cleaning underbody
Here's how I did it:
I removed the body of my '64 roadster from the frame. I found instructions on the forum for building a dolly of mostly 6 x 6 lumber on which to mount the body. The instructions weren't quite correct in regard to the width but that was easily corrected.
After removing the paint (using Capt. Lee's Spra-Strip, which liquified the lacquer paint quite nicely) from the upper surfaces of the body I decided that I wanted to clean the underbody. The fiberglass on the underside of the rear deck above the fuel tank location was very clean with no road grime or paint. However the remainder of the underbody was black from the firewall to the rear bulkhead. The fender wells were also black, presumably a combination of blackout paint, undercoating and road grime.
Although the dolly puts the underbody approximately 18" off the floor, there are many obsticles in the way of getting to the under side of the body, such as the vertical supports of the dolly. I tried working around them laying on my back on a creeper. but after a full day I had barely made a dent in the cleaning process. I said to my self, "self,there has to be an easier way to do this". I built a rotisierie for an Austin Healey I previously restored and thought I could do the same for the Corvette. After some head-scratching I decided that I could attach metal angles to the existing dolly and simply roll the entire structure onto its side. I attached the body to the vertical supports of the dolly using 1/4 x 2 inch lag screws at each of the 10 body mounts.
I then attached 1 long piece of metal angle (a piece of "U" shaped 2" x 2" aluminum that I had from another project) to the front base of the dolly. This section of the dolly is directly below the firewall. The piece of channel runs from side to side, parallel to the ground. It extends ~ 12 inches beyond the dolly on one side and ~5 ft on the other side. On the short side of the bottom piece of angle I attached a verticle piece of 1-1/2" aggle iron making an "L" with slightly less than a 90 degree angle. I attached a 3rd piece to the top of the vertical piece and attached the other end of that piece to the base of the dolly on the opposite side. This formed a triangle. I created similar pieces for the back of the dolly. By lifting the long end of the first piece I had enough leverage to tip the entire structure onto its side. Get some help so it doesn't get away from you.
The black coating on the bottom of the body was 40 years accumulation of baked-on grease, oil and dirt with a consistency much harder than undercoating. I figured I could loosen or disolve this mixture with mineral spirits. I reasoned that mineral spirits would not affect any lacquer paint that might be on the surfaces.
Once the body was on its side I could easily scrape the first layer off with a metal 1" putty knife. I was careful not to gouge the glass with the knife. After this scraping I went to work with mineral spirits and a piece of course Scotchbrite. I was not very agressive so as to not scratch the fiber glass. I allowed the mineral spirits to soften the layer. After the Scotchbrite I wiped the surface with rags soaked in Mineral spirits. It took 10 or so. The first wiping got some of the black off. The next rag got more until after several wipings the underside was fairly clean. There were a few scuffed places that allowed the road grime to penetrate. Those places would not come clean but the majority of the glass cleaned up very nicely.
I found blackout paint (which I didn't remove) on the vertical surfaces of the wheel wells . Undercoating seemed to have been applied from front to rear of the wheel well directly above where the tire would be, a 6" or so wide pattern. Outboard of that there was no paint or undercoating. On many vertical surfaces, such as behind the rocker panels I found red (the color of the car) overspray which I cleaned and left alone. I also found red overspray on vertical surfaces of the wheel wells and onto the sides of the (jack) storage wells and beyond in small amounts on the bottom surfaces of those wells. All of that original overspray remains on the fiberglass.
The ~95% that I cleaned with the body on its side took approximately 8 hrs but I was standing the entire time and nothing ran into my eyes. Now to figure out how to clean the driveway!
Doug Loeffler
I removed the body of my '64 roadster from the frame. I found instructions on the forum for building a dolly of mostly 6 x 6 lumber on which to mount the body. The instructions weren't quite correct in regard to the width but that was easily corrected.
After removing the paint (using Capt. Lee's Spra-Strip, which liquified the lacquer paint quite nicely) from the upper surfaces of the body I decided that I wanted to clean the underbody. The fiberglass on the underside of the rear deck above the fuel tank location was very clean with no road grime or paint. However the remainder of the underbody was black from the firewall to the rear bulkhead. The fender wells were also black, presumably a combination of blackout paint, undercoating and road grime.
Although the dolly puts the underbody approximately 18" off the floor, there are many obsticles in the way of getting to the under side of the body, such as the vertical supports of the dolly. I tried working around them laying on my back on a creeper. but after a full day I had barely made a dent in the cleaning process. I said to my self, "self,there has to be an easier way to do this". I built a rotisierie for an Austin Healey I previously restored and thought I could do the same for the Corvette. After some head-scratching I decided that I could attach metal angles to the existing dolly and simply roll the entire structure onto its side. I attached the body to the vertical supports of the dolly using 1/4 x 2 inch lag screws at each of the 10 body mounts.
I then attached 1 long piece of metal angle (a piece of "U" shaped 2" x 2" aluminum that I had from another project) to the front base of the dolly. This section of the dolly is directly below the firewall. The piece of channel runs from side to side, parallel to the ground. It extends ~ 12 inches beyond the dolly on one side and ~5 ft on the other side. On the short side of the bottom piece of angle I attached a verticle piece of 1-1/2" aggle iron making an "L" with slightly less than a 90 degree angle. I attached a 3rd piece to the top of the vertical piece and attached the other end of that piece to the base of the dolly on the opposite side. This formed a triangle. I created similar pieces for the back of the dolly. By lifting the long end of the first piece I had enough leverage to tip the entire structure onto its side. Get some help so it doesn't get away from you.
The black coating on the bottom of the body was 40 years accumulation of baked-on grease, oil and dirt with a consistency much harder than undercoating. I figured I could loosen or disolve this mixture with mineral spirits. I reasoned that mineral spirits would not affect any lacquer paint that might be on the surfaces.
Once the body was on its side I could easily scrape the first layer off with a metal 1" putty knife. I was careful not to gouge the glass with the knife. After this scraping I went to work with mineral spirits and a piece of course Scotchbrite. I was not very agressive so as to not scratch the fiber glass. I allowed the mineral spirits to soften the layer. After the Scotchbrite I wiped the surface with rags soaked in Mineral spirits. It took 10 or so. The first wiping got some of the black off. The next rag got more until after several wipings the underside was fairly clean. There were a few scuffed places that allowed the road grime to penetrate. Those places would not come clean but the majority of the glass cleaned up very nicely.
I found blackout paint (which I didn't remove) on the vertical surfaces of the wheel wells . Undercoating seemed to have been applied from front to rear of the wheel well directly above where the tire would be, a 6" or so wide pattern. Outboard of that there was no paint or undercoating. On many vertical surfaces, such as behind the rocker panels I found red (the color of the car) overspray which I cleaned and left alone. I also found red overspray on vertical surfaces of the wheel wells and onto the sides of the (jack) storage wells and beyond in small amounts on the bottom surfaces of those wells. All of that original overspray remains on the fiberglass.
The ~95% that I cleaned with the body on its side took approximately 8 hrs but I was standing the entire time and nothing ran into my eyes. Now to figure out how to clean the driveway!
Doug Loeffler
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