Frame Discussion

[SafeAirOne]

All in all, it looks like a pretty straight rover.

If you need center seats (3 individual fold-and-roll type, not the bench type) or the rear seats to make it a 12-seater, PM me--I have rear and center seats sitting in my garage attic that I'd like to sell.

[bpj911]

your rover

Did you just get this? I saw it's twin (or this one) in omaha on a transport truck last week.

[o2batsea]

All things considered you should buy a new galvanized frame. The time you'll spend stripping and grinding getting it ready, plus the fact that there may be rotten areas inside that you cannot get to that will just continue to rust even after a galvanizing bath makes it unwise to go that way.
Right now is a great time to buy. The dollar is stronger than it has been in a long time, and a new 109 leaf chassis is only about 1700 pounds. Even with shipping it is very attractive. You can also have it customized with things like receiver hitches and jack points.
Galvanize stuff like your door frames and bonnet frame and your brackets and cappings, and your bulkhead, and your T posts, where it makes economic sense (especially for the NADA 6 bulkhead which you cannot get repair pieces for)
I am in exactly the same pickle with my 109 wagon, but decided to go coil chassis instead since I'm putting in a Tdi, R380 and LT230. Designa Chassis can build it for me for cheap.

[RoverDover]

Its not really worth galvanizing an old frame if you have to wirebrush, sandblast and then acid dip it. use paint and Waxoyl ( or any other rust proofing oil or wax) on an old frame without dismantling the truck. If you are going to strip your truck down to bare chassis you had better be sure the frame is worth galvanizing and rebuilding. It would be a shame to galvanized an old frame that appears solid only to have a fatigue crack appear after a few years.
If you are going this far, buy a new chassis.

[SafeAirOne]

To tell you the truth, I didn't see anything in the photos indicating there was anything obviously bad about the current chassis. Of course, you should inspect as much of the inside of the chassis as possible along with the usual trouble spots, but if that all looks good, I can't imagine any reason to replace it with a brand new galvy chassis unless you have 4 grand burning a hole in your pocket.

If all looked OK, I'd probably just wash off the chassis and hose the outside of it down a couple of times with rust converter/primer shell or something along those lines, then paint it. There are treatments available for the inside of the chassis as well, though I have no personal experience with them.

If your chassis is solid, you could take a few simple, economical measures and have it last another 50 years with routine preventative maintenance...

[superstator]

I'm in the midst of replacing mine, but it had several spots rusted through, and several more spots where a PO had done a bad job repairing rusty sections. It's not cheap, and it's a lot of work. Not to mention it snowballs quickly - if the chassis is bad, the bulkhead and doorframes probably are bad too. Are your springs sagged out? Will you run a new wiring harness while the body is off? Might as well rebuild that engine while it's out. Hmm, never noticed this leak on the tranny before... Next thing you know, you've spent $10-15k fixing some "surface rust".

Yours looks pretty good from the pictures. Unless you actually know you have a problem somewhere, or are itching to do a frame-up, I'd just leave it alone. I agree there isn't much point galvanizing an old frame unless you're 100% sure it's good and it doesn't need much cleanup or repair, in which case why are you taking it apart in the first place? And if it really does need replacement, that'll become obvious soon enough.