pics of underside, por-15, sound deadener, carpet - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

IROCZman15 · 03-22-2010, 10:34 PM

i know this is mostly a chassis section post, but i have a bunch of photos so i thought i'd share it here. if a mod feels it is redundant, feel free to delete it

Well, after I had the full S&W racing subframe kit installed in the car I was able to begin the tedious task of redoing the undercoating on the vehicle. I jacked up the car, laid down some plastic on the ground, bought a whole assortment of wire wheels, sanding sheets, wire brushes, etc and got to work. I began by removing a bunch of the rubberized undercoating using a heat-gun and a putty-knife/scraper combination. This took a while and sure was messy. I then got my hand-drill and worked with the different array of wire wheels. I had to rip off all the remaining undercoating, factory paint and primer...so that the metal under most of the car was down to complete bare sheetmetal. Some areas were very difficult to reach. (for this project I concentrated on everything rearward from the firewall and rear of the engine..I did not drop the rear end and did not drop the fuel tank...when I replace the rear end, I will sand and undercoat above it).

photos below show the exposed bare metal under the car. the black bars are the subframe kit.

after the metal was stripped down, i went to the POR-15 headquarters in Morristown Nj and checked out a bunch of their products. I bought the "marine clean" metal cleaner, the "metal-Ready" phosphate metal prep solution, and a quart of semi-gloss black POR-15 metal undercoating. anywhere this paint is, even if there was rust to begin with... it will never grow; ever. applying this stuff was messy. as it says in the instructions .. if it gets on ur skin, get it off asap. otherwise it wont come off..it has to wear off. i did two complete coats, using a variety of hair and foam brushes. turned out awesome and it is strong too. total cost for the products was under $60, but it will only work correctly if you follow the exact directions.

i also puilled out all the floor drains and whatnot and coated them, then sealed everything up with some RTV.

I also sanded down the interior floorpans a bit and coated them with a different product. I used a similar product to POR-15, but since the interior floor should never see any liquid.. I went with a product I got for free from a mechanic buddy of mine - Hammerite Rust Cap, gloss black - . It worked great. It was thick to brush on, but I can tell it is solid too. Pics are kinda blurry - sorry, but you can get the point.

IROCZman15 · 03-22-2010, 10:36 PM

...

I did a bunch of research online and compared product quality with cost and overall effectiveness when choosing a sound-deadener material for the FLOOR of my car. I will later be doing the inside of the door panels and the rear wheel-well areas another time, but for now I wanted to only tackle the floor. I went with a product called RAAmmatt 60BXT. I got a great deal and was able to cover the entire floor 1 1/2 times. (the 1/2 time is where i doubled up the layers on the transmission tunnel and driveshaft hump because those areas are noisy. Now, let it be clear that I am NOT trying to make this car sound proof with the windows closed because that would be silly. My goal was to use the sound deadener to reduce the road noise, mini squeaks and rattles, and the noise that comes from the rear end gears. This product worked great and was super easy to install. There is really no science to it, just cut a piece, fit it up, when it seems to fit good, peel the material off (to expose the black sticky side) leaving the shiny side up, press on, and rub/press the material down. You can overlap areas and cut it to whatever shape works. You have to think ahead and also cut out holes in the material for anything (bolts, wire clamps, seatbelt holes) that will need to accessed later, but thats easy.

Since I had the interior out and did the rustproofing, sound-deadener, subframe work..... I had to pull out the original carpet. It was faded from 23 years of use and sun so I gave it to a buddy who needed it for his camaro. I ordered a new passanger compartment carpet from 1A-Auto for a good price. The measurments and curves were spot on. It IS an ACC carpet! Below are pics of the install, which is straightforward, but you have to cut holes in it for the seatbelts, seat mounts, and around the area of the center console. Cutting through the carpet is easy, but cutting through the fabric backing/padding is aggrevating. In some pics the carpet looks grey due to the sunlight or camera flash, but it's actually a solid rich black color. Now that the carpet is in, I was able to toss in the rear seats, neatly run the wires for the sounds system (and install it again), and regroup other wires in the transmission and stereo area to be much neater.

... now im just waiting on the driver's seat to get a few areas patched so i can put it back in and drive the car all over for the next 6 months

T69SS · 03-22-2010, 11:05 PM

Very nice, looks like you did a good quality/thorough job

B4C · 03-22-2010, 11:54 PM

Looks god but I've heard bad things about por 15 and clean metal.

IROCZman15 · 03-23-2010, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by B4C

Looks god but I've heard bad things about por 15 and clean metal.

yea i read a few articles on various forums about that too.. so i went to the POR headquarters in whippany, NJ and got the raw deal and a verbal promise that it will hold up. it it flakes...its ok. if it bubbles near the cut out.. im ok. i was told they would take care of me

i mean the goal i was going for was the rustproofing and scraping off the nasty old undercoating to see any areas that were starting to get rust spots; the POR15 is better then the factory rubberized or wax undercoating from 24 years ago which had since turned into some ridiculous nasty grime covered mushy coating.

btw...

for you NJFBOA guys
the POR 15 office is located in Whippany/Morristown NJ and you can walk right in

thunder · 03-23-2010, 01:56 AM

i love a good quality build

sweetbmxrider · 03-23-2010, 07:23 AM

damnnnnn, thats dedication. my hand would be hurtin after all that brushing. the subs and amp look great too.

JL8Jeff · 03-23-2010, 07:36 AM

Wow, that's a lot of work using a hand drill. Been there, done that!

I've never had any problems with the POR15 adhering to the surfaces I've applied it to. And it's fun trying to remove it from your skin for the next week or 2. Just don't get too agressive or you will remove the skin with it.

chrisfrom nj · 03-23-2010, 08:25 AM

looks great nice job

Stevoone · 03-23-2010, 08:42 AM

Looks good, makes me want to tear out my interior again.

Blacdout96 · 03-23-2010, 08:47 AM

More ( cause I cant spell more m-o-a-r) pics!!! that looks fantastic! how much was the carpeting?

maroman88 · 03-23-2010, 01:05 PM

wow realllllllllllly nice work!

bad64chevelle · 03-23-2010, 02:23 PM

You did a great job! It looks really good! I need to try the whole process of POR 15 on clean metal. When I did my Chevelle, the POR didn't hold up well especially where my exhaust ran. It basically peeled where the exhaust was (it isn't even that close to the paint) so I re did some of the underside and used the Eastwood rust inhibitor and Eastwood Chassis black, and its been great!

Since you spoke with POR I would imagine you have the best deal, and it should work great for you. Nice job.