When I last wrote, most of the preparation of the bottom of the car had been done. All that was left was to actually get some paint on it!
The first challenge is that the car is on jack stands and is only 18″ off the floor. It is possible to work under it, but not easy. Painting involves the paint flowing from the paint cup into the spray gun – which means that it doesn’t work if the spray gun is held upside down, sideways, or at strange angles. Painting the bottom of the car involves almost nothing but holding the spray gun upside down, sideways, and at strange angles!
Fortunately DeVilbiss has a solution in their DeKups system. This system uses disposable plastic bladders to hold the paint. While the main purpose of DeKups is to make cleanup easier, one of the side effects is that the gun will spray in any position. The plastic bladder collapses as pain is sprayed, so there is never any air in the cup and there is no place for the paint to run.
Devilbis even offers a DeKups starter kit which is surprisingly inexpensive. It is almost like they think people will be hooked once they try it…
Painting the bottom of the car is something I never want to do again – which means do it right the first time! In this case that involves two coats of epoxy primer and two coats of paint.
Before painting it was necessary to cover everything in the workshop to protect it from paint overspray. This is a pain; it would be much better to have a real spray booth. Something to think about in the future.
Actually spraying the paint is the fastest part of the job. After months of preparation I was able to actually spray in just a few hours!
As a reminder, this is what the bottom of the car looked like before:
And this is what it looks like now:
The brown material on top of the frame rails isn’t rust – it is grinding dust from other work that needs to be blown off.
I’m actually rather happy with how this is turning out! Now to start putting the suspension back together.
Confession: I haven’t actually done the entire bottom of the car. I’ve done back to the rear wheel wells. I still need to remove the rear end, rear suspension, and gas tank and prep and paint the rest of it. Which I’m not looking forward to! The strategy was to do things so that I can put the car back together mechanically and even start driving it. The rest of the bottom can be done as a later project.
Next: No Longer In Suspension