Underside cleaning and judging implication

[Donald H.]

I have my 60 body on it's side and have started cleaning the underside. Picture 1 below is what I started with, although I had done some wheel well cleaning already. Picture two show the area above the spare tire well after cleaning.

Picture three is a close up and you can see that there is still some crud that is in the fiberglass grain. I have used various cleaners and chemicals (409, simple green, acetone, brake cleaner, laquer thinner, and Cap't Lee's stripper) and this as clean as I can get it without sanding or something.

How clean does it need to be for judging purposes?

Would any sanding be a big NO-NO? I have some areas along the outer edges of the underside, i.e. under the quarter panels, where the glass seems to have taken a beating, i.e. has a weathered look and rougher surface.

Should I sand this or leave it alone?

As always, thanks for the words of wisdom.
Don

[Michael M.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Don, it looks like you have done a great job on the clean up. I would not sand the underside. It's unnecessary and you might open a can of worms.

[Dale M.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Don, I am watching your post for myself and my '64. I am wondering if anyone thinks that soda blasting my be the correct process. I know there are a lot of pros and cons, but to clean the bare fiberglass. I would hope it would remove the small particle embedded within the grains of the glass and not tear up the fiberglass. Don, I congratulate you on all of your work and effort, we know what this takes.

I would not recommend saning as that will effect the grain in the fiberglass.

Waiting for some experts to join in. Thanks everyone.

[Steven S.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Looks good, remember cleanliness is only 2% of the total score! you can loss more here by over cleaning then by leaving it alone.

Steve

[Michael W.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Were C1s delivered to the first customer with bare fibreglass underneath?

I thought there was a fair bit of blackout being applied, but am not sure of that was limited to the chassis only.

[Anthony P.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

The entire underside of my car was painted all black so I had no idea what I would find. After using a stripper (safe for fiberglass) I got to the bare, but very dirty/stained fiberglass. I cleaned it as much as possible by hand with with soft brushes and simple green and a number of other cleaners.

I could not get the dirt out of the fiberglass grain so: I sprayed the surface with a concentrated degrease/cleaner from Home depot (purple liquid in gallon jugs) over a day and let it soak in. Then I used a power washer with very hot water, and with a fan spray nozzle and kept it a good 18" from the fiberglass so I would not damage anything. The key is to use a fan spray, and keep the nozzle a ways from the fiberglass.

Take a look at the attached pic. It is clean, but not perfect. Definitely much better than what I started with.

[Donald H.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Were C1s delivered to the first customer with bare fibreglass underneath?

I thought there was a fair bit of blackout being applied, but am not sure of that was limited to the chassis only.

According to the 58-60 TIM & JG the underside of the body was unpainted fiberglass. And that there could be overspary in areas especially the spare tire well. I'm not sure how our why it differentiates the spare tire well. I'm only guessing, but I assume the spare tire well may have gotten some blackout overspray when the wheelhousings/wells got black-out paint.

The TIM &JG also states the wheelhousings had black-out paint and some sound-deadening undercoating.

[Donald H.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

The entire underside of my car was painted all black so I had no idea what I would find. After using a stripper (safe for fiberglass) I got to the bare, but very dirty/stained fiberglass. I cleaned it as much as possible by hand with with soft brushes and simple green and a number of other cleaners.

I could not get the dirt out of the fiberglass grain so: I sprayed the surface with a concentrated degrease/cleaner from Home depot (purple liquid in gallon jugs) over a day and let it soak in. Then I used a power washer with a fan spray nozzle and kept it a good 18" from the fiberglass so I would not damage anything. The key is to use a fan spray, and keep the nozzle a ways from the fiberglass.

Take a look at the attached pic. It is clean, but not perfect. Definitely much better than what I started with.

Heh, that looks pretty good to me. Did you have to patch any holes? I have a lot of extra holes in some areas of the underside that I need to fill. I have been experimenting with trying to color the glass resin. I just don't know how closely a judge will look for repaired spots on the underside.

Don

[Anthony P.]

Re: Underside cleaning and judging implication

Heh, that looks pretty good to me. Did you have to patch any holes? I have a lot of extra holes in some areas of the underside that I need to fill. I have been experimenting with trying to color the glass resin. I just don't know how closely a judge will look for repaired spots on the underside.

Don

Don, I did not do any patching at all. What you see was there either from the factory, or possibly a PO.

There were some some areas where the fiberglass strands on the surface loosened from scrubbing, so I used some 2 part clear that was flattened to make those strands stiff, then I gently sanded off the sticking out strands, and sprayed the 2 part clear again.

Tony