Beam rebuild winter project thread

[Technut27]

At long last I picked up an entire Thing beam minus the spindles for a rebuild project! I've spent a little time breaking it down this week and over all besides some surface rust and very old bad smelling grease I'm happy. The towers are nice and solid no holes and I've not so gently been tapping on them looking for weak spots. As opposed to the towers on my current beam with holes 😂

It had the standard plugged drain holes. I cleaned them out and shook out some loose rust. It didn't seem like much. I was always going to put a zerk fitting in the towers and pump them full of grease. Before I get to that point being an enclosed space what products have people been happy with for rust treatment? Something thin that can be shot in with a can or even a turkey baster and rolled around the inside to coat it.

I have some fluid film cans but it doesn't really flow. I know there are many products out there and people have favorites. I'm just looking to get a converter sloshed around the inside to clean it up before I pump it full of grease later.

[flat4Imp]

I'm no scientist and someone will most likely disagree, but I'm using this on my '17 Silverado daily frame and undercarriage in Pa where the roads are salted and brined. I really like it so far. Should be easy to spray into the drain holes...

https://blasterproducts.com/product/surface-shield/?bvstate=pg:2/ct:q
_________________
"Often immitated, never duplicated."

[Technut27]

Never used it myself. Not a materials scientist here either. I might splurge on por 15 or a can of Eastwood. Pour it in roll the beam around a few times hoping it doesn't leak out the seams to coat it like the inside of a fuel tank. Drain and repeat. I just assume pumping grease in won't hit all the surfaces.

[Technut27]

Starting the nightly soaks of the inside of the towers with por 15 rust remover to tonight. This will take me a few nights of draining rotating and re filling with my new handy filler tool. I have the spray can hose adapters for getting inside a frame but the tip won't make it through the existing drain and around the tubes.

I'm going to temporarily culk the hole for the shock at the top tomorrow and one pinhole drip on one seam. Should be done with this and have it prepped about the time the paint shows up. That will be like reconditioning the inside of a gas tank. Feed a bunch in, plug the drains, roll it around and drain the excess.

The lower bearings look warn. I might switch them out for the composite style. I've read they don't last as long but realistically I dont put many miles on the car so I expect they will out last my time with it.

[BNMike]

I have used an Eastwood product that's designed for spraying inside body panels.

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

It comes with a plastic tube with a spray head that coats the inside of the material.

Mike

[Technut27]

Those are basically what I have. At least for the style I have the metal tip can't make it around the tube inside the lower tower, definitely not past both. I'm going to add a grease fitting up high later that might provide an entry point.

I drained my first round of remover after sitting overnight and one side came out almost clear which was a nice surprise.

[Technut27]

Process so far:

- removed the sway bar, trailing arms, grub screws, zerk fittings, spring packs.
- cleaned the spring packs.
- soaked the grub screws in POR15 rust dissolver.
- remove the surface rust from the sway bar, cleaned and prepped it for paint.
- 2 coats of Eastwood 24 hrs apart, left to dry for days.
- top coat of gloss black Rustoleum.
- repeated degreasing and cleaning of the beam.
- overnight soaks of the shock tower interiors in various positions filled about 50% with POR15 rust dissolver. This took about a week of filling, repositioning, and draining cycles.
- fills and soaks of the space behind the upper re-enforcement plate with the rust dissolver.
- 2 rounds of Eastwood rust encapsulator in the interior of the shock towers a day apart. Lots of rotating around and around to coat the inside surfaces, drained and left upright for a few days to let it drip/cure.
- repeated the process with the enclosed spaces behind the re-enforcement plates 2x
- a couple of hours in the driveway with strip discs and an angle grinder taking off the surface rust.
- 2 coats of Eastwood on the cleaned and prepped beam a day apart.

Tomorrow I'm going to touch up the 2nd coat and see about separating the eccentrics from the ball joints. I picked up one of the Seperators from Harbor Freight yesterday.

How it started -

How its going -