Looking for suggestions, ideas or experience for painting and/or protecting the under side of my car.. the catch is ..that it'll only be on jack stands (and outside). So I am not expecting perfection - this car will be a driver, but of course I want to do the best I can.. oh and the budget's tight as per usual.

Ok, so I've cleaned the under side of my #1project car really well, scuffed, phospho, followed by BRUSHING ON Epoxy Primer. The underside looks really good, clean and consistent now. Using my HVLP gun for the top coat is probably not going to work 'cause I doubt the car is high enough off the ground for most of it. I was thinking of getting some spray paint cans - not necessary to get color coded cans (the expense mostly). But how many cans would it take for the entire underside? Any common spray can recommendations that might be good for this task?

Brushing on the top coat seems out of the question .. though I was surprised how well the the epoxy primer came out.. and it IS just the underside of the car, not really to be seen anyway. Ya'll think that's an option? Maybe spray can bead liner followed by spray bomb color from the FLAPS? How would you guys handle this?



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Hi Liberati, planning on doing the same... Already cleaned the underside and brushed on epoxy primer. Planning to get undercoat only inside the wheel wells and not on the rest of the car. Also want to get te whole underside in car color.
My car is also on jack stands at about 55cm of the floor. Curious to see other opinions here...

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theres enough room to get under with a paint gun isn't there?

After removing the poorly adhered undercoating, mine was already body color under the fender wells, so i used similar color red spray cans, one can did all 4 fender wells.
I also did the firewall and stuff in that area. (probably another can)

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Painted this with the car on jackstands. used a HVLP gun with a setup where you have a plastic bag inside the paint cup. Then you can paint at angles where you normally couldn't

It is a PITA lying under the car with the floorpan literally 12 in from your nose.

But very doable.

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Literati914 - I would suggest you do all you can to use the HVLP gun for the color coat on the bottom. If need be, go buy some 4x4 lumber and borrow a floor jack if you do not have one to get the car about 24" above the ground. THat should give you plenty of room to spray. Doing it in 12" of space had to be tight. Of course if you are young and small maybe 12" is enough room. Good luck.

Harbor Freight has a cheap small gun with a swivel cup.


paint gun

The controls are not great but it lets you get into places you could not get to normally.

Personally I would roll on some black bedliner and call it a day.

Or you could get tinted bed liner to match your paint and roll that on.

Rolling would let you have better control and work in a much tighter space.


http://monstaliner.com/forms/monstaliner_colors.htm

OH, ok.. that seems ideal. Thanks for the heads up!




Wow, that Monstaliner stuff is impressive, nice texture. Thanks, I am going to seriously consider it. My #2Project has a textured liner (done by the previous owner), which I'm pretty sure the car hasn't been driven since applied .. and it's flaking off in a few places so I'm a little wary - but I'm assure his prep was lacking.

BTW - these pics make it seem like there are is plenty of room, but in reality not so much. Thanks every one!

You can get single stage in your paint code. They can also make tintable bead liner that can be sprayed in close to body color. U-Pol is fine stuff also.

Like all paint products it is all in the prep work.

How many cans of U-pol would it take to coat the under side of a 914 (including under trunk area) ? Can it be top-coated ?