Carl'sMJ

Thanks... Trying to do it right this time anyways. The goal is repairs that actually last. This has been a real bear of a job at times because of the amount of rust I have, so I really don't want to do it again. :laughin:

I finally got around to finishing cleaning up the remainder of the frame and what is left of the cab underbody. What a dirty and nasty job this has been. It took alot of work and elbow grease to get all the old undercoating and loose paint and rust knocked away, but between my angle grinder, sandblaster, and a variety of scraping tools to get in all the different contours of the underbody and frame I made it happen. Next step, was to role it out in the driveway and give the underside and inside of the cab a thorough bath with Marine Clean, the first step in the POR-15 3-step paint process. There was still a fair amount of dirt and residue left from the old undercoating particularly in the places where I had to scrape versus using the grinder or blaster, but the Marine Clean worked great for removing it. I used a 1:1 solution and kept it wet for about 2 hours with this solution, then I got underneath with a scotchbrite pad and with a little light rubbing easily to off the remaining residue and grime. If I had let it set about another hour I may have been able to just wipe it off with a sponge, but I ws losing daylight and needed to get things wrapped up. I hit it with with the POR-15 Metal Ready the next day after everything had a chance to dry. Now everything is nice and cleaned up ready for some real progress and getting some metal welded back in. Here's some pics of the end result of all the cleaning. I wish I had some before pics to go along with it, but considering what the cab of my Comanche looked like before I started all this, I pretty pleased with how things turned out.

Well, I came across a small setback... More rust!!! What I thought was just some surface rust bubbling up the paint a little turned out to be straight up rotted metal after I started poking around. I ended up with a number of small holes in the forward part of the of the floor board under the fuse panel. I ended up having to pull out the fuse panel and parking break pedal to get a clear shot at the rust for repair. After some work with the grinder I was able to see what all I was dealing with. Here it is after cutting out the bad metal... I'll be cutting out some patch pieces next.

Got a little work in this morning before the Thanksgiving celebration. Worked on prepping the the inner rocker on the driver side for a nice clean surface to weld the new floor pans to. Got rid of all the old seam sealer and rust... Keeping up slow but steady progress.

Looks good... Did you cut out all the rust behind it or just cover it up?

Continued to work on cleaning up the frame today for a few hours. I spent most of the time on the driver side using my new abrasive blaster to clean up some of the spots I could not get to with the angle grinder. Progress was a bit slower than I had hoped, as it took me some time to get the blaster adjusted properly and even then it seemed that the abrasive flow was inconsistant... I don't have extensive use with these blasters, so i might have to spend some more time working with it to get a consistant flow at the proper rate... I used the blaster sparingly just to get the spots I could not get with other tools mostly because it just makes such a mess. Maybe if I could have gotten a better more consistant flow rate with the media I would have used it more. On the plus side I really liked the finish it left where it was used and it will definitely make a nice surface for the POR-15 to bond to. Here it is... It's the 20 lb. Harbor Freight pressurized abrasive blaster. I used my small 20 gallon Husky compressor at 90 psi to run the unit. My compressor is rated at 4.3 SCFM @ 90 psi and ran fairly constant while I was using the blaster... It's definitely a little underpowered for sandblasting, but since I was not continuously using the blaster it worked out alright. I used Black Diamond media, 30-60 grit, and was very pleased with this stuff... Good price at only $8 for a 50 lb. bag and it did a nice job removing the rust scale and paint. I ended up using a 3 mm nozzle in the deadman after trying the 2.5 mm nozzle and having it clog too often. I'm not going to lie, cleaning up the frame has been a real pain and I still have quite a bit more to do. I can't wait until all this prep work is done and I can get on with welding the new floor pans in!

Nice work... Good call on patching those pinholes. Would like to see some pics of the passenger side too.

Time to resurrect this build thread... I've been away for awhile, but I'm back to work on my '92! My priority is to get the new floors welded in so I can get the interior put back together and have this thing back on the road, but first I am going to take the opportunity while it is all tore apart to clean up the frame and underside of the cab. Once I have the frame cleaned up and the floorpans welded in I will be painting the frame, undercarriage, and inside of the cab floor with POR-15. The frame and underside of the cab will get a topcoat of POR-15 ChassisCoat. Hopefully this will adequately seal things up well enough that I will never have to do this again! Here are a couple pics of the progress I've been making on the frame. So far I've been using an angle grindernand an assortment of wire wheels and sanding discs. It's been alot of work. I recently purchased a 20 lb. abrasive blaster from Harbor Freight to help clean up around the seams and contours I cannot get with the angle grinder... Hopefully it will help speed up the process. This also would have been easier if the drivetrain were removed to free up some extra space to work, but since I plan on keeping it in place until I get a chance to do a 4WD conversion I'll have to work around the transmission and driveshaft.

