How to save your E-Type Frame Rails

Here’s another proprietary trick that I probably shouldn’t be giving away for free, but the truth is that I HATE this job because it is a HUGE MESS!!! So if by putting this out there, we lose business with this task, I’m not really going to lose sleep over that!

Frame rails are made from a high-tensile strength British tubing called Reynolds something or other…  If you need to repair them you need to TIG them like chrome-moly, and then heat the welds and allow them to cool slowly – this guards against cracks.

We see alot of cracked main tubes, some even snapped in half, but the real problem with frame rails is that like everything else on an E-Type, they rust from the inside out.  When you take the frame rails off the car, you’ll hear stuff rattling around inside – those are rust flakes – some the size of corn flakes – and occasionally you’ll find big chunks of coagulated flux from the brazing process in there.

You need to get all of that out, and seal the inner tubes to stop the rust and make sure it doesn’t start again.  This might be one of the few places where I could recommend using POR-15 or a similar product, but DON’T!  If you’ve ever gotten that on your hands, etc., you know what a mess it is, and it is almost impossible to get off surfaces you did not want it on.  When you do this job, your sealer is going to be EVERYWHERE! – Inside the rails, all over the outside, on your hands, your clothes, your hair, the bench, the floor – and that’s with making every effort possible to prevent it!

So I use the trusty red oxide rusty metal primer.  It sticks to rusted metal great, it’s cheap, and it cleans up easily while it is still wet with odorless mineral spirits.

Take a look at these photos and do this to your frame rails when you have them off – after you make repairs or braze in new tubes where they are rusted out badly, etc.  Make sure you give yourself about a 4 hour window – preferably when your wife isn’t home!

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