A clean bottom feels good!

[KB73]

Small milestone for my '73 project: I finished cleaning and painting the underside. After all that time under the car I'm looking forward to more upright pursuits.

That was quite literally a pain in the neck.

Don't mind the rusty gas tank - it's going to be traded up for a fuel cell.

Cheers,

Kristian

[roundieryan]

Looks great! I helped a friend do that to his mustang and it is NOT a fun job.

[kris]

I did the same job on my car last winter. Yours looks prettier. Kind of a thankless job, but worth the effort.

[e21bob]

I am about to do the same to my 1974 Tii Sahara. What material is underneath? Is it some type of molded plastic or it just a thick paint layer? If I were to use a rotissarie an rotate the car to its side can I use a power water jetter?

Bob

[KB73]

I am about to do the same to my 1974 Tii Sahara. What material is underneath? Is it some type of molded plastic or it just a thick paint layer? If I were to use a rotissarie an rotate the car to its side can I use a power water jetter?

Bob

No plastic, just paint. Unless your car has undercoating in which case you are in for an ugly job.

As for the power washer approach, that might be a good start if there's no rust under there, but for good paint adhesion I would use something to scuff up the existing paint before priming.

I wish I had a rotisserie, would've made the job much easier.

[ringguy]

man, that looks nice! Are you keeping it white? What'd you use to get the crap off the bottom aside from a bunch of elbow grease?

[KB73]

man, that looks nice! Are you keeping it white? What'd you use to get the crap off the bottom aside from a bunch of elbow grease?

Thanks! Yes I'm keeping it white. This car won't see any snow and hopefully not much rain so no undercoating. The way I see it white will allow for easier inspection of the body and mechanicals. The rest of the car will be white too.

The bottom was pretty clean to begin with (Colorado car). I used paint scrapers to take the dirt/grease off, then a variety of wire brushes and angle grinder with a cup brush for the stubborn stuff. I only went down to metal where rust was present. Degreaser and Scotch Brite pads finished the job.

[dscoff]

Having just done this job, I can sympathize! It was hours and hours of lying on my back, wrestling with a grinder (with either a wire wheel or a flex disc) and being 12" away from the unrelenting spray of paint, oil, rust, metal and undercoating. I don't ever want to do this again.

That said, after coating the bare metal with POR-15 followed by a thin layer of Euro texture gravelguard, the flat, clean slightly textured black is soothing to look at!