Update #9
Thanks HOJeepster, high praise indeed!
Had the entire day off, well, I gotta work tonight, but in any case, spent the day in the shop. I wanted to at least get the parts this I've prepared on the chassis ready for paint today. That meant cleaning everything thoroughly, then washing everything down. Next up I did the soap clean prep that POR suggests, then washed, then applied the Phosphoric acid etch, for 15 minutes, then washed again. Bit of a process, and mightn't be necessary with sandblasted metal, but I had a few spots that didn't get a good blast that I wanted to prep in any case.
After all the washing - there was a nice coat of rust on the pieces I'd worked so hard to clean
I think the POR paint really likes rust - else I can't really imagine why they would suggest I intentionally rust the frame prior to paint. I will say that when laying down the paint - there is a much better subjective feeling of adhesion over overtly rusty areas versus those that didn't rust as much during the prep. I bears out in the halfway process:
After the first coat - you can see that the paint is a bit like a stain for the areas the didn't get as much rust, and seems to penetrate / adhere better to the areas that rusted more during the prep.
Not to worry - the second coat clears it up perfectly. Interestingly, with a very bright light shining on the paint, there are areas where the paint is a bit thinner which show some of the surface beneath. A third very light coat with the light in hand helped to clear up any areas that seemed thin.
Looks brand new down there
I also spent some time working with the tire mounting machine. I managed to find the little plastic tongs that hold the wheel. Note to the uninitiated... steel wheels get held in place on the tire mounting machine by an
eccentric press, that has teeth that push out into the inner surface of the wheel. Alloy wheels get held by the same tongs but in the reverse direction. The alloy clamp is
concentric and holds the wheel from the outside like your hand squeezing a peanut butter jar's lid. I learned a bit while doing this, and though I might pass it along:
This is the valve stem that allows you to fill and deflate the tires. On an OEM application, this would be connected to the TPMS module - but for these wheels I decided to forgo that option. You need a special tool to get this thing pulled through the spot on the wheel designed for it:
It's basically the valve stem cap made out of aluminium, and attached to a pole.
This lets you pull it through the wheel,
And seat in the well designed for it. It doesn't need any adhesive, or grease as far as I'm aware. Seems to hold up well to pressure in spite of neither of the above being applied.
I didn't take any pictures of it, but seating the tire is super easy. Just throw it over the top of the wheel, put the little arm in place, and make sure that you leave enough room above / beside the rim lip to allow for flex in the machine arm, or you will score your wheel. Luckily I avoided this, but only just. Once both beads are over the lip, you can inflate the tire, and when seating the bead - it gives off a satisfying noise when it pops into place.
I ended up ditching the sheet metal screw on the can of POR this time, and used a sealing mason jar to temporarily hold the paint. I made it through an entire half pint of the POR15 Chassis black doing both sides as shown. I laid down a pretty thick second and third coat, and wasn't super judicious about it, so I'm sure you could go further with it if you were interested in saving paint. I'm not entirely sure why I ended up putting on thicker layers. I know that the thicker the layer the more bubbles it produces and the greater chance of corrosion. I just couldn't help it / didn't think about it. Not sure.
In any case, there are lots of tiny bubbles in the surface. I'm not too bummed about it though. I really like this truck, and kinda dig the little blemishes here and there. Truthfully this is my wife's ride (sorta how I justify going to work on her car, and spending dough on it). When it comes time, I'll likely pick up another 4th gen (there is a 2008 with 23000km in Hamilton....) and build it up as well. Time will tell.
For now, next step is getting the suspension part in, prepping the wheel bearings, spindles, swaybar, rotors, brackets, brake lines, callipers, and control arms. Some of these have already been done, but I need a day or two to prep and finish painting. Luckily, the suspension won't be here for a week or two, so I have a bit of time
