Truck frame blasting in Medicine Hat: what our winters do to a frame

Truck frames around Medicine Hat do not usually rust from one bad winter. They rust from twenty mild ones — slush, road grit and a freeze-thaw cycle that keeps everything wet longer than it looks.

Why frames rust here

• Winter road mix. Grit and de-icer packed into the frame stays damp.
• Thaw cycles. Snow melts on a warm afternoon, refreezes overnight, and the water sits inside the channel.
• Gravel roads. Chips the coating off the rails and lets moisture in under it.
• Inside the rails. The part you cannot see from under the truck is usually the worst.

What frame blasting does

It strips rust, scale, undercoating and old paint back to bare steel, full length, including inside the rails where rust hides. Then you can see what you actually have. Sound steel gets coated. Thin or holed sections show up plainly so they can be repaired first — see repair or replace.

Heavy frame steel is blasted dry. If the cab, box or fenders are being done as well, those thinner panels get wet blasting so they come back straight instead of warped.

Painting over a rusty frame hides the problem for a season. Blasting it shows you the problem while there is still time to fix it.

Body on or body off

A frame-off restoration gives complete access. Body-on work is possible for a lot of trucks too, with more masking and less reach in a few spots. Our note on blasting for a frame-off restoration covers the full version.

Whether it is a ranch truck from Cypress County, a work truck from a Brier Park shop, or a project truck in a garage in Crescent Heights, the routine is the same: strip, inspect, coat — with the coater lined up before we start.

Coat it fast

Bare steel flash-rusts quickly. We carry rust inhibitor in the water and time the job around your painter so the frame is not sitting bare for a week.