I removed the two rear spars of my 1.5 ton's chassis. There was rust between them and the main beams. It was obvious, and had to be done. I ground off the rivets and then drilled and punched them and they are REALLY tough. The whole chassis had a coat of bitumenous paint when new, and this seems to have done pretty well. I'm not sure if it was put on prior to chassis assembly, but I see no rust between other major chassis joins. The spar under the cab rear was full of dirt- it spent 60 years as a farm truck. From what I can tell, the cab protects the chassis very well.
Mine is fully stripped and will go to the dip stripper for full clean, rust strip, bead blast and paint in a few weeks. The effort of doing this myself just isnt worth it. Once it comes back, I will treat anywhere I cannot see with CRC soft seal, I guess any penetrating oil will provide good rust protection and go anywhere water will.
On removing the shacles etc for a full strip- easy, these spent there life from new full of grease, I had no problems.
