Poor man's frame-off?..."Front-off resto"
 

To make things easier of course, I've pulled the front off my truck for my 500 cid Caddy motor swap. As to be expected from a 30 year old + truck, my frame, crossmenbers, and suspension arms are all rusty. I've stripped the frame (from the front back to the cab mounts) and crossmember down to bare metal and am now comtemplating doing the upper and lower A-arms as well while I'm at it. With the front end off, I can pretty much do a complete rebuild of the front back to the cab. I'm thinking of doing a "Front-off" resto, you might say! I know it's kinda half assed to stop at the cab, but from there back, the floor and frame isn't rusty. Greasy yes, but no rust. This will have to do till I can eventually do a full frame-off.

My questions are: 1. If I do get everything down to bare metal, how should I finish it? What type of primer/ paint should I use? I have a hvlp gun I can use, or I can go with the rattle can approach. Money as always is the biggest concern. I can't really spend MUCH more than $100 in materials right now.
2. I've never taken a-arms off before. Is it very easy to set back up with the correct alignment? Just a matter of re-using the same shims? Any special tools needed? Will this be more trouble and time than it's worth?

Thanks for the input!

por 15 but it expensive as hell

I did about the same thing on mine. I coated mine with a rust convertor (From wally world). After that dried I used rustolieum (gloss black for me). I did mine with spray cans first because my project work is outdoors, with long gaps between work. After I did all that I went back and with a quart can of the Rustolium and redid a heavier coat over everything.

I used probably 2-3 cans of rust converter. Couple cans of spray primer and 5-6 rustolieum spray cans and 1 quart can. I did mine entire frame front to rear, underside of the cab, firewall, and radiator support. Maybe $75...definitely under a 100. I've done this for years in Yankee areas and never had a problem with rust coming back. One vehicle I did ...although dirty...still looked good after 10 years.

Question 1 : You can finish it in many ways, POR 15 seems to be one of the more popular finishes around here, I'm going to be using Eastwoods Corroless, and their chassis black ,in a rattle can, or there's always the ever popular Rustoleum.
Question 2: It's always a good idea to get your front end aligned anytime you do major front end work JMO, reuse the old shims and you should be pretty close, as for tools, a pickle fork, a 3 pound maul, and a floor jack, along with various size wrenches are all I ever needed to take apart a typical front end, one word of caution, a spring compresser is a nice tool to have so the front coil can be compressed before taking apart the ball joint/front spindle assembly (if that makes sense)
Most if not all of these tools, along with a ball joint press (looks like a big C clamp) can be rented from your local Auto Zone store

POR-15 all the way. The stuff costs, but it is easy to work with and gives a very smooth, glossy finishe, even with a brush. I give areas that might see sunlight a quick once-over with a gloss black spray bomb since Por-15 isn't UV resistant.

As for A arms...just keep the shims from each bolt together and label where they came from. I'm doing the same thing and I'm completely counting on having a front end alignment done after I'm finished. I have no illusions that even if I keep everything the same that there won't be changes after I'm done.

here's progress pics
 

Here's the current state it's in since this weekend's work. The custom motor mount brackets for the Caddy motor are sitting in mock place for reference and flair.

another pic
 

Here's another shot of the frame so far.

one more pic
 

Here's one last pic for now, slighty off topic though. This pic is of about 2 weeks ago when I briefly put the motor in on it's newly fabbed custom motor mount brackets and jerry-rigged the ignition, and battery & fuel (both sitting on the ground). This was just a pick me up first fire-up of the motor to get her running to boost the enthusiasm of the swap project. She came back out just after that to get the frame cleaned up before permanently transplanting the monster! It's going to be fun! I'll keep you posted as progress continues. Thanks again for the replies.

Good job. Tell me what you go with. I will be doing mine sooner or later.