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How to clean the inside of your frame

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AUSMHLY

AUSMHLY

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I noticed two small rust spots on the floor, under the front cross beam in the front the car. When I took a closer look, I found two areas on the cross beam, where the drips were forming. I flaked the paint away and noticed it was starting to rust. So I drilled an 1/8 inch hole at each drip. Wow, water poured out of each. A lot of water. So much it had a stream running down my driveway.

The cause...Me? I must have sprayed all that water in the some of the open holes in the bottom of the frame, 6 weeks ago, when I got the car home from the body shop and spent the entire day washing everywhere to get all the bead blast dust off. I spent a lot of time on the bottom of the car, for it was the worst, covered. Lots of washing and hosing the bottom.

As the stream of water poured, it would go from clear to rust colored to clear and so on. So I either helped create rust, or I helped remove it. Either way, the insides of my beams have been cleaned out. So when someone says, look how clean your frame is! Almost as clean as mine. I'll reply, don't get me started. I cleaned the inside of my frame too. Roger....that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
 
When I had to replace the rear crossmember and the very fronts of the frame rails, they were open, so I taped three large bottle brushes on the end of a ten foot section of PVC pipe. Then brushed out the interior of the frame rails, then applied rust converter, followed by red metal rust preventive primer. That probably won't work for you at this point. Eastwood does make a wand contraption that is supposed to allow for treating the interior of such spaces, but I'm not sure that will work either. Since your chassis is already painted, unless you want to open up more, different or larger drain holes, your options are limited. In the absence of anything else, I'd blow compressed air in the rails for an extended period, place the car in the sun, and hope for the best.
 
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Its supposed to coat the metal and prevent further rust, and needs to be re-newed every few years....

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I seem to remember someone (I don't remember where) talking about filling the frame with an expanding foam. It supposedly water cured, so it took care of any dampness already there, and would keep oxygen out to prevent further rust. Does anyone remember anything along those lines?
 
Ratco, which builds replacement Triumph frames (and is a sponser of BCF) offers to foam-fill them as part of their rust-proofing services. You might try contacting them to see if they could give you a lead
 
OK guys, now you got me a thinkn. I was just sharing with you my mistake in spraying water in the frame and the result of that action. Now that the water has been drained out, I wonder if all of it has. Maybe a little is still sitting there, or maybe somewhere else.

I feel eventually the water will evaporate, once I get my car out of the garage, and driving it. So....should I have concern about what happened?

Once my car is finished, goal is August 1st, I do not plan on her being driven in the rain, nor will I take a hose to the frame again.

Will the rust continue like a cancer?
Or a little water, now drained, was just a little water in the frame and that happens with Healeys. I see a lot of round holes in the bottom of the frame. Assuming they are factory holes.

No worries, or get your check book out again, here's what you should do. Thanks, Roger
 
Rust never sleeps ... it will pull moisture out of the air to continue it's destructive work. Keeping it out of the rain and such will slow it down some.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif

You could move to the Mojave to solve the problem...

but given the lower mileage and better up-keep and care the cars now receive compared to their former lives rust is likely to be less of a problem, though something should be done to ensure any existing rust is neutralized so far as possible.

I'm building my car using a new chassis, and I'm likely to use it from time to time in the wet (as is often the case here in Bonny Scotland). I'll waxoyl (or use Dinitrol- a similar product) it myself to keep things healthy....
 
I read somewhere, ( maybe here but I have CRS ), that you can use boiled linseed oil inside the frame to prevent rust. How well does that work compared to waxoyl ?
 
Another thought. In Roger's case or anyone's case, should something be introduced into the frame to try and neutralize the rust before the waxoyl or linseed oil is introduced ? It seems to me that it would be worth while spraying Jasco rust treatment down into the frame 1st. Let it dry and then follow up with waxoyl, linseed oil, or perhaps the expanding foam product mentioned above. But I am not a chemist so spraying something like jasco metal conditioner down the frame may be worse than doing nothing. Any chemists or metalergists in the crowd ?
 
So gang, what should I do?

Leave well enough alone?

Pour something in the frame to dry it, and hopefully stop the rust from spreading?

Then something else to coat the inside, etc.

Ed, good questions. Thanks.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif AUSMHLY:
Take er out on the back 40 and find the dirtiest nasty old
motor oil you can find and pour it inside the frame. Wait a good bit till it quit leaking and you will be good to go for at least 3 Years.---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
YOU Didn't see me laughing did you?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonod.gif
 
Hey Keoke,
Now why didn't I think of that. Seems someone told me once, that the only part of a healey that doesn't show rust, is the frame. For when put on a lift and one takes a look at the bottom of the car, it's covered in oil. Ah yes, it all makes perfect sence now. Cheers all, Roger
 
The question still remains, should we try and netraulize the rust that is already present, before we try to prevent further rust, with one of the previously mentioned methods ? Think about the multiple step process that moss sells to 1st etch and then protect from rust the inside of a rusty gas tank. If we skip the etching/cleaning process, the existing rust is still present and when/if the oil goes away in a few years, the old rust will start new rusting like crazy. Any metalurgists or chemists amoung the readers of the forum ?
 
wouldnt use foam myself, as having some experience with vw's, the later vw's had foam sandwich inside between the back window and the rear side window near the lil vent, was always a rust point due to moisture entrapment with no way to evaporate. woulnt use old engine oil either, had thought of same stuff they do motor bike chains with, but that means warming all up, is kinda like a grease when cold, ended up spraying inside of chassis with ensus, which when goes cold is like a grease, and drove panel shop nuts with requirement that chassis be a sealed unit!
 
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The question still remains, should we try and netraulize the rust that is already present, before we try to prevent further rust, with one of the previously mentioned methods ? Think about the multiple step process that moss sells to 1st etch and then protect from rust the inside of a rusty gas tank. If we skip the etching/cleaning process, the existing rust is still present and when/if the oil goes away in a few years, the old rust will start new rusting like crazy. Any metalurgists or chemists amoung the readers of the forum ?

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Waxoyl is touted as having a neutralizer as part of its recipe.

I think it's about time for me to replenish the Waxoyl inside my frame...
 
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