Chassis Up-Date

DANG!!! Has it really been this long since I've posted?

Guess the house has taken more time than it seems.

As some of you know, I took a hiatus from working on Grover to try and finish the kitchen before the holidays. Typically we have weather in the mid 60s during October and into November. Go figure, this year we have had freakishly weird weather and I was getting worried that I wouldn't have the last of October and November to work on Grover. We have been dropping close to freezing and the shop gets cold!! I might have to break out the big heaters.

Yesterday and today we temps in the mid 70s. So, I dropped everything to drag Grover out of the shop and clean the crud off the chassis in order to paint it.

I've been using TSP and Purple Power to get rid of the grease and oil. To be honest, I've had better results with the Purple Power stuff. One thing that did surprise me was the amount of wax on the chassis. It appears to have been put there when Grover was new. When I'd remove a chunk of it the chassis was perfect under it.

There were also traces of stuff that looked like Rhino Liner. Fortunately that stuff came off easily - the wax on the other hand...OY!!

Here are some pictures of the chassis after I cleaned it.

This is the spot where the hamster wheel goes.

I don't think it looks too bad at all now. The shiny stuff on the outside ribbing of the front differential isn't grease or oil - it's water. Guess I should have taken the picture after it dried.

Just another view of the front differential.

I was able to get a lot of the rust off the flange area.




And another view...


Can you tell I'm please with how well it cleaned up? There was so much grease, oil and crud around this area I was wondering if the framing would fall apart when it was gone.

It doesn't show to well in the picture, but look towards the top and you can see the battery platform. This area is the spot that has the worst rust problem. Some day it will be completely replaced; right now I'll place an inner pan inside it.















Here's a view of the transmission cross member and the other one. These had about an 1/8 of an inch of crud on them.

Now this is where it gets kind of cool...at least for me anyway.

After a lot of scrubbing and washing I found some additional serial numbers!!!

Here's the one on the rear axle. Sorry, I forgot to get the one on the front axle.






Anyway, it's #24125638A. To the right you can see the axle breather. This will probably be upgraded and integrated into a breather system.

Here is the set of numbers on the rear differential cover.

The first one is #4289. The last one is #63T1. Keep this last number in mind.

Again - the wet looking areas have water on them - not grease or oil.

This is the last set of numbers.

The first one is #4173 and the last one is #1T63 (that T could be a 7).


Remember the number I said to remember? Well, isn't it interesting that it appears to be the same as the last set on the front differential cover but the '1T' is switched? Wonder if there is a significance to this?

Just curious.

Okay, the next two pictures take a little explanation. I need to spray the inside of the chassis with a rust inhibitor followed by homemade Waxoyl. In order to get the stuff in there I will need to go through holes in the chassis using a spay-wand.

This hole is on the right side, and there's a same type hole on the left side.

Unfortunately I might have to enlarge these holes to get the spray-wand in there easier.

If you look real close you can see some of the dirt, sand and bits of rust in the hole. As of now it's all cleaned out; well as best as I could get it anyway.

This is a hole that rusted out in the front right horn. This is the ONLY spot that has rusted out.

I'm thinking of cleaning this hole up a bit and going through it to get the rust inhibitor and homemade Waxoyl in. It might be easier to get it in the front of the chassis going through here.

The left horn doesn't have a rusted out spot so I'd have to make one.

This last picture is just one of the 'Hmmm...' type pictures. You can see two pieces of rubber here, one in the slot on the bracket and one setting on the chassis. The one on the chassis broke off the top of the other one.

I have no idea what this was here for. It kind of looks like just a blob of silicon.

Well...that's enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will take a rotary brush to the chassis to try and remove some of the paint I couldn't scrape off. I'll have to check, but I'm not sure if the Por-15 will adhere to the old paint. I'm also hoping to paint the chassis tomorrow as well. We'll see, I still have kitchen stuff to finish up.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~