The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint or Powder Coat, and Rivets?

If you're going to sandblast your frame there is no need for POR because you are not Painting Over Rust which is what POR stands for. Just lay down a good coat of etch primer and top coat with a 2K urethane.

Sandblasting does not remove all rust. There is rust between all the touching components so unless you completely strip your frame down to its individual components you still have rust. However, rust needs moisture and oxygen to grow, deprive it of either and your rust will remain dormant. No rust treatment chemical penetrates beyond just below the surface of rust.

Paint your battery box and running board hangers before assembly.

Unless you have industrial tooling you will never be able to set steel rivets that large. There were squeezed at the factory and if you tried setting them with a rivet gun or air hammer you will quickly find that it takes a LOT more force to set a steel rivet than you ever imagined... and you will probably go deaf in the process.

I have some 1/8" steel rivets that I'll be happy to send you to illustrate my point.

An aesthetic option would be to use a machine screw and fill the screwdriver slot with filler so it looks like a rivet, but that only works on one side.