VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Painting frames and suspension parts Part 2

Cleaning up a frame can be a real chore. I find using a stiff narrow putty knife or gasket scraper to be my first tools of choice. This is followed by a screw driver with a blade of about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch, dental tools for cleaning around nuts and bolts, and a light ball peen hammer for hitting the handle ends of the putty knife or scraper to help peel off deeper accumulations.

Good lighting is also important. I use a small florescent light with a magnet attached to it for sticking it on the frame or underbody. They usually come in several designs. The key is having the magnet adjustable, so you can point the light in different directions. The light should also be light enough to be held in place by the magnet, so it is not falling off the frame or underbody. I also have a light that I can wear on my forehead, but it is sometimes very frustrating because of the angle it shines and because of my bifocals.

As you clean up each day, or when the mess gets in the way, put the debris in a bucket so you can gauge your progress. If you are using a shop vac, take a look inside every so often. A lot of cars are carrying around a gallon or more of dirt, and oily grime on their frames. A good creeper for working on your back is also a must, along with goggles and gloves, and even at times a mask and hat.

After scraping off an area, use some paint thinner to saturate it. I use paint thinner because it has less of an odor and doesn’t eat up my skin as fast or eat through my blue medical gloves in a couple of minutes like lacquer or gas does. Apply the thinner with a small 1 inch paint brush, rag or spray bottle. Let it sit for a few minutes, reapply it, and then using a scotch cleaning pad, rub the area clean. Put the cleaning pad in a bowl of the paint thinner to rinse it out. Keep using the dirty paint thinner to re-rinse the pad. When you think you have all of it off, wipe the area with a dirty rag with paint thinner in it and then use a clean rag with clean paint thinner and see how clean you have gotten things. When the rag no longer shows any dirt, move on to the next area.

At the end of the day return the unused dirty thinner to a gallon plastic container that has the thickness of an antifreeze coolant container. No reason to throw it out. I also reuse dirty gas, and lacquer thinner. Another thing I reuse is paper towels and newspapers. The kitchen towels I use to dry my clean hands I dry and take to my garage where I store them for reuse. At my shop sink I keep a cloth towel to clean up with. I never got into buying a box of shop rags to use and throw out. I have a large rag container full of my old underwear, bed sheets, shirts and bathroom towels. Some I do rewash, but many I throw away when they get real dirty.

As long as I am covering clean up routines let me mention how I clean up small parts. I use about a 48 inch sand blast cabinet to clean up all kinds of things from manifolds, to brake parts, to suspension parts, to even oil pans. Things that have areas that should not be exposed to the media I cover with duct tape. I do this to remove rust and provide an excellent bonding surface for painting. If the part should be painted, I try to find a way to media blast it. I am cautious about media blasting parts with a buildup of oil or grease grime on them. This contaminates the media and even can plug up the sandblaster.

When I clean up non paintable parts like gears and bearings I use dirty gas first then do a final rinse with clean gas. I have a parts washer but never have it set up because I don't regularly do a lot of parts cleanup.

My next post will cover paint concerns, and especially the use of POR15. Thanks, Mike


Some safety equipment that we should all have and use.


Common cleaning tools and materials.


Tools for cleaning the little stuff. I use a magnet to fish for parts and to stir the parts in gas.


As I age good lighting has become a priority. It seems you can never have too much light. These are all old technology. I need to pick up an LED light source to enter the 21st century. I always cover the lens of my lights with clear tape. This keeps them from getting all scratched up and exposed to chemicals. When they get nasty looking I just peel the old tape off and put new on.

I have used nearly every known method to clean and refinish frames. That includes taking weeks to scrape, clean, treat and paint. I still try to clean the thick hard buildup of dirt, grease and oil before turning the job over to a professional sand blaster. It might cost a little more (might also cost a lot less) than the tedious use of physical and chemical cleaning methods. Though it can leave sand particles in enclosed areas (a good sand blaster will remove nearly every grain), it does reach areas that can be very difficult to effectively clean and recoat. Though I have all the equipment (large compressor, pressure blaster, safety equipment, etc.) to do the job, I have found that due to bulk pricing, the cost to hire others to do the job is less than I can do it myself. I don't have to clean up afterwards either.

I still admire individuals who take on the task of personally tackling as much of the project as possible. Also understand that access to reasonably priced professionals may be difficult in areas of the country so other methods will be preferred. There are some much more effective manual cleaning aids available today versus when I was younger, economically challenged and testosterone driven. If you decide to do the job yourself pay strict attention to the recommendations and precautions from others that have done the job themselves. Carry on Mike I am paying attention.

Great read Mike... brings back fond memories of a whole winter spent scraping and cleaning!

I'd love to have a blasting cabinet... but I don't so i've been using a home built electrolysis unit using washing soda in solution with a car battery charger. It eats the rust, removes paint, and degreases. Its kind of a set it and forget it deal taking 2-24 hours but i've got time and the whole bucket set up cost me $25. What I really like is how its very gentle, and removes no material that has not rusted. I dunked my whole distributor in it last week and it came out looking sweet, the machined areas were not molested in the least. Plus I can go off and wander around or work on something else or whatever while it does the work.

Mike seemed to cover every aspect of frame cleaning except pressure washing. When I purchased my '47 sedan the underside was heavy with hard dirt/grease deposits. I put it up on jack stands, pulled the wheels, dressed in all the safety stuff and blasted away. It took all day of sliding around but everything under there was really clean and ready for Eastwood rust reactive primer. Still looks good 14 years later.
The only problem was that the brittle insulation on any wiring was stripped off. Fortunately, I had planned to replace the wiring anyway since there was shorting out and I didn't want a car fire. Also found a leak in the brake line that hugs the frame. All in all that method worked well for me and I didn't have to use yucky chemicals.

Many great ideas, however I would highly recommend not using gasoline for any cleaning jobs. Mineral spirits is a good substitute though probably not as fast acting. Mineral spirits are flammable, but not explosive like gasoline. Getting the job done is important, but being there when it's finished is even more important.