The terrible Massachusetts/North East winters have taken a toll on my frame and trailer hitch assembly and I am looking for some advice on painting it myself.

My thoughts:

Scour any flaking paint and rust with a wire brush and steel wool

Re-paint entire frame with a flat black Rust-Oleum Undercoating using an evenly distributed spray

Let dry, apply 2nd coat

Let dry

Admire


My question and concerns:

What should I do to clean the frame to prepare for paint? Will simply washing the underside of the truck with soap and water at the car wash and letting dry be ok?

Should I prime it with another color or go right for the black rustoleum?

Should I not paint any certain parts on the underbody in the area around the frame (I know the obvious mechanical areas to avoid painting... but are there any areas to avoid that may not be so obvious)?

Should I use a spray on bed liner material (more rubberization) rather than the undercoating rustoleum??



My goal is simply to clean it up and make it look new/black, I honestly don't care about the texture unless it would look better or last longer. I also don't want to resort to going to a profe$$ional paint $hop to have it done.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

I plan on doing something similar next week, weather permitting...

 

My suggestion. http://www.por15.com/Complete-Kits/products/11/

 

The site doesn't mention anything about frames. They talk about a truck bedliner type material in one of their products, and lots of other applications, but not frames/undercoating.

I am looking for advice from anyone that has painted their frame and not brought it to a paint shop. I know it's not difficult or anything but don't want to do it and screw anything major up. WLorton let me know how yours goes. I'm the same way... Massachusetts is a "weatha permittin" kinda state. Once its warm and not muddy I'll be under my Blazer painting away.

 

Have a friend who has done many a restoration. I know he has used POR on the entire under carriage, frame, floor boards, inner fender wells.
It`s messy to apply but very tough stuff.

 

Any updates on how the painting went and what kind of paint you used? I'm in the same [rusty] boat...

 

I ended up scraping the entire frame and hitch assembly down this weekend. Went well, basically I used a creeper and spent an hour attacking it with a wire brush/scraper from wal mart. once i scraped it down and got an loose paint/rust off i sprayed an even coat of the black rubberized undercoating. let dry, repeat. the main thing to avoid is really your park brake cable which runs along the frame on the drivers side. if you're really laying it on thick and spraying a lot in the vicinity you may want to tape it off with blue painters tape.

It looks much better now and definitely cleans it up. the trailer hitch/assembly looks brand new and the frame looks clean when viewing from the sides. the benefits of the undercoating spray paint would be that its rubberized and pretty durable. good few hour project.

 

I used a medium wire brush cup and extension on my drill. Also used a wire brush and scraper to get all the old undercoating off the frame and then power washed like crazy. Then I added 3 coats of 3M Rubberized Undercoating, making sure not to cover the fuel filter, emergency brake cables,etc.

 

I did mine with some rust kill paitn from the local Farm King, and hopefully it holds up, I did quick scraping/sanding....