First a status update......found a body shop that still does sand blasting and next Moday morning my frame is going to get delivered to the shop so it can get nekkid.....for between $200. - $250. No way I could get outfitted to do the blasting myself for that price.
Now.....to go along with my engine rebuild I purchased a new exhaust manifold which I will install once the engine comes back from the shop. That nasty dried up goopy stuff that's on the manifold.....I guess its kosmolin....it needs to come off the manifold before installation, right? And since I'm going with a battleship gray paint scheme on my power plant (engine, xmission, and xfer case) I'd like to paint the manifold gray as well. Will the high temp engine enamel hold up on the exhaust manifold or am I just chunking good money on the burn pile?
Last question. On this jeep the previous owner cut off both ends of the rear frame crossmember so he could attach a heavy rear bumper. He left the section of the crossmember between the frame channels and welded the bumper suports along the outside edge of the frame rails. This makes for a great rear bumper but leaves the outside rear support for the body non-existant. Since this is going to be a bit of a working jeep.....carrying several hundred pounds of feed......some ocassional hay bales......maybe some fencing equipment......would it make sense to weld some outside ends back on to the crossmember to help support this part of the body? Here's the only pic I have right now....its not real helpful...but it sorta shows whats left of my rear crossmember:
Any and all help and opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
It's only steel, you can add, grind off and add again. I'm a firm believer in over engineering. If it's not a resto and you want to work it, I'd be under there with a welder and do a little adding. Alot easier to weld in some brackets and gussets now, rather than after something happens to the body.
As for your paint, I went with black for the manifolds and used BBQ High Temp paint... that was 4 years ago and still holding up after 2 100 mile convoys...
