My '55 frame is being powder coated. I have changed my mind. Not going to P.C.

[Charlie D]

I ventured into uncharted water for me today. I had never removed the control arms before. I have never wanted to take on the springs in fear of getting hurt.I borrowed an internal spring compressor from John Kimbrough. I felt the shaft was not long enough so I went and bought a two foot piece of 5/8-11 all-thread and jury-rigged an internal compressor. I locked the hooks into place with a couple of nuts and used a coupling nut for tightening the apparatus. I felt fairly safe in that the all-thread went all the way down through the control arm.

I wanted to take the front end all the way down to the frame so I could get a good coating of SPI epoxy primer on all the metal. While I have it down this far I plan to go into the kingpin to clean it up and grease it good. I could not get grease to go up to the compression bearing so I will make sure it gets a good greasing while it is apart. I will clean the dirt and grime off the control arms and springs, hit that part with my own Harbor Freight sand blaster, and paint them. It is supposed to be in the 60s the next couple of days which is warm enough to spray the epoxy. I can keep it above 60 in the garage overnight.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.
Charlie D.

[swvalcon]

As long as you can keep it up to 60 while spraying it and for a couple hours after you should be fine. If it gets below 50 it just stops curing but as soon as it warms back up it will finish. Just takes longer before you won't finger print it. Take it from someone who has to deal with cold every winter.

[Charlie D]

It hit 70 today in Tulsa so I took advantage of the weather and shot the first round of SPI epoxy primer. Mixed it up in the morning so it would have at least four hours of induction. The parts that had not cleaned up well with the commercial chassis sand blasting was blasted again with my Harbor Freight sand blaster. That little thing gave me fits for some time until I started using what they call white sand in it. It is the consistency of table salt but has never jammed up on me. It does a very good job for what I need it to do.

I rolled the chassis out of the garage like a big wheel borrow and hooked the front end up to the engine puller and cranked it up pretty high so I could get back to the leaf springs underneath. The control arms, coil springs and batwing were painted separately. I got three coats on what I could reach and tomorrow I will lift the rear end up so the underside of the leaf springs and frame can be painted. I rolled it back into the garage and set two electric heaters to keep it above 60 overnight. It is supposed to be 60 or so tomorrow so I have to take advantage of this unusually warm weather that the good Lord has provided. It is supposed to snow Saturday.

Charlie D.

[swvalcon]

I dropped the rear end and springs on mine and set it up on two saw horses bottom side up then and painted that first then using a cherry picker after that side was dry just flipped it and shot the top side. Worked out good.

[tsenecal]

Looking Good! Congrats on the progress.