Front Crossmember Degreasing

[KCKKen]

Hi Everyone!

Now that I finally have things in place to get back to the 85 GMC rebuild I want to make sure the 2WD front crossmember is clean inside and out. I previously pressure-washed it with a ton of Purple Power degreaser, but I'm just not 100% sure it's clean on the inside. Keep in mind that this truck is going to be used a lot, and I'm going to thoroughly clean and paint the frame as I reassemble everything, so i want to be sure I don't trap a bunch of gunk inside the crossmember that would cause corrosion to eat it from the inside out.

Maybe I'm making too much of this, and I should just bead-blast it, paint it, and get the rebuilt suspension going. I've waited this long to get this project back on track and don't want to have to re-do it sometime in the future.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice, this forum is definitely a gold mine of information and I don't know if I could tackle this project without it.

Take Care,
KS in KCK

 

[Bennyt]

looks like you are doing a nice thorough job. That is a hard part to clean. If you are blasting the rest of the trucks, then yes I would blast that as well, if not a good cleaning is probably enough. You could always put in a trash can and let it soak for a few days. BTW, while I am sure it happens, I've never seen one rusted that much.

 

[ali_c20]

What I did to my crossmember: Clean. Blast. Primer. Paint(2k). Cavity sealer on the inside. I used a grease based sealer which has to be heated before applying it.