Frame Prep and Paint Time

Sept. 2010
It's late September, and that means cold weather is on the way. Since the Man Cave is not insulated  and has just a basic forced air propane heater, I need to get my newly cleaned parts prepped and coated with the POR-15 like now !

 After two coats.

Some of the smaller parts:

The frame after applying the POR Top Coat .

Eastwood makes a product that you can spray into the hidden channels of the frame, thus stopping rust from the inside out....too bad the Triumph factory didn't have some of these products available back in the day.  The joke amoung British car collectors is that these cars started rusting on the ship while being transported to the USA. !

Since this is my first rodeo as a car restorer, I'm learning the hard way about the sequence of doing things. (see the overspray above)

A Better Way to Clean Up Metal

Sept. 2010

I'd been using solvents, power wire brushes, and elbow grease on smaller parts and  managed to splatter dirt, grease, and gunk all over the Man Cave...there had to be a better way, besides, I can't imagine doing the whole frame this way !
I happened to mention my dilemma to Ted at TSI while on the phone with him ordering his frame stiffener kit. As usual, his answer was just what I needed to hear..."you're in Toledo, just call Laura at American Metal Cleaning, take your parts and frame over, and have them dipped. Oh yeah, and tell her Ted from Pandora told you to call her".
Well, a quick Internet search revealed that American Metal Cleaning uses an alkaline process to clean and strip the metal, and this  process is approved by the US Military and NASA...good enough for me !
This stripping / cleaning process takes about 7 days as it goes through several cycles of being dipped in the various solutions, however the metal is not degraded or made brittle...just clean !

Well, an appointment was made, the truck was loaded, and away we go !

Frame before.

 Parts before.

Delivery !

A happy guy with his cleaned frame:

Cleaned Parts:

Another frame pix..looks like new !

By the way, when I mentioned to Laura that Ted from Pandora sent me, she went on and on about what a great guy he is !