I am at the point now where I am ready to restore the underside of the body on my '67 chevelle so I can set it back on the finished chassis. I am not sure what road I want to take at this point. I was going to just buckle down and use wire and abrasive wheels and sand down everything as best I can and use metal ready and POR 15 to finish it. The firewall I was going to strip down to the steel and prime and paint with acrylic enamel. Now I am considering moving the body outside to where I can set it up and try and sandblast it, but I don't know if it will be worth the trouble. I don't really like the idea of sandblasting it because it seems you can never get all that sand out, although it would probably do a nicer job. The underside of my car is pretty solid, only rot is the right rear body mount, floors are 100% rot free. All you guys that have done restorations, how did you do the underside? If it wasn't for the fact that I have heard so many positive things about the POR 15, I would probably go the sandblasting route. I am at a loss at this point and could really use some feedback.

Thanks,
Steve

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MY PROJECTS
1967 Chevelle SS396 - Currently under construction

1970 Camaro RS Z28-
Currently thinking about it

My .02, don't sanblast! It does get everywhere, and probably won't get that hardened crap off anyway. The wire wheel and some of that stuff that Eastwood sells to remove undercoating will give you good results. Not show quality, but you should be able to get most of the stuff off. Eastwood also makes a product called Corroless, similar to POR, but you can apply it over the rust, it bonds to any rust and chemically neutralizes it.
It's going to take some elbow grease to get it all clean, good luck, Narti.

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Nick P.
Team Chevelle Gold #36
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/nicpal/home.htm www.chevelles.com/showroom/Nick's1970ChevelleSS396.jpg (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/Nick's1970ChevelleSS396.jpg)

I sandblasted and used POR but the sand definitly made a mess and ended up in every crack possible. It was still worth the look.

I spent a few days under my body with the sandblaster on the rust and a wire brush on the scale and grime.then i used por 15 and chassiscoat. id rather have sand coming out down the road than rust!the sandblaster leaves a great surface for the Por to stick to.If you only have light rust you may be able to wire brush it and skip the sand.

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70 chevelle,400cid turbo400.blue with silver stripes.
http://members.spree.com/entertainment/ochrisl/

I sandblasted my 67 and it looks great. Some of the bad things to look out for are. 1. The sand will be everywhere so make sure you do it outside with the correct equipment ie. hood and respirator. 2. Make sure your glass is protected. Any hole in the floor will allow the sand to pit your glass. I used a pull behind the car compressor and commercial sandblaster. You can rent them for $75 a day. It only takes 15-20 minutes to do the bottom of a car. I would not use a home type blaster it would take hours and does not have the Tim the Toolman power to do a good job. Just my $.02
Don

I did my 67 with a small cheap sandblaster that I got for like $25 and it took days and days, actually weeks and weeks. The commercial blaster sounds cool but I think the more sand and more pressure would make more chances to warp? If I had to do it all over again I would haul it in and get it professionally walnut shell blasted. After sandblasting I used por15 then I used black spray paint over that for a uniform color that I know I can touch up over the life of the car. IMO it looks awesome underneath. It looks even better with the added satisfaction that I did it all myself and all the hours I put into it. I have a few underbody pictures on my site. Combined with the powdercoated frame and various other detail stuff that I have or am getting I know I will want some mirrors underneath when I finally get it into car shows. Whatever you decide you will be more than happy with the extra effort to strip it first before putting por 15 over it.

oops sorry...my site is so out of date I have zero pictures of the underbody work....one of these days I'll update!
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67 Malibu Road Race Conversion (http://members.aol.com/jrhines96)

[This message has been edited by 67jeff (edited 07-10-2001).]

Well, it looks like sandblasting. If anyone has any sandblasting tips, let me have em'!

Thanks,
Steve


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MY PROJECTS
1967 Chevelle SS396 - Currently under construction

1970 Camaro RS Z28-
Currently thinking about it

Snydes, I sandblasted under my car and the results are worth it. Buy yourself some haevy guage plastic sheets, and build a tent around your car. Tape them to the bottom of the rocker panels and hang them to the ground. Secure them to the ground with tape or something heavy. Do each side of the car, and the firewall, leaving the back open to crawl in/out. This will help minimize sand getting everywhere.

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Dan Orgill
1969 SS396 frame off in progress
Very.......slllooooowwww......progress

Latest HOT ROD Magazine has them restoring a Biscayne (over the course of several episodes) This month they are cleaning the underside of a Biscayne with a high pressure washer. Seems like it did a great job because they said it had alot of the old ruberized undercoating and it seems to have removed most of it and leave them with the original factory paint.
May be worth a look..

Steve

Mine was plastic media blasted and came out great. Plastic media doesn't leave a texture in the metal like sand but is as good as sand at removing paint and crud. It does not work real well with scaly rust, but that doesn't sound like a problem with your particular car.

I used a heat gun to remove undercoating, mineral spirits and many rags to remove the residue. I then wire brushed the whole thing with my mini grinder. I then sprayed two coats of Zero Rust.

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http://home.centurytel.net/jcsmiths_65_chevelle/

Im just getting started on this myself. I have followed others advice here and used oven cleaner to remove the junk and then rinsed with water. It's pretty amazing how clean it gets. Seems like the serface is rough enough to take the por 15 so I'm not going to sand blast. The por likes a little surface rust anyway. I am going to do a little spot blasting on the firewall since it has rust pits. Im going to spray por 15 then top coat with eastwood under hood black. The best way to remove the undercoatng is with a torch and putty knife. I dont think blasting is going to remove it. On my 70 there is very little undercoating other than the wheel wells anyway.

You may want to try the oven cleaner first and see what you think. Its really easy to do just wear a lot of clothes and a good respirator. Also, when using por 15 there cannot be any contamination or it will wrinkle. I have experience here http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif I rinsed with lots of water and let the the car sit for a week before I start painting. I'll probably paint it this weekend and will let you know how it goes.

Doug