Phew! I finally finished stripping, cleaning and repainting the underside of the car. That's only the flat horizontal side mind you - the bit you won't see!
I'm using a two part epoxy paint applied with a roller. It's just a primer and can be top coated but it looks as though I'm not bothering and will just add a layer of underseal.
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| Two-part epoxy primer |
Applying it with a roller is the recommended approach. It leaves a slightly textured finish but, as I eventually plan to coat the lot with underseal anyway, it doesn't matter. As its going to be visible, the engine bay and rest of the chassis will be painted using a different paint system to give a smoother finish.
The last stage of the underside repaint was the area beneath the front footwell and the two front 'tusks'. This area was the hardest to do. Partly because it's not just a flat floor pan, and partly because of all the engine oil, grease, LHM and road dirt that had accumulated there.
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| Last stage... |
I'd been working on this last part on and off for a couple of months now, multi-tasking with other jobs. Or was I avoiding a big job I didn't want to do by finding small jobs to do? Anyway, ultimately I was planning to repaint the whole engine bay so I had chosen to give the whole area a good clean rather than only focus on the underside of the tusks.
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| Years of grease and dirt to be removed |
That's where the time went, but at least it's an investment for the next stage.
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| Cleaning the 'tusks' |
I'd started cleaning everything back in mid February and it wasn't until late March that I was ready to paint the underside.
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| Under the footwell |
As with the rest of the underside, after degreasing, the area got a first coat of epoxy primer. Once it had dried, it was seam-sealed. And when that was dry, it then got a second coat of epoxy.
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| All shiny now |
Perhaps now I can concentrate on painting the rest of engine bay and look forward to dropping the engine back in. That's a big job. I'm sure I can think of something else to do instead before then.
