Rusty floor boards

[greg92jeepxj]

The die grinder and wire wheel as previously posted will be very useful in the task of removing rust. They take no prisoners , they just get the dirty job done. In your search for sand and bead blasters , you may have run across soda blasters too , but keep in mind the soda blaster will only remove paint down to the metal. The nice thing is , soda does not remove any of the factory applied chemical agents that are rust preventatives. You can buy time without the fear of oxidation setting in quickly , but only for so long as well. Soda blasters do not remove rust , so yes , you will need a bead blaster or possibly sand if the corrosion is that heavy and from your pic's , some of it is. Not having seen the chassis , I can imagine that you probably have heavy surface rust . One thing that every jeep needs ( every car too ) is chlor-rid , a chemical remover that washes away the corrosive agents found in rock salt and calcium chloride ( I think that's the name) for snow and ice melt. These chemicals stay on your jeep body and chassis unless washed thoroughly . Supposedly autozone carries it ( on-line?) bit whatever we find for this purpose , we all should make use of it. Back to the bead and sand blasters , when using bead on less corroded surface , a good wash ( even preparation solvent) to remove all traces of this calcium chloride is very important as you don't want to prime and paint over poorly prepared surface and watch your jeep rot from the inside out after all that work. The sand blasting will immediately expose a shiny but very susceptible surface to oxidation , a prelude to rust . Since sand blasting literally takes off minute layers ( almost microscopic) of metal that is fatigued , you MUST immediately epoxy prime or use some of the products EASTWOOD vends for this type of restoration your doing. Although your just doing a repair , it is in the form of a restoration. Who knows , partial disassembly may be entailed. Your already removing seats , you may find yourself removing a crossmember or brake or gas return line or vapor line or something just to wield that Sand/bead blaster. You don't want to damage soft metal , sand and bead can do that. Please , as you are currently doing , plan ahead and have your supplies , job goes quicker and less chance the atmosphere will take its toll. You got a really nice jeep , we would like to see you return it to show room new as I believe you are setting out to do. Well , maybe not pebbles beach or Barrett -Jackson , but there's something about a jeep that its chassis is CLEAN just makes you shake your head "YES" ! I know a jeep is a work horse and it will get dirty and age the underbody , can't help that, but we can try. For your purpose , the sand/bead blaster will achieve great results , with the right media , of course. There most likely are other products and methods I may be unaware or, I'm sure another member may post of these as well. My brother sold his bead/sand blaster (lack of use) , wish we still had it. Very useful. Lot of clean up though.
Youll be shop-vacing sand from EVERYWHERE! That sand just finds its way into places where you must pressure wash to get it out. I'd say the blaster will make quick/through work of your intentions to rid your jeep of rust. Grinder, wire wheels and cups, blaster , the more tools in your arsenal , the more options you got to remove light, medium to heavy rust and corrosion .
There is an attachment that goes on air tools that whips rust off that is like flogging , can't remember the name of the tool . Never used it but heard it is great on heavy corrosion too.
Is used quite extensively on tractor trailers as they run I to a lot of salt treated snow in winter months and need to be treated with this attachment. If I can remember the name , you could research that as another weapon in the war on corrosion. Well , just some more thoughts . Hope this helps too . Greg

 

[flatie46]

It'll take alotta air to run a blaster (sand or otherwise). They'll tell you you can get by with a smaller one but it will work very hard and build heat, heat in a compressor builds moisture, moisture makes your media clump up like cat turds in a litter box. There are line driers and you will need one but get a big compressior if your serious. Or rent one.

If it were me, I'd just do a section at a time with a grinder and cupped wire brush then prime/paint as I went along. Or just pay somebody to blast it. Just a suggestion, if you want to blast it research it before you spend the $.

 

[8177]

I replaced some panels like flatie46 had suggested with a little difference here and there. I placed the new panel where it would go and drew the outline of the panel. Then I cut out the rust, making sure I got back to good metal but stayed within the lines. Used the wire cup on a grinder and cleaned way back from my cut. This was to make sure I was past all the rust. Then I cut the hole I made in straight lines with a cut off wheel on the grinder. And cleaned the metal back from those lines again. If I found any rust I cut more straight lines to remove the rust. Does not need to be square just straight lines. I did this to leave as much original metal as I could. If you have any rust, any at all the welder will blow a hole in this area and you will have to fill it. Put the new panel in place again and traced my new straight line cut hole on the new panel. I trimmed the new panel a couple of inches away from this tracing. Keep test fitting. There may be spots where a bend or a crease will not allow the panel to lay perfectly flat. keep trimming till its laying flat but don't pass your lines.
When its in place pick a side to work on. Any of the straight lines and tack weld it in place outside of your line. In other words if you have a 6 inch straight tack it lightly on the end of the intersecting lines. Now with several different cutting tools, A thin cutting wheel on a grinder. A jigsaw, a hacksaw blade with tape to make a handle. A saws all, or plasma cutter, cut through both the old and the new metal where they overlap. peel back the metal strips and weld short one inch sections. Skip 2 or 3 inches and weld another inch. This will keep the heat down. You can either quench the weld with a wet, not dripping, rag or let it cool between welds. Do not get in a hurry and keep making your welds. Keep working your way around but you only need to tack one end of the next section. Remember light tacks. After you get all the way around with 33 or 25 % of the line welded go back and connect every other or every three spaces with on inch welds. Takes a long time but you need to keep the heat down and inspect your fit all the time every where not just where you welded. You want to catch any miss alignment before its too late. Grind off the excess bead and places where you tacked the metal and then treat the bare metal for painting. It worked great for me. Add a tiny bit of body filler if you want to and you will never see the patch.

Use pieces of the new panel you cut off to practice your technique and set your welder settings for not too hot or not too cold.
Jim

 

[PoliceMonkey161]

The frame also has some surface rust that i wanna fix down the road. Would it make more since to buy a bead blaster and save myself the trouble of sanding? I was looking online and it looks like I can get one for around $200

Like Flatie46 mentioned, it's going to take a big compressor to supply enough air for the blaster, not to mention the mess it will make. If you're only going to use these tools for this job, the sanding disks (Terry mentioned), an assortment of wire wheels and an angle grinder with a cut off wheel will serve you very well. Plus most of the electric tools have duel proposes too! Not trying to discourage you from a compressor, but I just had an industrial 80 gal twin cyclinder installed and even it has a hard time keeping up with my blast cabinet (which uses less air than a portable blaster) or the cut off tool. Does real well with a die grinder though!


As for rust on the frame, I just finished mine using the wire wheel and coating with Eastwoods brush-on rust converter. The converter leaves a smooth paintable surface! I top coated with the Eastwood Satin Chassis Black.....Very nice and appears to be durable too!