I am in the process of restoring my 86 fastback gt. The frame on the car is rusted out, so I will be using the near mint frame from an 85 GT. Its frame only has a little bit of surface rust in a few places (not much at all) but I would like to prevent it from coming back, and preventing more from appearing.

I am considering using POR-15, and then covering it in the Chassis-kote paint they sell.

Since most of the frame is still black will using POR-15 be a waste? or should I sandblast the whole frame to the bare metal, and then completely cover it in POR-15 and chassis paint?

Has anyone done this? I am 17 and am restoring this car to have for a long time, it won't be sold so I want it to have the best quality/durability it can in order to last through many miles and engine swaps.
The car won't be driven in the winter anymore either, so salt is not an issue.

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If you are doing the restoration and have the parts available for sand blasting, I'd sand blast it to the bare metal, then do the POR-15, then the paint. The POR-15 should stop any rust, the POR-15 and a coating of paint should fill in any pits and make those part like new. It will be time consuming and $$ to do, but the end product would last a long time.

I have never heard anything negative about POR-15 as long as proper surface preparation is followed (I remember a post either here or at Team Camaro about POR-15 peeling off in strips, but in that case it had been applied over new metal that had not been prepared properly). You might want to do a search for POR-15 at the Camaro Tech Body Shop forum since it has been discussed in many threads there (e.g.,
Light Rust Advice; and there are many more threads that go into greater depth).

One of the members there recently restored his front subframe with POR-15 products. I've posted below some of the links to his Web site that details the project.
http://www.geocities.com/boodlefoof/page8.html http://www.geocities.com/boodlefoof/page9.html http://www.geocities.com/boodlefoof/page12.html

Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by ct (edited 10-28-2002).]

I am using POR-15 on my car. I have also used it on others and a boat trailer. If applied correctly the stuff works great. A friend who restored a late 60's 'Cuda used it a few years ago and it has held up great. He also used POR-20 on his exhaust system and it all looks new even after going thru a mid-west winter.

If you have the entire frame apart, I would grit blast it, coat it with the "Metal Ready" primer, then coat the entire chassis with POR-15. Then topcoat it all. The Metal Ready primer is important especially on cleaned/bare metal.

The best place I have found for price and service is: www.por15store.com

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Happiness isn't around the corner...
Happiness IS the corner.

[This message has been edited by Oreif (edited 10-28-2002).]

Thanks for the tips!

About how much POR-15, metal ready, and topcoat do you think is needed for a complete Fiero frame, including cradles?

I guess I will be brushing it on, unless I buy a paint gun. Is it better to bruch or to spray, on the website it says either can be done, but I assume you would get more on with a brush.

POR-15 spreads beautifully with a brush. No need to spray. just DO NOT paint it in hot sun. I made that mistake, and it went on pretty thick and nasty, as the chassis was sun-baked and HOT(I was in a hurry). Otherwise, just paint it on with a brush. Watch our skin, cause it will stain you BADLY. The stuff really is great. I used it on a rusty probe about 4 years ago, and rust never returned. Even had a MAACO paintjob over the por-15 areas, and it still held up. POR-15 cans do start to cure/dry once opened, so if you do the painting in stages, cover the lid opening with saran wrap, and press in the saran wrap to push out air/moisture. POR-15 goes on beautifully. a quart would probably do ya, but chassis coat is thicker and you'd probably want a few quarts.

cool! I hope a quart will be enough.

Is the chassis coat that POR-15 sells good, or are there comparable (possibly cheaper) products available somewhere else?

Keep two things in mind if you decide to spray.

• You will need a fresh air respirator setup (not just the standard respirator face mask) because POR-15 contains isocyanates.
  
• POR-15 requires POR-15 Solvent for thinning.
  

Eastwood makes a Chassis Black Paint comparable to POR-15's
CHASSISCOAT BLACK™, but I would stick with one system (POR-15 or Eastwood--not mix & match).

[This message has been edited by ct (edited 10-29-2002).]

I painted a horse training cart with por15 for a neighbor a while back. It had some kind of flat black paint on it before. I just slapped the por15 on top, counting on its penetrating stickiness to hold. Looked great. Then..... it sat in the sun a while and turned flat black. And then it started peeling off in little strips. This is with nobody touching it-- just leaning up against a fence. So I painted a steel bike rack I made just to use up the last of a going-bad can. It so far hasnt peeled and seems to be acting more like it was advertised to do, but it is very definately not shiny anymore. Anywhere I covered up rusty welds and stuff seems to be holding up fine. What worrys me is I painted the block on my Quad4, and a bunch of brackets and the cradle with the stuff and didnt cover it with a different product (Thought it would stay shiny forever). We'll see how it does in a no-rain type of car (shrug)

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87 Quad 4 HO convertible

Automoda,

It says to topcoat if it's going to be exposed to sunlight. Hopefully that means your block will be OK...
http://porstore.com/dosdonts.html

I want to stress something here:

WEAR GLOVES!!!!

I got the stuff on my hands, and couldn't budge it. I called POR-15's help line, and the lady there said "It will wear off eventually". Well, it took over a week for my hands to be all white again

Thanks for the advice, I guess I will brush it on and will stick to thier topcoat product just to be safe. I will definatly wear gloves, as even on the website it says that it WILL NOT come off skin and will have to wear off.

I am also planning to paint my battery tray with it since it says it is acid-proof as well. I will be using the Fiero Store after market battery tray since mine is rusted out.

Any other tips/suggestions are always welcome

-Brandon

Brandon,

Does the Fiero Store aftermarket battery tray require welding like the OEM one?

You may want to consider using an Optima battery even with the POR-15 to make sure the new tray never corrodes.

Yes I do believe the Fiero Store's battery trays (two pieces) do need to be tack welded to the car. They are near-exact replica's of the original battery trays.

On closer inspection the tray's appear to be painted black already, so maybe they would have to be sandblasted and then painted with POR-15 in order to prevent corrosion.

Here's pics from the Fiero Store web site of the trays

quote Originally posted by killerb15: Yes I do believe the Fiero Store's battery trays (two pieces) do need to be tack welded to the car. They are near-exact replica's of the original battery trays. On closer inspection the tray's appear to be painted black already, so maybe they would have to be sandblasted and then painted with POR-15 in order to prevent corrosion. Here's pics from the Fiero Store web site of the trays

i just used some self tappers and screwed it in it hasnt come off yet... need to replace it again tho got one in the trunk waitng to go on