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Can we talk about how everyone here skips the rust removal step on older frames?
Been pulling collision jobs in Phoenix for 6 years and watching guys slap filler over pitted metal on 90s trucks just to save 45 minutes, then the repair fails under warranty 8 months later, so who else is tired of redoing work that should have been wire-wheeled down to bare steel first?
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skyler_white953mo ago
That 2004 Silverado I had in the shop last spring proves the opposite point. Customer wanted it cheap, frame was crusty but solid, so we scuffed it and laid down two coats of epoxy. That was 14 months ago and the thing still looks like the day it rolled out. On trucks that are just daily drivers, not show pieces, that surface rust is basically a factory bonding agent at this point. Sand it enough to knock the loose flakes off, hit it with a good primer, and you're done. The whole "bare steel or bust" thing is a nice rule for frame-off restorations, but in the real world where someone's paying $700 for a fender repair, that extra hour of wire wheeling doesn't put food on my table. Meanwhile, the structural welds and bent mount points are what actually kill these old trucks, not the surface scale. I'll take a call about a failed joint over a rust bubble any Tuesday.
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