[italcarguy]

Tonight after the shop closed, my dad's worker and I stayed late...till 9:30 working on the bottom of my car. What we did was lift the car and scrape away at the undercoating. Since the bottom was drenched in oil thanks to an oil leak the last race I had, the undercoating came off pretty nice. I don't have time to work in it till next week. I am going to rent a high pressure steam cleaner and blast the bottom of the car and scrape more. After that, gonna paint the bottom black and clean the bottom of the car after every race. Some people think this is crazy to do to a race car but here are three reasons why I am doing this.

1) You don't crawl out from under the car all greasy when working on the car at the track.

2) It is easier to spot oil leak when they pop up

3) The rest is so nice and clean, why can't the bottom be clean too

 

[italcarguy]

one more

 

[smestas]

That undercoating can be quite a pain to remove especially when reaching above your head to scrape. Did you by chance weigh the material that you scraped off? Id be curious to see how much you shaved off. I'm always big on how much weight I'm able to remove from my car.

 

[italcarguy]

so far almost 5lbs. we still have a lot to go. i am gonna yank the complete rear suspension and differential off next week to get those "hard to reach places". after that i will rip everything off the front. WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO! yes the stuff was fallin on our heads, faces, and arms. that crap also landed all over the floor which stuck to the bottom of our shoes. we made sure we cleaned it up cuz i want to be able to keep using all that work space whenever i need it.

 

[smestas]

I've read that you can use a good industrial heat gun to help loosen that stuff loose. Was it comming of fairly easy or not?

What kind of paint will you coat it with after you get it all cleaned out and preped?

 

[italcarguy]

the heat gun will work. just got an email from alfabb member speedyal. he told me he used heat lamps. he is the reason i am doing this. last season while under his car at a track, i noticed how nice the underside was and decided mine should look like his. i am not sure what kinda paint i will use...suggestions anyone?

 

[alfa_chan]

Nice shots

Hey Anthony! Those are some nice shot of your race car and your shop.


What kind of material is those undercoating anyway? I've got some big scratches on the bottom of both my VW and GTV (don't ask me why), and I am just thinking repaiting them with POR 15 to prevent the rust.

 

[italcarguy]

to be honest with you...i have no clue what kind of undercoating it is. all i know is that its the original one and is THICK! if i were to use undercoating, i would go with the 3M undercoating in a spray bottle. they sell it at automotive paint supply stores. i had to use some a while back to patch up an area on my giulia spider where the almost 40 year old undercoating fell off one day.

 

[turbolarespider]

Can't suggest a paint, but more a color. I'd try to find a red similar to your body's. The reasoning is that you'll see the leaks that you mentioned easier than with black.

If this were not a race car, I'd also suggest using a truck bedliner material. Tough, rubbery... But perhaps just as much weight as you are adding...

Eric

 

[italcarguy]

True true, it would be better to use red...i will give that SERIOUS thought.

I have a few cans of that truck bed liner. We are usuing in to paint my brothers dash. I want a smooth finish on the bottom of the car rather than that "wrinkled" look

Thanks for you input!

 

[Azzurri GTV]

yeah same here a smooth finish looks way better than that wrinkled look.

 

[turbolarespider]

The only reason I bring it up is that it was suggested to me IF you wanted something that looked similar to the factory finish, and was far tougher. I'm going to use it on a Giulietta Sprint I have, as well as the rear of the wheel well on my GTV. With race tires- it's being worn away.

Paint will look cool.

Eric

 

[67GTV]

Hey Anthony, is this what you meant by "up on all four"?

I'd like to strip the paint off my front end starting with the hood. Any suggested products to use? Thanks.

 

[italcarguy]

Yeah yeah, up of 4! I am way up on 4...is that the record?

I just used a scraper. I am gonna leave the car over heat lamps half the day on Monday. The it should all fall off. That is what my friend told me he did.