Progress Continues...undercarriage time (pic heavy)!

[deathman68]

Decided since we’re still in the thick of it with the gradual tear down and rebuild of every single removable part it was prob a good time to properly tackle the undercarriage to keep it rust free for another 40+ years. After reading a multitude of forum posts, searching body shop forums, and talking with pros I landed on the following for Annie’s undercarriage: 2 coats epoxy primer, 3M seam sealer on top followed by 3M body schutz on top. Waxoyl will be sprayed in all the frame cavities afterwards. While I’m sure there a prob a million ways to skin the proverbial cat including POR-15 etc, this is the way we chose to go. To each his own!

Step 1: Break out the heat gun and start scraping old undercoating off.

After a couple days of trying this as well as oven cleaner, stripper, lacquer thinner etc, I decided this is for the birds. While I probably could have spent a solid week scrubbing, rubbing, and sanding every last inch, wisdom took over...

Step 2: In three hours, a combination of sand (frame only) and glass beads made the front third clean as a baby’s bottom

Not shown: tented the bus which allowed me to collect and properly dispose of all the residual material

Step 3: take leftover sand and let the kid build sandcastles while I DA sanded a couple of spots. Hence her ear protection

Step 4: donn my best breaking bad/new grocery store suit and shoot some epoxy primer

That’s as far as we got this weekend. Next week we will drop the engine/trans
and blast the remainder of the undercarriage and epoxy primer to take advantage of the limited low humidity weather down here. Then we will mask off and seam seal followed by the body schutz. Stay tuned.

[mwallace]

Looks great! Did you use a spray gun to spray the underside? It must have been tight down on the ground?

[cmonSTART]

That's great progress! Plus, you're protected from Coronavirus!
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[deathman68]

[pioneer1]

Wow.
A suggestion from experience...clean out the tubes that house the throttle cable,etc before you procèed
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[busdaddy]

Wow!, THAT'S SERIOUSLY AMBITIOUS!, impressive work!

Bet you'll think twice about doing that job ever again

And as Pioneer suggests clean out those cable tubes, and the heat tubes too, first time you are up to speed and turn on the heat you'll get sandblasted by the defroster if you don't.
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[deathman68]

[Jody '71]

Amazing work so far Jeff!! I need to come down and get in the way/make annoying comments like years ago when we were doing bus work together in my driveway/garage!!! I don't think I'll be traveling anywhere anytime soon however.
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[aeromech]

Hi Charlie
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[orwell84]

You didn’t sandblast that with a 20 lb portable compressor?!? If you did, I want one just like that.

[igotta40]

That’s some awesome work! We scrubbed and recoated our undercarriage a while back, but not like you’re doing. Good for you! 👍

[Glenn]

Wow... just wow.
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[airschooled]

[SGKent]

there could be lead in that paint. Remember that when your kids play in it.
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[deathman68]

[orwell84]

[RalphWiggam]

The sand/grit being everywhere and in everything is part of the reason I went the manual / super shitty route.

In addition to there being no way in hell I have the time to completely disassemble the entire bottom half of my bus...

[bigdaveb]

Deathman68,

One of the issues I had when I did my undercarriage after sandblasting was getting sand out of the framing members. I removed certain plugs (where I wanted the sand to exit) and found an opening where I could stick an air compressor nozzle in (also used nozzle extensions) and tried to blow out as much sand as I could - until there was no more sand coming out of the opening I was blowing towards. I would then take another seal out, in the opposite side of the same member, and blow out sand until no more would come out. I went back and forth on each side until no more sand was coming out. It took a good while to blow it all out. I think the worst was the front member under the nose.

The problem with the sand being in there is that it will absorb moisture - which will start the rust process within the framing members. It's very tedious work to remove it all, but it really needs to be done. Once you're done, you have the option of using something like an internal frame coating to arrest any existing rust in the members.

The work looks very good. Keep it up - it's worth it in the end.

Dave

[deathman68]

[orwell84]

I had some success with the needle scaler today. I tried it out on the pan that goes under the pedals. I had the undercoating off in about 20 minutes but left the grey factory paint in decent condition. Easy when it’s on the bench and I know in places it’s way thicker.

I will post some pics.