomplete, it was nice to see a clean cab on a painted frame.