My frame has just been sandblasted.. My initial thoughts were to put bed liner on the frame for abuse to come. I had stopped by my local auto paint supplier to purchase primer and bedliner. I was informed that I wouldnt have to use a eching primer, just spray on the liner and that would be enough to seal it. I read the directions inside of the box and it sayes for best results use an eching primer... Does anybody have any best practices? Do I prime the effen thing or not? Help!

i would go by what the directions of the company say and use the etching primer. i know that a sandblasted frame will be great for it to stick to but the primer will help more. so i would primer etch it. your choice tho! good luck

I would only do that if you are planning to never modify the frame. Otherwise just paint it with some good chassis paint. Bedliner would probably be a pain to deal with if you needed to change stuff around on the frame.

id use etching primer..

better yet id use por-15 not bedliner.. bedliner makes the grounds not so good.

What is POR-15? The look to have multiple items, bedliner, paint, etc. what were you reccomending?

What is POR-15? The look to have multiple items, bedliner, paint, etc. what were you reccomending?

por15.com (http://www.por15.com/)

I'd probably go with POR-15 or Rust Bullet. (I did the POR-15 on my jeep). It's seems to be very tough. The only thing I don't like about it is that you will need to topcoat it with something, but I haven't had the best luck getting other paints (including the POR-15 top coat products) to stick to the basecoat. For that reason alone I'd be inclined to try Rust Bullet for the next project. They claim no topcoat needed and also claim that it's a good basecoat paint for other paints. (I don't know if it's really true or not).

Neither coating will give you a showcar finish. I'm not saying that's a big factor, but I will say that after all that work when you step back and look at the frame you are going to say, "oh well, it's a jeep, who cares what it looks like" not "wow, it's a shame to cover that up with a body"

Powdercoating is also pretty good. I almost think the POR-15 is better, certainly better for touch up/future mods. The thing I don't like about powdercoating is that once you scratch it or crack it (and you will) water tends to find it's way under the coating, rusting the metal. This then lifts the surrounding coating, exposing more area to rust, etc, etc. I've seen this mostly on cheap powdercoated products like sh*ttybuild bumpers etc.

The Rover crowd swears by the galvanizing then paint or powerdercoat any way you like. Galvanizing is good if you don't ever plan to work on the jeep again.

One more thing, regardless of cost stick with small (quart or smaller) cans of POR-15. Usually it has a good shelf life, but it would be a real bummer to spoil a half of a gallon bucket of the stuff.

I've been lurking around here for a while and figure this is a good subject for me to break the ice with...... I'm currently refurbishing my YJ frame and have been using a product made by SEM called "Rust Shield". It's a rust encapsulating type paint just like the POR-15 but is sold through auto body jobbers. It has great adhesion and works without any undercoating. Touch up with a brush is easy and it blends really well. I used a brush to apply it but if the body was off I would have sprayed. Here's a pic.....

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee204/SHOBlu/4%20x%204/YJFrame004-1.jpg

damn that looks good, now will that stuff stop the rust, like POR 15 or do you have to have a completely clean surface?

PA-XJ2

damn that looks good, now will that stuff stop the rust, like POR 15 or do you have to have a completely clean surface?

PA-XJ2
It does the same thing as POR 15 but costs a bit less, about $75 a gallon, and it doesn't require all the prep the POR 15 does. I used an 80 grit flapper on my 4.5" grinder to remove the loose rust, cleaned the surface with acetone, then brushed on the paint. You don't need to remove all the rust, it works best with it and........ you don't need to topcoat it. I got the gloss black because my supplier didn't have any flat black (I'm glad I went with the gloss, it looks great!). Good luck!

I have done a bunch of different frames sandblasted and then painted. I have tried undercoating which was a big mistake because it was weak and fadded really fast. I tried POR 15 with no primer and 2 years later some surface rust is showing. The best method I have used is to sandblast then use a two part epoxy paint thined down a tad to get into all the tough spots. Then I sprayed the frame with a single stage PPG black for 2 coats. This method has held up the best and looks really good. Its also very easy to clean. I will do it to every frame I do from now on.