I decided to tidy things up a bit on my car. The frame members that surround the bottom of the engine have undercoating applied that is about half melted off due to age and the general coat of oil, grease and grime. I decided that I'd melt the rest of it off with a solvent and then rub it off with old towels and the thicker parts a putty knife. After that, I'd get it all nice and dry and then apply a nice fresh coat of undercoating. Or not, depending on how pretty it all was (car never gets wet). Well. that was my plan. As I started to work on a couple of places, it occurred to me I was exposing plain shiny steel. I have no idea if it has any anti-rust coatings (I suspect not). I started wondering if the whole project is ill conceived; maybe its better to leave the nice gooey, drippy coating of oil and grease on the frame to protect it? Opinions?
Uro - never a bad idea to clean things up. Exposing bare metal won't hurt anything. Your apprehension over surface rust is unfounded. These are heavy steel tubes that will not be impacted by surface rust. Clean everything up and then take a can of black satin spray paint to make it look like new. Use masking tape and newspaper to prevent overspray onto the engine. Have a go at it. Jim S.
Hey, that's patina you're removing. Oh, and BTW, it was all over the suspension, under body, and any other part that didn't move when I bought it. It'll come off. Just ain't easy or fun. I removed all the suspension bits and used aircraft stripper to clean that stuff off. I think I used Rustoleum matte black high temp paint, 'cause I had it around, on the suspension bits. (I did prime them first.) Oh, and I saw a snapshot of the underside of your car the other day. Are you driving it on the BEACH?? GEEZUS, there's sand on it EVERYWHERE on the undercarriage. Drive with the goo on the bottom long enough, and you'll add 500 lbs of sand to the curb weight. DM
Well, I've begun the de-gunking process....pretty nasty work. I wonder, even when I get the rails apparently clean, I siuspect they will still have oil in the tiny pores of the metal. What would you use for a final clean prior to primer and paint? Acetone? Brake cleanrer?
Acetone leaves a residue all it's own. I'd head off to pep boys and buy the stuff you use to degrease prior to painting. It's called paint prep cleaner or some such nonsense. Eastwood has something too... LINK HERE
Trust me, I scraped a considerable amount off, it was everywhere. The factory didn't spray it the places this stuff ended up. It's an aftermarket petroleum based tarry substance that hardens, but is gasoline and oil sensitive, so anywhere the car leaks on it, it dissolves into an extra gooey mess. Dave M
Sounds a little like Ziebart, almost a wax........fuel does thin it. And they drill and spray everywhere they can reach!
