In my spare time the past few weeks, I've been completing a pretty nasty task: cleaning and refinishing the undercarriage. By the looks of things, the undercarriage was completely original, and with a (pre-PCV system) draft tube venting engine oil vapor below the car, it was a grimy mess.
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| I had started cleaning things by the time this photo was taken, but the frame and floors were caked with dirt and grime. |
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| After hours of work with a simple paint scraper and a Harbor Freight angle grinder using two wire wheel attachments, I could see bare steel with remnants of the original red oxide primer (by now a chocolate color). In the upper left, you can see the floor before I removed the grime. |
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| Fast forward at least 20 hours of filthy work under the car, and three cans of Seymour red oxide primer, and I ended up with this... |
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| and this... |
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| and this... |
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| and this. I used some simple Rustoleum Satin black spray paint on the frame, after cleaning thoroughly with 3M adhesive spray cleaner. (The front floors are a bit "drafty" — so some metal replacement is in the near future.) I also replaced the rotted body mount cushions with some black Energy Suspension pieces. And coated certain areas with 3M undercoating as original. |
I used the opportunity to clean up the rear axle and rear suspension pieces. I used cast coat grey and satin and semi-gloss black where called for in the manuals for an original-style restoration.
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| I'm mostly done with the rear axle here, except for the rear brake cable, which is in the tumbler. |
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| Here's the brake cable in the Harbor Freight tumbler before I poured in the glass beads and liquid degreaser. (Took a couple years before I found out that you add water or degreaser to the tumbler basin or it won't clean anything...) It comes out clean, and then I hose off and spray can clear it when dry. |
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| And ready to go under the car. I was exhausted at this point and didn't realize it wouldn't roll under the car, which was on jackstands sitting too low... lol |
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Nice! The most neglected areas on restoration projects are often the areas that aren't seen (e.g. trunk, underneath car, etc.) I'm glad you took the time to give the attention to the underside of the car--and you'll be glad you did later! Keep up the good work! Nice Cragar rims!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was glad I refinished the underside in the end, but it's slow, messy going that's for sure. The 15" Cragars do look old school cool :-) Deciding now on whether to keep them -- or update to 17" chrome five-spokes that look just like these. (Close up these are flaking in areas, lug-centric, and I need to buy fresh tires either way...)
ReplyDeleteI never thought once about using a tumbler like that... that's brilliant. I've got to go pick one of those up!
ReplyDeleteThanks! The tumbler'sreally comein handy as I try to save as many of the original pieces as possible.
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