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Hey everyone. I’m doing a frame on restoration and was wondering if anyone had advice about how to get the frame looking pretty and rust free? This isn’t going to be a show truck but I would like to get the surface rust and gunk off and paint it black before I put in new parts. I have the truck on jack stands so I don’t have much room to play with under the car so I was wondering if any of you have any good methods.
Thanks.

Very difficult with frame on. Don't know the extent of grease and rust. Grease is removed by lots of ways. Several techniques will be necessary. Choose according to extent of grease and rust.

Big chunks first, then:
1. Degreaser and pressure washer.
2. Harbor Freight air needler.
3. Wire wheel.
4. Manual labor with various tools.
5. WD40
6. I use spray on gas for grease.

Rust:
1. Wire wheel
2. Media blast
3. Needler
4. All manner of discs
5. When grease is gone and rust is down to clean, tight, surface rust, spray with Rustoleum Rust Reformer. Then paint with your favorite chassis paint.

POR has a system you may want to check out.

I would clean off the oil/grease everywhere you can reach (hand work mostly).
A hot pressure washer will do a fantastic job of finishing the degreasing process.
I would then use Ospho to treat the rust (encapsulating it).
Hit it with the pressure washer again to remove the white chalky Ospho residue (byproduct of the chemical process).
Paint with Rustoleum Rusty metal primer, and topcaot with Rustoleum semi-gloss black.
Carl

I think Ospho is way too much trouble for normal rust. Too toxic to work with face up, under truck. It must be neutralized properly or paint will fail. It's feeakin ACID.

Rustoleum Reformer does the trick, no rewash, no residue. Paintable within a short time.

There are other brands of reformers, encapsulators for normal rust. Not too flaky of rust. See instructions on can. They are very good. No fuss.

Converters (ospho) need 100% rust. It's for those who have very pitted/bad rusted/flaky sheet metal. Some people like the smell of Phosphoric Acid.

Thanks for all the info. Is there a good way to get hard to reach spots?

Yeah it’s definitely not pitted or terribly rusted so I will steer clear of ospho.

Yes, take off the body.

All good advice but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE ever use WD40, Armorall, or any silicone based product near anything that will be painted. One squirt of WD40 will give you two years of fish eyes.

Pick up some cheap cans of spray-on oven cleaner at your local Dollar Store. It works great on caked on grease/dirt and is easily washed off with a pressure washer. It gets those hard to reach areas too.

Even if you are not worried about fish eyes on a driver frame, I did forget to say when you are all done with whatever you do, wash it off with your favorite soap and dry.
Everybody always wants to say "use oven cleaner". Walmart has Gunk Degreaser for $2.97 and Easy Off over cleaner for $3.94. Both 15oz. I would like to see oven cleaner for $1 someday. If I had a dollar store.

Well, I guess I'd better call the junk yard and have them send 2 tow trucks and haul my totally ruined, award winning trucks away before the paint on all of the black parts which I treated with Osho as described in my post above falls off in sheets. Never mind that it hasn't happened after 4 and 6 years yet.
Sheesh!

That is an EXCELLENT WARNING for the "new" WD-40 products that includes silicone (and states that clearly on the can.
Even a little silicone in the paint room can cause fish eyes, and ruin a new paint-spray job (and, can ruin/contaminate a spray paint room).

The original non-silicone formulation is still available.

I have been working the frame on my 59' with POR15. It's a 2 part system if you want a nice finish, the base coat goes on nice with just a brush and dries to a smooth finish. To use the top coat you need to scuff the surface with 320 grit paper just to take of the gloss and then brush on the top coat. The finish is hard and smooth when its done. Looks great.

If you aren't going to completely strip and sandblast following a superior degreasing, then scrape, wheel, degrease, power wash, degrease, power wash, degrease, and power wash, then paint. Best case scenario, no one looks at the frame. Worst case scenario, you have to degrease and power wash and repaint a few years down the road. It's all in what your goal outcome is.

Personally, my opinion is if i'm going as deep as completely restoring a truck, its all coming apart. Hell, I am redoing my '49 3800 and have replaced every bushing and grease zerk on the thing, this followed a complete sandblasing and epoxy prime with chassis paint. I've also done the wire brush, simple green, and car wash wand before followed by rustoleum black. I did spring for the industrial. Its just a matter of how far you want to go with it......