Looks like some good progress... How much POR did you end up using? Keep up the great work and thanks for the pics!

I feel your pain!... Going through the same thing here. Good news is your truck is looking great. Are you going with the Chassis Coat over the POR-15 as well?

I've used contact cement and some Permatex headliner and carpet adhesive that I bought at O'Reilly's... Both with good results.

So the compressor kept up with the blaster alright? How often was it running to recharge?... I've got a 20 gal. rated at 4.3 CFM at 90 PSI (so similar to yours) and was alittle worried it wouldn't be enough for the blaster... But if you did the whole frame with yours and the compressor wasn't overwhelmed by the demand of the balster, I think I might be going out and purchasing that same blaster... Did you get the moisture collector at HF too?

Nice write-up and the truck is looking great!... Any new updates? I know this is a bit old, but what size compressor were you using with the HF abrasive blaster? What PSI were you running it at? I was looking at purchasing the same one, but I'm not sure I have enough compressor... My CFMs are at the lower end of what the blasters manual calls for.

I think the POR should handle the pin holes in the last pic alright, but the other holes look a bit big... If it was me, I would weld in another small patch piece. You're already welding in new metal for the floor pans so what's another couple of small patch pieces.

My floors were every bit that bad... You can check them out in my project thread for the before pics and some of the in progress photos of the repair.

I had a Trac-Lok put in the D35 on my 2WD MJ some years ago to help during the winters here in SE Michigan. I have been pleased with the upgrade and feel that it has improved the drivability of the truck in the snow. I also took the opportunity to lower the gear ratio to a 3.55... I had it done by Drive Train Specialists in Warren, Michigan. They also have a shop in Ionia... Not sure how far that is from you. I cannot remember the cost for the work, but they did a good job.

I also had a similar problem. Mine turned out to be the antenna connection... On the passenger side behind the kick plate the antenna cable from the radio connects to the external antenna. The metal connectors crimped onto the cable had come loose and was leading to alot of "crackling' on the radio when I drove. I'd give this connection a check. It's not too hard to get to or fix so it may save you some time and energy to check.

Looks like alot of work and alot of fun! :thumbsup: Good luck! I look forward to seeing your progress. :popcorn:

No problem :thumbsup: It took me some time to figure the dang things out too! Do they only work when you turn the headlight switch? Normally, without modification, when the lights are in the tilt down position they will turn on when the door is opened. I didn't think the headlight switch had anything to do with the function of the dome lights. I believe that turning the headlight switch is just a rheostat to dim the dash lights. Regardless, if they are working at all, I don't think it's the door switch (at least on that side). As far as the buzzer goes, it could be disconnected. I know I disconnected mine years ago because I can't stand the sound. I'll have to look, but I can't remember if it is just a fuse or an actual connection. Maybe someone could help jog my memory on this :dunno:

:agree: Herculiner claims to stick to bare metal, but I would probably play it safe and use the self etching primer. I've found that Herculiner really prefers something with some "tooth" to adhere to. Bare metal doesn't really offer that. I've also found that the red scotch brite pad supplied with the kit doesn't really etch the paint and metal as much as necessary for good adhesion.

I just copied this from the Bulb Replacement for the Interior Dome Light Thread...

The dome lights in our trucks really are terrible IMO. I did fix mine up though doing both the things mentioned and they work really well now! First, I cleaned up the contacts. If the WD40 isn't working, try a pencil eraser. Pencil erasers sometimes work wonders are electrical contacts. Second, I soldered the wire that btm24 is referring to. By doing this it allows the lens to sit level when operating while the door is open. All you have to do is solder a small piece of wire between the contact where the roller on the lens sits to the top contact. If that is still a bit confusing, here's a couple pics.

For the brake calipers, buy brake caliper paint. It's specifically formulated to be more resistant to heat, chemicals, and brake dust that will be encountered by your brake calipers. I know O'Reilly Auto Parts carries Duplicolor Brake Caliper Paint... I'm sure you can find other brands elsewhere. As for the other stuff, alot of it would depend what kind of shape it's in as to what product I would use. Generally, for this stuff some rattle can Rustoleum will work just fine and is easy to touch up when it needs be.

Wow! It looks a ton better already! Great work! :thumbsup: The soda blasting seemed to do a pretty good job on the floor of the cab... Anxious to see more pics. :popcorn:

At this point I'm leaning toward sticking with the POR-15 for my frame and floor pans. I still have some worries about its adhesion, but I think it should be alright as long as my prep is thorough. Plus, I already have the Marine Clean, Metal Ready, and some leftover POR from when I did the inside of the frame. I will definitely use the Marine Clean and Metal Ready when I do this. It seems that alot of the POR failures happen when people do not use these prep products.