help me decide a course of action

so, the rollback is dropping off my freshly painted, completely stripped el camino later today. i had never planned for it to be this nice.

now, at this point, it wouldnt take much to pull the body off the frame, but im afraid of messing up the fresh paint and body.

we did a full floor pan, that needs seam sealed and painted on the underside. the frame is covered in surface rust. body bushings in good shape.

so, now im debating with myself and asking for some feedback.

part of me wants to just pull the drivetrain, seam seel and paint it the best i can, clean up and finish painting the firewall, and put it back together.

the other part of me wants to pull the body completely off, and turn this into a frame off, spraing bedliner on the indercarriage, painting the frame, and going whole hog frame off.

im really uncertain of what to do, and really dont want to shortchange myself.

Frame off, you're 1/2 way there already.

Note how many pages are in my build thread and decide if you're up for another year's worth of work before it's on the road.

I'll probably loosen and redo each and every bolt that GM put there. I am not sure I can recommend this.

I would, at the least, detach the body and do a good job of seam sealing and painting the undercarriage. Warning, you will end up sliding around in puddles of the undercoating of your choice. I had black streaks on my back for weeks. This also gives you an opportunity to treat the frame bushings nicely. Is it a full frame, or subframes?

Maybe one of those Eastwood magic coatings for the frame, if it's just surface rust.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Frame off, you're 1/2 way there already.

While you're in there might as well do it. You'll be glad you did. Will make repairs and maintenance easier later on.

I'm with Tuna on this. Remember your thread title 'drive beater' Keep your eye on the prize and attack from beneath as best you can. IF you go frame off you'll end up with a million 'while I'm in here's' to delay you.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I'm with Tuna on this. Remember your thread title 'drive beater' Keep your eye on the prize and attack from beneath as best you can. IF you go frame off you'll end up with a million 'while I'm in here's' to delay you.

I came back to add stuff, and I see it's mostly already here!

You can't leave that rusty frame under that pretty body

You can't leave that nasty spring under that nice frame

You can't leave that ugly control arm alone next to that new spring

You can't leave those awful calipers alone next to that new control arm

You can't leave that brake line alone since the caliper is new

You can't leave...

And that's just one corner.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I'm with Tuna on this. Remember your thread title 'drive beater' Keep your eye on the prize and attack from beneath as best you can. IF you go frame off you'll end up with a million 'while I'm in here's' to delay you.

If you do a frame off, you run the risk of ruining a perfectly good "driver".

Once you finish a frame off, you may suddenly find it's too nice for many of the things you originally bought it for.

jstand wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I'm with Tuna on this. Remember your thread title 'drive beater' Keep your eye on the prize and attack from beneath as best you can. IF you go frame off you'll end up with a million 'while I'm in here's' to delay you.

If you do a frame off, you run the risk of ruining a perfectly good "driver". Once you finish a frame off, you may suddenly find it's too nice for many of the things you originally bought it for.

I have exactly this problem with my duster.

I think the course of action will be to get it cleaned up real good when it gets home, put it up on stands as high as it will go, and assess the situation. If I can do what needs done without full on frame off, I will. If not, ill figure it out then.

Frame off, you are way too far into it to skip this step.

+1 for going whole hog, it'll never be this easy to do it again.

What is your goal with this car now?

If it's to drive it, why bother with the frame off? What will it gain you that careful painting won't?

I would be terrified to pull a freshly painted body off the frame. I see no way you could do that without damaging the new paint at some point.

You are too late. If the body is painted, and the gaps are good, the odds of not berkeleying it up are thin. Climb underneath, scrape off the ugliest of the goo, clean it up as well as you can and drive it.

It is not rare enough or valuable enough to justify the frame off. It is not a numbers matching car either.

The frame off will add exactly $0.00 to the resale value.

It will also add exactly nothing to the driveability or fun factor.

Put it back together so you can get on with the having fun part.

Streetwiseguy wrote: You are too late. If the body is painted, and the gaps are good, the odds of not berkeleying it up are thin. Climb underneath, scrape off the ugliest of the goo, clean it up as well as you can and drive it.

I'm changing my vote to this.

SVreX wrote: It is not rare enough or valuable enough to justify the frame off. It is not a numbers matching car either. The frame off will add exactly $0.00 to the resale value. It will also add exactly nothing to the driveability or fun factor. Put it back together so you can get on with the having fun part.

This. This is what I needed to hear. Hit all the stuff rolling around in my head. Thanks.

Do what ya gotta do to POR the whole frame. Then enjoy the thing!

In reply to Dusterbd13:

You are welcome.

Get it power-washed or steam cleaned (people still do this?) and POR the crap out of everything below.

Then drive.

I've read your build thread. I don't see where your main goal was, or is, to have a project.

Yup. Don't want a huge project even though i have one. I like stuff like gauge swaps, stereo, brakes, etc. Weekend project snd rolling resto. Thats what I enjoy. Not full blown every inch resto.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Yup. Don't want a huge project even though i have one. I like stuff like gauge swaps, stereo, brakes, etc. Weekend project snd rolling resto. Thats what I enjoy. Not full blown every inch resto.

Then our work is done here...

Datsun1500 wrote: In the Datsun Roadster community most cars that get disassembled for a frame off get sold, as an incomplete project, a year or two later. Dis-assembly is always easier, and it's very easy to lose the passion for a car that you can not drive. Not every car needs a frame off restoration.

part of me wants to just pull the drivetrain, seam seel and paint it the best i can, clean up and finish painting the firewall, and put it back together.

Do that.

This man is wise.

Take a ball peen hammer and ding the paint, dimple the bodywork somewhere.

There. Now it's not so nice. Reassemble. Drive.

First, put it back together and drive it for a year. Enjoy it in all it's awesomeness. After a year, think about whether it's worth it to pop it apart and do the rest.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Dude! You're bsck! Welcome home.

And I almost guarentee if I did that it would never go frame off. Unless I had to pull roadkill out from between the body and frame. And then it would still be up to debate.

Seal the seams, clean up the frame and POR/rustoleum it and enjoy. The longer it sits disassembled, the higher the odds it never goes back together or dings and damage start happening. How I know...2.5 years in...