Undercarriage Restoration for Dino Begins with POR-15 Products

[Jason Edge]

My 1964 Coupe de Ville Dino continues to sit up on the 12" wheel cribs as I go deeper and deeper into some undercarriage restoration and will be sharing my process in this and other posts. I appreciate everyone's input and will have some questions as we go along. 

IT STARTS!
A few days ago I cleaned and coated the front body to frame boxes on Dino with POR-15 Rust Preventative Coating seen below, before adding the freshly cadmium plated hardware. I wanted to top coat the boxes to give it more sheen and decided to give the POR-15 Top Coat a try. After some research I decided I would do the floor pans with the chassis black and the long smooth frame the Gloss Black.   

Just to back up, Dino has undercoating. I believe the factory did a bit of undercoating but it is my understanding that heavier undercoating was dealer installed.  This is another subject to explore, but the point here is that Dino has undercoating and I am not about to try and grind it off.  What I will do is spend way too much time trying to get it clean before I apply any coating. 

For the most part Dino's underside is pretty good. It does have a couple of problem areas I will discuss in another restoration thread.  What I wanted to do was take a stab at an area that was solid and easy to get to, and just needed cleaning. I decided to take a stab at the right rear floor pan area. Again, because it is solid and there is not exhaust pipe below it! 

I basically studied it until I knew the exact perimeter of the area, then spent a couple hours cleaning it. My brother works with metal in an HVAC duct shop and had made me a rather large 6' x 3' metal pan with about a 3" lip... all sealed. At the end I slid it under the car and literally hosed off the bottom of the car in that area letting the water drain into my large pan, then sliding it out and dumping it. After letting it dry a day, I applied the rust preventative coat, then within a few hours a top coat, then the next day the final and 2nd top coat. I thought it turned out well and thought I would share my start of the process.  

I did end up taking out the gas supply and vent return pipes, and will post info on that in another thread.

I also have some rust issues and will also discuss that in another thread.

Lessons Learned using POR-15
- Don't let it get on your skin ... or good clothes. It is really hard to get off your skin. I used long gloves, coveralls, etc. but still got one drop in my face, and and a bit on hands as I was pouring, putting lid back on, etc. You really have to use something like Acetone or paint thinner if you want to get it off fast. I ended up doing Acetone on my face to get it off fast then quickly rinsing. I ready vegetable oil might work. 

- It is Oil Based and has strong fumes! Ventilate the garage and yourself. I am old school and tend not to put diapers on my head, but kept all garage doors open. It even went into the office upstairs and had to open the door and put ac on high fan.   

- The rust preventative coat dries a bit dull, even the semi gloss.  You will also ready it is not UV (sunlight) tolerant and needs to be top coated if it will be exposed to sunlight. (So don't just paint over your trailer fenders with it without top coating). 

- The Can is Difficult! You need to pour what you think you need into another container and not paint from the can as it will become contaminated.  For the same reason it says not to pour unused portion back into the can, so you want to guess less than you actually need than more.  Also, seal the can back up quickly.  I used a small plastic cups I had used for sorting nuts and bolts.   Also, remove excess from the can rim before putting lid back on as it will seal itself shut. That had me worried and cleaned the rim completely each time.

- Cleaning Up Brushes & Storing Can -  Water is useless with this oil based stuff. but you can use paint thinner, gasoline, or acetone. I used paint thinner on a couple of brushes but throw out some otherwise older brushes that had seen better days.  As far as the can I cleaned the rim before putting lid back on, but I also used wide think tape across the top (I used the 4" Typar building wrap tape). 

The GOOD NEWS --->  It really provides a fantastic coating..

My Approach --> I will end up with 3 coats - 1st: Rust Preventative Coat, 2nd & 3rd: 2 Top Coats, chassis black on the floor pans, gloss black on the frame.  That is what I have at least come up with out of the gate. When I did the first top coat I could see a few small areas I had missed with the duller rust preventative coat showing through. It is time consuming but these cars are our cherished chariots and I think it is worth it. 

PICTURES
Here are is a before and after picture of the first section I cleaned and coated and the POR-15 products I am using.

Above is the right rear floor pan area. This area is solid but has the rough undercoating. Undercoating will stay but will was most of the ground in dirt away before top coating. Note the  gas lines... they would come out!

Above is the same area treated. Note gas lines removed. 

 

Above are the 3 POR-15 that I have used.