To paint or not to paint the underside
Well, I started on the undercoating just to see what it would be like. As predicted, it sucks. My torch has been out of acetylene and I never exchanged the tank so I had the idea to use a wallpaper steamer just to try it out. It kind of worked but the torch works better, the direct flame is more concentrated which helps the coating come off in longer strips. Some of this crap is on about an inch thick and rock solid, no way a steamer is going to make a dent in it. This pile is about an hour of work.
This is also going to be a very tedious, multi-step process. Getting the undercoating off is only the beginning because getting all the little remnants removed and then getting the metal cleaned and prepped is going to take at least as long. I don't know if I want to put so much of my time into something like this.
Pretty certain my car was undercoated from the factory. I've read that line workers would use cardboard cutouts around the front suspension to keep the new parts from getting coated and it definitely looks that way. I've also read that the factory material was harder than what dealers would put on. That's also true for me, again some of this stuff is petrified pretty good.
It's hard to tell but it looks like there was little to no primer on the bare metal. There's overspray on the torsion bar cross member but that about as far as it goes, no evidence of body color beyond that. BTW, I did not remove anything from the lower firewall area above the floor pinch. That's been like that since I got the car 10 years ago and probably looked like that in 1971.
If I don't take it somewhere to get blasted I might invest in a rotisserie for this job. Doing it with a lift is 100x easier than on my back but it's still not great. I could have a mobile media blasting service come and do it in my driveway which might be the best of all my options. That way I don't have to transport the body and leave it somewhere, I just roll it out and push it back in. It would also aid in doing some plumbing and whatever other under chassis stuff I have to do
Yeah, it's a huge expense for something that does not get used often but it might be worthwhile in the long run. I have at least one (non-Mopar) future project that will benefit from having it around. Could also rent it out to local guys who might need it.
I'll update when I figure out the best plan of attack.
Well, I started on the undercoating just to see what it would be like. As predicted, it sucks. My torch has been out of acetylene and I never exchanged the tank so I had the idea to use a wallpaper steamer just to try it out. It kind of worked but the torch works better, the direct flame is more concentrated which helps the coating come off in longer strips. Some of this crap is on about an inch thick and rock solid, no way a steamer is going to make a dent in it. This pile is about an hour of work.
This is also going to be a very tedious, multi-step process. Getting the undercoating off is only the beginning because getting all the little remnants removed and then getting the metal cleaned and prepped is going to take at least as long. I don't know if I want to put so much of my time into something like this.
Pretty certain my car was undercoated from the factory. I've read that line workers would use cardboard cutouts around the front suspension to keep the new parts from getting coated and it definitely looks that way. I've also read that the factory material was harder than what dealers would put on. That's also true for me, again some of this stuff is petrified pretty good.
It's hard to tell but it looks like there was little to no primer on the bare metal. There's overspray on the torsion bar cross member but that about as far as it goes, no evidence of body color beyond that. BTW, I did not remove anything from the lower firewall area above the floor pinch. That's been like that since I got the car 10 years ago and probably looked like that in 1971.
If I don't take it somewhere to get blasted I might invest in a rotisserie for this job. Doing it with a lift is 100x easier than on my back but it's still not great. I could have a mobile media blasting service come and do it in my driveway which might be the best of all my options. That way I don't have to transport the body and leave it somewhere, I just roll it out and push it back in. It would also aid in doing some plumbing and whatever other under chassis stuff I have to do
Yeah, it's a huge expense for something that does not get used often but it might be worthwhile in the long run. I have at least one (non-Mopar) future project that will benefit from having it around. Could also rent it out to local guys who might need it.
I'll update when I figure out the best plan of attack.
