Degreasing/Cleaning Up Undercarriage
I inherited a 1951 Club Coupe from my deceased grandfather. The exterior and interior are beautiful, but the undercarriage is a completely different story. It appears that at one point someone coated the entire undercarriage with a thick protective black coating. Now the coating is just plain "cakey" looking and really think in some areas. Does anyone have any great, efficient ways to strip/degrease/clean up the undercarrige of the Hudson before I apply a new coat of protective paint/covering? Thanks!
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What you are seeing is likely undercoating to keep it from rusting which was a good thing to do when it was new and was used at that time ., Depending on whether it is loose or not you might want to leave it alone . BUD0
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Well, you can try a knotted wire brush on an angle grinder if it's dry enough. My 40 was coated with some stuff like that that smelled like creosote.. The wire brush took off what wasn't in good shape, and polished what was.
Eastwood (and probably others) sells an 'Undercoat romover'. I haven't used it so have no experience.0 -
I've had good results with this method:
Find a place where you can get the car up on a hoist. I have a friend who will let me use the hoist at his shop on the weekend as long as I clean up like I was never there. Use the hoist with the drain underneath it. Get heavy clear plastic sheeting in a roll that is wide enough to cover from the beltline of the car down to the ground to create a curtain all around the car so you don't blow dirt, grease & water everywhere. Attach to the car with magnets or duct tape or both. Leave some extra length on the plastic at the ground and weight it with 2X4's or such. Borrow or rent a HOT water pressure washer or steam cleaner. The kind with a burner that runs on propane or oil. This will get it really clean, but it is still a dirty nasty job anyway you slice it. If you need to avoid doing this kind of work you can always pay someone to do it for you, but there is no short-cut easy/fast/cheap way to do it if you want it clean enough to paint.
Tom
PS: Did I mention to cover yourself COMPLETELY from head to toe and wear goggles?0 -
Why don't we just take it to a sandblaster place. Thats where mine is going to go eventually. Then back up on a borrowed hoist and paint with rust encapsulator. Of course I'm from here in the Southwest where we don't have much salt (or way back when), coal on the roads, so re doing the bottom side would be privy to your area.0
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Kevs51Hudson wrote:I inherited a 1951 Club Coupe from my deceased grandfather. The exterior and interior are beautiful, but the undercarriage is a completely different story. It appears that at one point someone coated the entire undercarriage with a thick protective black coating. Now the coating is just plain "cakey" looking and really think in some areas. Does anyone have any great, efficient ways to strip/degrease/clean up the undercarrige of the Hudson before I apply a new coat of protective paint/covering? Thanks!
Tom was right when he said it's a dirty, nasty job. I used a wire brush, wire wheel on drill, chiesel, paint stripper, and sandpaper to get mine to the metal. Check out my "signature link" below, and the first pictures are of me re-doing the undercarriage. It's also just as nasty when you undercoat.0 -
Hi Hudson Dave here You would not beleave how much of that stuff will come off with a couple of cans of OVEN CLEANER and a presser washer . I had the same stuff on my 46 and after two times it was cleen as a babys bottom :eek: An i used a hose --no presser washer . Just a thought Hudson Dave;)0
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Somewhere out there in this World there must be an easier way of removing the hard baked on old original undercoating. I have worked 3 days off and on trying to get the undercoating off the two front fender splash aprons. It is still not a clean as I would like it to be.
1. I alternated using first Oven Off sprayed on thickly and left sitting in the hot Texas sun to cook. Scraped as much as I could off.
2. Then I switched to a product used to remove lables which makes things like this gooey. More scraping of the gooey stuff. What a mess!
3. Then I switched to Napa's Automotive Paint stripper. More scraping.
4. All this was repeated over and over for about 3 days.
I repeat! There must be something out there that will readily disolve this hard crusty, dirty, gunky stuff. I don't mind getting dirty, I just want to get it off.
BTW, don't give it to your local sand blaster/media blaster to deal with it. I learned the hard way. They got some of it off on my fender but it also took some of the metal with it and work hardened the steel. I will now have to replace some of the sheet metal because of what they did.
Peace,
Chaz0 -
However you decide to remove the undercoating, if I'm not mistaken it contains abestos. This is something that you do not want to breathe!0
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I wonder if this undercoating was dealer installed.....I don't have any on my '49. Luckily it came from a dry area and now only has rust in a few areas (trunk and passenger floor) but not on the undercarriage. If it is dealer installed, then there could be a wide variation in what works for each of the member's undercoatings. Just going to have to use some elbow grease and see what it will take to get it off! If you go the "oven cleaner" approach, I'd make sure to get it cleaned off really well afterwards.
Good Luck,
Lee0 -
Never use a sandblaster on an "intact" car- you'll ruin the wheel bearings, center support bearing, bushings in front suspension, etc. Also, as mentioned, it will "work-harden" sheet metal, and unless used expertly, can warp it as well. Best to reserve sandblaster for individual steel or cast iron parts that have been completely disassembed, and bearings and seals removed.0
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Yeah, I didn't mention the warpage on top of losing valuable steel and work hardening. I was so angry I could have spit nails. What happened was that I was dealing with a company which had an employee that had the "touch". He was excellent and I knew that he was going to be the one that would be doing the work on my rear panels. Well, as it turned out he had a family emergency that day so the young follow that "fell off the cabbage patch truck" on planet Earth the day before decided he would "help" and proceeded to BLAST my precious '51 Hudson rear fender panels. Crap! Well once it's done, it's done and you can't reverse it. The company was later sold out to someone else and I don't know if they are even still in business. Now a lot of work and grief on myself now. Just forge ahead is all I can do. New panels would be nice!
Peace,
Chaz0 -
Thanks again for all the good ideas!
Kevin0 -
I have used a small propane torch and scraper to get undercoating off. Just heat it enough to make it soft and it will scrape off. No matter what method you use, decoating is a messy job. Hope this helps.0
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