Undercarriage restoration/protection

I live in the northeast and we get piles on with snow and with snow comes salt.

The recent EB I picked up has had nothing really done to protect the undercarriage and it's looking a bit tired

I keep seeing photos of undercarriages that have been restored and look great.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this?

I've got a shop lined up (good friend of mine) that can sand blast and do an undercoating or Rhino.

Is this the best option or should I be painting certain parts pieces for more of the restored look?

I bet all the people with undercarriages that look great worked their asses off. This is sort of an example of what it takes to get the new looking under carriage.
When I first started my restoration back in 2007 I tried to clean the frame and under body while laying under the truck. What a horrible job and I couldn't get things as clean as I wanted. Not until I actually decided to go full bore and totally frame off did I get the results I wanted and could really get the undercarriage like new again. Just my opinion, but seems trying to sand blast while the truck is all together is going to be tough and not really get at everything the way you'd like.
If you really want it to pop under there you need to get the body off the frame. Maybe not tear it down to the extent I did, but at least get it so you can get to the underside like you'd want. But that is just my opinion of course.

For mine, after sandblasting the frame I used Eastwood chassis primer and extreme chassis black. On the underside of the body I just mostly used the chassis primer and chassis black. Some places I have also coated with Eastwood rubberized undercoating. But, my Bronco never sees bad weather, so paint is probably fine for my purposes.





This is when I took the body off the frame to totally redo the frame. Then I could also get under the body to do some painting.

IMO....
If you are looking for this


Body has to come off, strip all electrics, brake lines, fuel .... Ect. Then blast it and paint. I would not use line ex brad liner stuff. I would suggest a Prost like mentioned or a good epoxy of some sort. The beadliner will look dirty fast and not clean up that well over time. Also it is thick. Could cause problems on knuckles and things of that sort.
Then reassemble with new hard ware and bushings and such to finish off.

Good luck
Blue

Land shark did a frame on frame off if that makes any sense -- he had a tiny garage and just lifted the body ~12 inches off and wired wheeled everything and painted it and set it back down IIRC. But I think to get good results most people need a frame off.

Or go socks-and-sandals and just shoot undercoating on everything.

Thanks for the feedback guys

Since I don't have the equipment to do the frame off. Have a buddy with body shop that's going to potentially handle. Just need to see what he's going to charge.

Hopefully kick it off in the next month or so. Assume I should wait until after the undercarriage work before wiring up the painless kit that I just got?

As mentioned, you don't want to sandblast and paint with the body on. First off you will get sand in places you don't want it in. Second you will get sand comming out of areas for years to come. There will also be areas you wont be able to get at blasting or painting. In otherwords its a half assed way of doing it so don't do it unless you decide to pull the body. You also don't want to undercoat or rattle can over it.

If your long term plan is to drive it in the salty winters, and you decide against a frame off you could paint brush everything (underbody, frame axles etc..) with POR15. You can also do internal frame coating.

I only have enough money to do everything except the body right now. So I pulled my body with an overhead hoist (main lifting point) and an engine hoist on the rear. Really just pulled the battery and disconnected whatever needed disconnected.





Now it just needs to go back together. Hope to get the frame mods done tomorrow and disassembly for blasting and powdercoat in a week or so. After that I will do internal frame coating I already have from Eastwood. Will do the body down the road when I save some more money.

Creative use of moving dollys and cribbing! I just prepped my body for removal tonight. Only after I test lifted it did it occur .... "what the hell am I going to set it on?" lol
Right now it has temporary 3 1/2" BL ... LOL (4X4 blocking at the body mounts)

I usually dont suggest undercoat but if your bronco is like mine. Some old school rust repar and hit or miss ziebart from 77 and wanting to drive sooner than the next millenium. I removed suspension and drive train and put fresh undercoat on to make it all match. Painted up the suspension and driveline. Used all new bushings and body mounts and itlooks pretty good. I wouldnt use undercoat on a resto but if you are trying to freshen up the underside of a well used bronco then i say go for it. It will give you that protection you want in winter and easy to touch up and maje look new again. I heve even painted iver the undercoat to help keep it looking fresh. Makes it so asier to clean

If you are planning on using it during the winter and salt that look into getting your frame hot dip galvanized. I had mine done for future who knows use and it only cost me $150 to have done. Now the bad side, if you look at my build you can see it leaves a bit of a texture on the frame, most is how my frame started with heavy scale in places etc. I could have ground it down afterwords and really smoothed it out but it is not seen and I want as much corrosion protection that I can get. One more upgrade I could have done would be to use stainless fasteners throughout but I opted not to at this time. You have a great start! Another thing I will be doing is pulling my new Bilstein shocks off and clear coating them to keep them looking good.

If your going to blast the body you need to get every bit of that undercoating scraped off. The baster can't remove it. Do all your body repairs b4 blasting. Have him epoxy prime powercoat the entire body for you. It can sit almost forever in a shop that way without rusting. Do all your body rust repairs that you missed at this point. I would then spray the bottom with rust bullet. That stuff is amazing and hard as a rock when it dries. Their ad is on this site. Never let anyone blast your hood. It's too big a panel and no matter how easy they go it will warp. I learned the hard way!!

englewoodcowboy said:

If you are planning on using it during the winter and salt that look into getting your frame hot dip galvanized. I had mine done for future who knows use and it only cost me $150 to have done. Now the bad side, if you look at my build you can see it leaves a bit of a texture on the frame, most is how my frame started with heavy scale in places etc. I could have ground it down afterwords and really smoothed it out but it is not seen and I want as much corrosion protection that I can get. One more upgrade I could have done would be to use stainless fasteners throughout but I opted not to at this time. You have a great start! Another thing I will be doing is pulling my new Bilstein shocks off and clear coating them to keep them looking good.

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Where did u find a place to hot dip the entire frame for $150 bucks? How did the inside look? Is there a way to keep the Vin visible by covering somehow during process?