Chassis painting

[masonater]

I need to paint my rolling chassis black and was wondering what people have used and what works well. I like the idea of Waxoyl but its out of my price range, has anyone tried Eastwoods chassis black? I have a 109 ex mod, anyone know how much product it takes to put a good coat of (whatever) on frame, axles, springs...ect?

Thanks,

Mason

[kevkon]

I'm pretty impressed with Por-15 on my chassis frame. It flows out very well with a brush and has great adhearsion as long as you prep to remove oils and contaminents.
Downside, you will have to something else for the inside of the frame, it's not cheap, and don't get any on yourself!

[masonater]

forgot to add, there is still a good amount of military undercoating that wont come off after plenty of scraping, chiseling, and coal slag blasting so whatever i get needs to be able to stick to that too

mason

[KevinNY]

Paint certainly won't stick then. Your best bet is a professionally done waxoyl job if you want the truck to last on the island.

[Tim Smith]

Kevin is right. If real waxoyl is too much, then google for home brew wax oil. Just be careful not to blow up your garage while making it.

[masonater]

home brew wax oil..that sounds like some fun!

[kevkon]

I think Waxoyl is a great product. My truck was coated with it and it did a good job. It does, however have some drawbacks. For one, it is soft and will abrade away so you do have to keep an eye out and re-coat. Another thing, and this is what I don't like, it collects dirt. There's nothing wrong with that, I just don't happen to like that. So with my truck, I removed all of the surface Waxoyl and used Por-15. That left the inside of frame still coated and protected with the Waxoyl.
As far as making a home brew, well if your time is cheap and you have plenty of candles handy, I guess it would be fine. But the bigger issue is not the wax oil itself, but rather the application. You need to be able to get that coating into the areas that are hidden and most vulnerable for it to be truely an effective corrosion protection. That means having the proper application equipment and that's were the money is.

[jac04]

... has anyone tried Eastwoods chassis black?

I'll provide some feedback on this question. I just used Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black Satin to paint the new military fuel tanks on my Lightweight. I used the spray cans. I thought that the paint went on nicely and covered very well. I put it on a little heavy and ended up with more of a semi-gloss finish than a satin finish (this seems to be a common issue). I let it cure for 3 days as specified, and it seemed fairly durable during tank installation. I was very happy with it, but it is expensive. I only used it because I bought it on sale and i got free shipping as well.

Now, remember that I was painting brand new tanks, so your results may differ. You will need to clean and prep any rusty areas (Eastwood recommends their Rust Encapsulator paint) before using Chassis Black.

[Tim Smith]

I think Waxoyl is a great product. My truck was coated with it and it did a good job. It does, however have some drawbacks. For one, it is soft and will abrade away so you do have to keep an eye out and re-coat. Another thing, and this is what I don't like, it collects dirt. There's nothing wrong with that, I just don't happen to like that. So with my truck, I removed all of the surface Waxoyl and used Por-15. That left the inside of frame still coated and protected with the Waxoyl.
As far as making a home brew, well if your time is cheap and you have plenty of candles handy, I guess it would be fine. But the bigger issue is not the wax oil itself, but rather the application. You need to be able to get that coating into the areas that are hidden and most vulnerable for it to be truely an effective corrosion protection. That means having the proper application equipment and that's were the money is.You're right. The other part of proper application is prep. You really need to wash the frame inside and out and then give it plenty of time to dry. All of this takes time but can be a little more fun that paying a shop to do it.

[roverlandpark]

Okay, here's a question. What would you use to replicate the military undercoating? Is this even an option?

[kevkon]

If it's slighly brownish in color, then it's probably cosmoline which is very similar to Waxoyl.

[jac04]

Okay, here's a question. What would you use to replicate the military undercoating? Is this even an option?

I'm not sure what the military undercoating was like when new, but it is definitely not cosmoline. I have used 3M Underseal Rubberized Undercoating on the underbody and wheel wells of several projects. Don't get the cheap 3M stuff - use this: http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UuZjcFSLXTtMxMVlXT_EV76E bHSHVs6EVs6E666666--

It goes on nicely, but requires several coats to get a good thickness. The military undercoating is still way thicker than you could achieve with it.

You may be able to reproduce the thick undercoating look with 3M Body Schutz: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3MAutomotive/Aftermarket/Products/Product-Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECFTDQCEK3_nid=LL22JJR03MgsZ 024MJP62RglXJPG74H6DJbl

[greenmeanie]

I used to know the name of the military undercoating stuff but I think it is now out of use as it was rather toxic. In you r case, unless you want to strip the old stuff off the entire chassis you don't want to replicate the original material. Your problem now is that the original undercoat has hardened with age and will have cracked in various areas. Once it does this you have a problem in that it will trap water against the chassis promoting rot.

You want something that has excellent penetration capabilities followed by something more robust for a top coat. In the interests of the dance with what you brung you might want to talk to our hosts about their products.

A good alternative is Dinitrol 3125 followed by 4941 but finding it over here can be an issue.

My practice these days is to clean as well as I can, remove any flaky bits of old MOD undercoat, spray with new engine oil diluted with Kerosene to penetrate into any cracks and cavities and ten top coat with Waxoyl hardwax.

Don't forget to do the inside of the chassis too.

Oh, and you might not want to let anyone smoke within 100ft of your truck for a week or so.

[masonater]

Taking all the military undercoating off is not an option for me, it would take a very very long time. Ive wired wheeled, scraped and coal slag blasted the whole frame twice and whats left is not going anywhere. As far as cracks go, I don't see any and have gone over it pretty good to scrape off any flakes on edges and in corners so what I have left now is what I need to work with. I'm a broke college kid or I would love to waxoyl the whole thing, inside and out or better yet have it done by a pro. Ive been thinking that making my own solution like you guys have talked about that I can apply with either a home depot garden sprayer, or finding a cheap air gun online will be my best bet. I figure im only going to use it once so cheaper the better. I'm having some trouble finding one with a flexible hose to get in the frame with...

Even if and when I paint over the mil undercoating with some sort of chassis paint and it doesn't stick, its still protected. Ive already steam pressure washed the whole thing twice too so shes pretty darn clean. Id say i have 75% undercoating left and 25% bare metal on the chassis.

Too bad that original military stuff is long gone because it seems like very tough stuff. 40 years later its still sort of gooey and when I can get some off I find nice black paint.

[greenmeanie]

Until you can either afford to remove the coating or buy some of the better undercaoting you may as well save your money on the chassis paint. May as well give it a coat of Rustoleum black as it will do as good as anything else.

[redmondrover]

Masonater,
This might be more than what you want to do, but consider sending the chassis to a place like American Metal Cleaning (www.americanmetalcleaning.com (http://www.americanmetalcleaning.com)). You'll have to strip it down to just the chassis, but their process will remove all paint, rust and other coatings both inside and out leaving you with clean, bare metal ready for galvanizing, powder coating or painting. This is what we did with our bulkhead, core support, T posts and side steps for our 109. Well worth it, IMHO.

[masonater]

Update:

While using my air chisel for another project I thought to my self..hmm this may take care of the undercoating. Walked over to the rover and tried it out on a section where it was on thick. WOW it shot off no problem! and left me with shiny black original frame paint. I spent about 10 minutes going around chiseling it off and I am amazed how well it works. I just wish i had thought of this sooner before i took all the hubs and brakes off, now i cant roll it outside anymore to sandblast again. Im going to try and think of something to dolly the chassis outside now. Man do I love air tools...