Need paint reccomendations.

I am getting ready to paint my M38A1 body and frame. I planned on going at it all with a wire wheel, brush and grinder, tho I have never done this before and have no idea whats instore for me. My main goal with this project is to never have to take the body off again due to rust and body/frame rot caused by rust. I am not concerned at all about how professional it looks. I've done my research and this is what I came up with. (I am doing it all myself in my garage with no experience. Any tips help)

For the frame I am going to brush on two coats of red Eastwood rust encapsulator. Sound good?

For the underside of the tub, I originally was going to use Eastwood rust encapsulator also. I was concerned with pebbles chipping it off tho and was wondering if I should use Herculiner instead? This Jeep is going to be primarily for off road. Again, my goal is to keep whats under the paint intact and again I have no experience.

 

look up POR-15. i hear people really that are really happy with it for undercoat and frame stuff. i think thats what i'm gonna try. expensive though, but no need to sandblast

 

There's more than one way to tackle this job, and I'm sure you'll hear a lot of good suggestions. POR15 is very popular...but it is expensive, and you still have to put a coat of paint on it. The ideal way to do it would probably be to have it the frame sand blasted, then powder coated. I'm doing a frame off on my '55, and when I do the frame, I'm going to look into getting it blasted. If it's in the budget, I'll do it. If not, I'll wire brush it as good as I can, then give it a coat of Ospho. It's one of many rust-stopping products that use phosphoric acid to chemically convert iron oxide to iron phosphate (which is inert). Either way, it's getting a coat of my favorite tractor/implement primer, and then probably two coats of flat black tractor paint (with hardener). This paint is tougher than what Willys used originally. Like I said, this is just going to be my approach...others will have other suggestions.

For the underside of the tub, you've also got plenty of options. I've heard of guys using bedliner material for undercoating. Seems like it would be very durable. There's a lot of undercoating products out there too...or you could just use several coats of paint. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm doing...I'm doing a restoration, so I'd like to keep it as close to original as I can.

Anyone else?

 

I'm on my 2nd gal of POR everything that is metal and the underside of tub is getting painted 2 coats feels like a plastic coating not paint. Not road tested yet. If you go that way buy the 4 qt package not the whole gal, once you open it it dosn't last as long also I pour 1/2 of quart into tupperware and use out of that. $100-200 in paint seems cheap if I don't have to do this again.

 

I've used POR-15 in the past. It's good stuff. It certainly stops the rust. It is, however, sensitive to UV light. So if it's in an area that will see sun light, you have to put a coat of other paint over it. I recently bought more POR-15 for my CJ2A project. I used it on my YJ frame and floor pans in the past. It's good stuff. I've also painted rusty hitches with it and the rust never comes back.

 

Eastwood's encapsulator is pretty good stuff. I thike some here have used it. If memory serves you can topcoat but don't have to. The red also matches pretty close the red oxide used as primer on these. The guy at the local paint store told me once it compares wit the stuff they used on off shore oil rigs.

 

I originally was going to use por15 but from what I have read searching this forum, Eastwoods rust encapsulator tested better. Also, I don't think you have to top coat Eastwoods product. Either way I am going to brush it onto the frame which I believe is just as good as spraying.

So let me get this straight, if I use eastwood or por15, I don't have to be as picky about getting down to bare metal as I would if I was using etcher, primer and paint?

And I've read planty about not being able to clean the herculiner very well. Is Duraliner just as good quality wise? Like I said, I was originally going to use eastwood or por15 on the underside, but figure it would be more prone to chipping off when rocks start flying then herculiner or duraliner. Is this correct?

 

My frame was sandblasted to the bare metal, i let it sit in the carport to get a slight haze of rust back, about 4 day. I then coated it with Eastwood rust encapsulater (brushed on) then I sprayed the whole frame with Eastwood chassis black (3 to 4-22oz cans I think it was). It has been on there 2 years and still looks good even with all the rocks from driving on the local gravel roads.

 

Anyone reccomend using Eastwood rust encapsulator as opposed to durabak or vise versa for under the tub?? I can't decide. I'm looking for which ever one would last longer. Problem is I have never used anything more then spraypaint for painting anything and everything.

I'm thinking two coats of Eastwoods rust encapsulator on the frame with no top coat. On the underside of the tub, maybe one coat of rust encapsulator and one coat of Durabak? Or can you not combine the two.

 

I keep seeing many replies toasting the use of brushes instead of srpaying. I can only say, don't be shy. You can buy a cheap HVLP gravity feed gun for under $50. If you keep them cleaned out they'll do most of these not-so-perfect jobs just fine. I know using a brush is tempting, but if you have a whole frame to do, providing you want multiple coat coverage?? You'll be there all day.

When I did my frame in 1990, I blasted it, then used PPG Zinc Chromate primer followed by two coats of Acrylic Enamel. Obviously I don't drive this every day, but there are only two places where rust has shown itself again, and small at that. It took me about four hours to prime, paint, and clean up.

Good luck

 

I did the entire inside of my '60 Olds with a brush...



It's got a coat of primer, and two coats of New Holland Red on it. I probably had a total of 4 hours in it, but because of my schedule I had to wait a week between coats. I'll bet that if the prep was already done, I could brush a coat on a CJ frame in about half and hour to 45 minutes (max). Spraying has it's advantages, but so does the brush. It's easy to get a much heavier paint film with a brush, which is a plus to me on pieces like a frame or floor pan where you want maximum protection. I know people will say that makes it more likely to chip, but from my experience the paint we're talking about (even when very thick) is still pretty chip resistant. It's also easy to get into all the nooks and crannies with a brush. Heck, use a piece of broom handle and make a giant Q-Tip to get into the boxed areas R) . It's also nice not having to mask everything off.

For something like this, it's all a matter of personal preference. Lotta guys spray, I like the brush.

 

I'm with you on that. All I was really trying to say is that everyone out there has the ability to use a spray gun, except for the guy with with all thumbs on both left hands. There is no official birthright required for this. Generally speaking you can spray the same stuff you can brush.

 

For what it's worth Ospho (or equivalent) is great stuff as an alternative to sanblasting (sandblasting is better where you can do it). We've used it for years in refineries on tanks where we couldn't sandblast, for process reasons, and it held up almost as good as sandblasting. If I had a frame stripped bare I'd sandblast, otherwise brush off the scaly rust and use Ospho.

 

anyone ever use an airless sprayer to paint a tub with?

 

I've seen some people try using a Wagner...I think it was in this thread:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3439032&Main=2655425#Post3439032

This thing is almost 80 pages long...might take a while to find. There were some guys on the Honda Tech forum who tried it too. Results were mixed IIRC.

 

I have used the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator too, and had very good results. Don't dip your brush in the can though - any moisture contamination will make the whole can set up.

 

Thanks for the tip timgr. I found that the PO had used roofing tar on this frame to prevent rust!! Mainly around the spring perches but anywhere he could get without removing the body. It worked, no rust, but boy is it hard to get off! I also found that the best tool for stripping a frame is a small metal putty knife, working better then both wire brushes and wire wheels on my Hole Hawg.

I still havn't decided if I am going to use two coats of Eastwood or one coat of Eastwood and one coat of Herculiner on the under side of the body.