Triumph Repair: Chassis Paint, paint and body shop, elbow grease

Question
Hi, I've removed the tub from my '74 1500.  The frame is lightly rusted, and I'll be wire brushing it.  I'm curious your opinion on the best finish for the frame.  I'd like to know what applications you suggest, specific with your preferred brand/product.  I am after the most durable finish possible for the dollar.  Is a metal prep product necessary, or can I prime right after brushing?  Unfortunately powdercoating isn't an option.
Thanks for your 2 cents.
eric

Answer
Hi Eric,
I guess it depends on your bank and what you are building. You have already ruled out powder coat as I have for a frame also. You state you are brushing the frame, so you are not having it either dipped or bead blasted.

If it were mine and I was just building a "driver" / "show" car as I started to with my MG GT V-8 conversion. I would just brush then electric sand all of the rusted areas and finally electric fine sand everything. Then I just rattle can paint the whole thing with Rustolium primer then rattle can it with Rustolium Gloss black paint. Even in a car show you can't see much of the frame if it is a driver. A pure "show" car needs to be either powder coated or dipped and painted by a professional painter.
A "Do it Yourself" restoration and driver can be done with a little elbow grease and spray cans and come out looking good.

Next step up would be to just hand it to a paint and body shop. Then the top step would be to find a paint shop that does high end restorations and tell them you own a bank and you want a top of the line dipped and powder coated job.

That's my two cents, let me know how it turns out. You can look at my restoration and conversion job on my website.
http://mg-tri-jag.net in the menu under "Project"

Howard