General Discussions/Questions for FSR

[bldeagle10]

I think every section should have one of these, just a thread for general ramblings or discussions, talk about whatever or if you have questions ask it here without having to start a bunch of new threads (if you don't have a build thread).

I'll kick it off with a question, I have a 75 suburban, I want to do a frame off resto. what is the best way to remove and store the body? I would love to have it set up on a rotisserie but I am wary about the body being too heavy, I know they hook up to usually four points and I am afraid the body would warp from its own weight. since I would be welding up the rotisserie myself you have any ideas about how to do it? have the mounts tie further into the body or something?

 

[ExpoMike]

Being in the process of a frame off build on my '68 C10 truck, let me add my .02 worth. First why do you need it on a rotisserie? Sure it makes working on the bottom of the body easier but what are your goals for this rig? Are you repairing major rust issues, building a show truck or just a nice driver? If you are bulding anything other than a full on show truck, forget the rotisserie and just build a body dolly. I have seen these built out of wood or steel, with wheels so you can roll them out of the way.

In any case and even more so with a 'burban, you will want to build a dolly that connect to ALL of the factory body mounts. The body is designed to be supported by these locations and the body weight will not do anything weird if you use all of these locations. Another key thing is to strip the body of everything, front clip, doors, glass, interior, etc. This will reduce the weight greatly. In reality, you are working on something like an early station wagon, just with a higher roof line.

A couple time now, I have used jack stands and 4x4's (unbolting the body from the frame) and with several jacks, manage to get a body high enough that we could roll the full frame out from under the body. Then I build the body dolly in place and took it off the stands. Now it is mobile.

If you are doing rust repair, MAKE SURE you have the body sitting on a frame or dolly that supports it just as if it was sitting on the frame. If you don't you can induce a bow or flex into the body that when you weld in your panels, will not be correct once the body is back on the frame. You will have issues with panels lining up, door not closing correctly, etc. I have seen this mistake make often.

On a side note, a full frame off is a HUGE undertaking, one I am sorry I took with my C10. I keep getting into the, "well it's just a couple more bolts and I can remove xxx". 2.5 years later and it's not even close to being done.

Here's a pic of the cab dolly I made, which allows me to rotate it on it's back for when I did the underside.

 

[Revco]

Building a rotisserie to suit a Suburban body will be a major project in itself. As long as the body is attached properly, there shouldn't be any issues with the body changing shape. You'd have to utilize some of the factory body mounts as attachment points just to be safe, this means you'll have to get creative with extra bracing. The problem in doing this is the additional bracing might interfere with areas to be repaired. The rotisserie will need to be heavy duty, and you'll have to keep in mind the centerline pivot point so that it is balanced on the rotisserie and doesn't rotate on it's own. A well built rotisserie should allow one person to rotate the body by hand with minimal effort. If you build a common style rotisserie, like big engine stands on each end of the vehicle, you'll need to tie the two together so they don't try to spread out or fold in. You could possibly get away with some simple bracing tack welded to the inside of the pillars to prevent the body from flexing and keeping you from having to use the extra attachment points from the rotisserie.

If the floor isn't rotten, then there's really no need for a rotisserie. A simple body dolly will be fine. You can build a dolly or even mount the body on a small trailer.

 

[bldeagle10]

thanks guys, really the only stand I knew about were rotisseries, had never heard of body dolly's, Im pretty sure there isn't any major rust, there are rust holes on the roof, and from what I have seen of the underside, it looks clean. i don't plan on it being a super clean show truck but I do want to make it nice, it will be my tow rig for the most part. or just cruising around with family. when I paint, I will want to have it media/sand blasted so I can find and repair any of the rust spots, they are only half dollar sized, there is some major body damage to some body panels so they will have to be cut out and replaced with something from LMC or a JY, mainly the reason I wanted to throw it on a rotisserie is just easy access to the underside to under coat it, if there is any rust, fix that up, etc. but if this can be achieved on a body dolly i'll do that. it will take time to complete, but this is what I want to do with my life, I love rebuilding vehicles.

 

[Revco]

I gotta recommend soda blasting over sand blasting. In my experience, having several dozen customer & personal vehicles media blasted, the last 10 or so have been soda blasted with much better results. I've had some bad luck with pitting & warping caused by the heat generated by sand blasting. This is not always the case, but I've personally had much better results with soda blasting. It doesn't remove rust like sand or other media does, but it removes all paint & body filler without damaging the metal. It doesn't affect rubber, stainless, or glass, and you just wash it all off with water when done and it's biodegradable. Whatever media you use, be sure to thoroughly wash the body off with clean water. All the channels, gutters, corners, crevaces, etc need to be washed out to get the media out completely, otherwise it will creep out when the paint is applied or cause rust from moisture buildup.

As far as painting/rustproofing the underside of the body, POR 15 is recommended. It can easily be brushed/rolled on while you're laying on your back under the body. It covers well and is self-leveling so it almost looks like it was sprayed on after it cures. There are several other types of Paint-Over-Rust type coatings out there as well, but POR 15 is the most popular for a reason. I'll also suggest coating the firewall, floors, insides of fenders, etc with the same product while you've got it taken apart. There's no sense in doing a frame-off restoration without cleaning, coating/painting everything you can.

A friend of mine has a sweet little body dolly he built for cheap to restore a '55 Chevy, but it's been used on several different vehicles over the years. It's just simple welded tube steel on rolling caster wheels. It is built on the same concept of a rotisserie, but the body just rests on it. It basically tilts the body over to either side at about 30 degrees maybe a little more by way of a pivoting upper cradle. The height and width is adjustable as well. Its real simple and he seems to love it. I've been thinking about building a similar tilting body dolly myself after helping him restore a Willys CJ3B tub using that dolly.

 

[bldeagle10]

oh don't worry, I will definitely be coating as much as I can with a good undercoating, I will be either using monstaliner (most likely) or line-x. it will get the under body, wheel wells, inside of the fenders/quarter panels, interior flooring and probably the roof and siding, a light coat in all the window sills especially on the windsheild, rust there SUCKS. the engine bay will be coated, basically it will be very well coated. anywhere that I don't care about showing paint will be coated, and I will most likely paint it black or the factory original red so the black monstaliner will work well either blending with the paint or adding very subtle contrast...

I have heard lots about soda blasting, I will just have to find a place that does it or buy a cheap set up from Eastwood, and thank you all for the body dolly ideas, I will sit down and sketch up some ideas soon

we need to get some other questions/discussions rolling in here! what did yal do to your rigs recently?

 

[Buliwyf]

I've seen good results from someone removing the engine, interior, and transmission from a 'burban and then they just Oxide blasted the body, axles, and frame over a large blue tarp. With tall enough jackstands it's no problem.

Then they used Metal Ready and POR15 on the important spots. Obviously it's too expensive to coat an entire 'burban bottom. They sprayed a flat black military navy surplus paint on the rest of the underbody. I was a thick paint, like what you'd expect on a railing at an amusement park.

The topside of the truck was repainted metallic silver.

 

[ExpoMike]

I would highly recommend you do a LOT more research on soda blasting. Since I am doing a full, strip to bare metal build, I researched it as I was going to buy one of those Eastwood kits. As I got onto some very good paint forums, I have found that a large percentage of auto paint companies (PPS, Ditzler, etc.) will not warranty their paint if the metal was soda blasted. It leave a residue that if not completely and 100% correctly removed and the metal prepped, the primers/paints will end up having lifting issue.

One of the better auto paint forums is http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/body-exterior/ I would recommend you do a LOT of reading before you jump too far. You might find you go a different way on some things when you see the work/benefit ratio. Good luck.