November 11, 2023 - Chasse Update - I have been making progress lately, but haven't posted about it and suffered a bit of a setback. Weather here is starting to turn, so I've had to take advantage of what warmer weekends we have to get the frame coated. I got the frame, axles and torque tube back from sand blasting on Oct 7th and proceeded to coat them that weekend with DOM-16. I'm of the understanding that it is the Canadian version of POR-15 in the US. Pictures attached of the sand blasted parts and after they were coated. It was all looking pretty sharp, and after an exhausting weekend, I was happy with the progress.
Then it rained a couple days later. But whatever, I was glad I finished the coating in the good weather window, until I walked by the frame after work one day and discovered small rust specs, seemingly on the coating (sixth picture). Well crap.
Near as I can figure, I used a foam roller for all the flat bits. My thought is the foam roller left air bubbles that became pinholes and then rusted after the rain. After consulting with my body shop guy, I am in the process of sanding the frame down, using a phosphoric acid rust converter on it and recoating it. Should be done tomorrow. What I did do with a brush seems fine. This time I'm brushing the whole thing. Everything I did last weekend survived a rain/snow event without rust appearing, so I'm confident I'm good now.
Lesson learned for next time . . .
The second coating did end up with some blistering in a select few areas. Mostly crevasses where the coating went on too thick like the inside corners of the engine cross brace. Re-sanded and re-coated those today.
While waiting the 3 to 4 hours between coats, I managed to get my leaf spring stack pulled apart and the spare springs I sourced. Looks like the leaf springs were 'repaired' at one point and the second leaf on one side did not have the 'hook' on the one end so sourced another set to replace that leaf. Pictures of the disassembled stack also attached.
I did play with cleaning the leafs up with a flap wheel and rust converter, but it's going to be too much labour that I can't afford the time for. I'll take them to get sand blasted this upcoming week along with the running board brackets.
