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| Coating The Insides of Chassis Rails |
Coating the insides of the chassis rails is a messy proposition, but if done,
will offer rust protection to your chassis for years and years to come. Not
having any experience with doing this before, I was pretty much making this up
as I went. I did quite a lot of research and after getting lots of good advice
from wiser folks on the TR mailing list, and reading a
great article about this very subject, I decided to go with what
appears to be an almost homeopathic solution, as opposed to a marketed product
made specifically for this purpose. Products I looked at included Dinitrol,
Waxoyl, and Corrosion X. Although all of them are fine products, they cost more
and will not last as long as I feel my solution will.
What I ended up going with was a solution of paraffin wax, linseed oil and
mineral spirits, that when mixed together and sprayed inside the chassis, cures
up to a coating that resembles a more rigid Vaseline; something not quite
solid, but not quite creamy either.. In fact, I wondered afterwards why I
didn't just think to liquify Vaseline and spray that in there.
The first step is to go shopping. What I purchased was:
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A standard siphon-fed shot blasting gun from Northern Tool
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About six feet of clear, bendable tubing from Ace hardware
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10 lb. block of paraffin wax from Hobby Lobby
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Paraffin boiling bags from Hobby Lobby
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A quart of raw linseed oil from Ace hardware
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Once I had all the supplies, I set about getting down to business. Here's the
rough steps:
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Determine the passageways of the chassis rails. For me this involved running a
tube through the various large holes in the chassis. I took a yellow crayon and
marked the direction that I needed to run my tube at each hole. By the time I
was finished, I had managed to worm a tube through all the chassis rails except
for the front cross-member and the two rear trailing arm mounting rails.
Neither of these has a large hole that makes the insides accessible. (Since
these did not have holes large enough for my tube, I am going to have to
address them using another method.) Finally, it is worth mentioning that the
rear members are not completely hollow. After inserting the tube from the
extreme rear, I was not able to put in enough tube to account for the full
length of the rail because it kept stopping short. From this I surmized that
their must be something in the rail that prevented me from reaching all the way
to the trailing arm mount.
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Once I understood all the places to run the tube, I assembled my rig. I cut
two, three foot lengths of tube. The first I placed on my shot-blasting gun
over the siphon feed. This was secured by a worm-drive clamp. The second I
secured to the end of the ejection nozzle, once again by a worm-drive clamp. At
this point I could draw the liquid up through the siphon tube, mix with air (at
about 50 psi), and shoot it out through the other tube.
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Next step was to prepare my anti-rust soup. I first set up my Coleman stove on
my worksbench and got it fired up. Then I took a large boiler, filled it with
water, and brought it to a boil. At this point, I was ready to melt the
paraffin.
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After making sure my fire extinguisher was close at hand, as all this is VERY
FLAMMABLE, I broke off a sizable chunk of paraffin, placed it into the boiler
bag, and placed the bag into the boiling water. This quickly melts the paraffin
in the bag.
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Next step is to pour enough liquid paraffin to fill half of a large,
disposable, cup. After filling the cup half-way with melted paraffin, pour in
the linseed oil until the cup is 3/4 full. Then, pour in enough mineral spirits
to completely fill the cup. At this point, your cup will be 1/2 melted
paraffin, 1/4 linseed oil and 1/4 mineral spirits.
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Now take boiler off of the stove and place it on the ground next to the
chassis. Be very careful, as this is very hot water. Place the cup containing
the "soup" down inside the hot water. This ensures that the paraffin stays
liquified throughout the injection process.
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Place the siphon tube down inside the plastic cup containing the now hot "soup"
and secure it with a clamp.
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Place the injection tube into the first chassis rail by inserting it into the
large hole and pushing it in as far as you can. It will come to a stop when it
reaches the end of that chassis section. The next step is CRUCIAL, you MUST
then pull it back a bit. This ensures that the injection end is not completely
up against an internal wall. If something is blocking the liquid from easily
existing the injection tube, the back-pressure created will go OUT through the
siphon tube resulting in 50+ psi going into the hot liquid.
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Now that everything is placed, squeeze the trigger on the gun. This will start
the air flowing through the gun which creates a vacuum in the siphon tube, thus
pulling the liquid into the gun and mixing it with the passing air. As the
liquid then moves down the injection tube and into the chassis rail, you must
begin pulling the injection tube out of the chassis slowly. As you pull, the
liquid is exiting the end of the injection tube at a very high rate of speed.
Pulling the injection tube out slowly until you reach the end is how you
guarantee a good coating.
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Repeat this process until all chassis rails are full of the mixture.
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 The Ingredients:
Paraffin, Linseed Oil & Mineral Spirits
 Coleman stove on the
workbench
 Paraffin melting
in the boiling bag
 Paraffin melting in
the boiling bag
 Boiler with cup next
to chassis.
 The rig fully assembled
and ready to inject
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For me this resulted in all treated chassis members being coated with about
1/4" thick worth of goo that will do a great job of keeping moisture and rust
in check. Just for good measure, I also sprayed in some 10w-30 motor oil on top of what I had already done.
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