Yeah all my caps are still on my car so they shouldnt be too bad. I'll be sure to get a good torque wrench and a breaker bar for stuff. I just need to figure out what size sockets i need and the torque specs and im good to go. When i get ready of course. I want to do all the POR-15 first. I was planning on getting 2 gallons of the paint. 1 gallon in black and 1 gallon in silver. I'll paint one color on and then when its tacky paint on the other. Both being different colors so i can see what ive already painted over and dont miss any spots. I have no idea if a pint or two would be enough or if a gallon is overkill for the undercarriage.

 

So im going to order some POR-15 and im wondering, just how much do i need to do the ENTIRE undercarriage? I was thinking a quart but idk. I was going to get black gloss and put that on first, then get silver and put that on as the second coat so I can see where ive painted so i dont miss any spots, since its hard to see black on black. I dont want to not get enough and have half the underbody painted haha.

 

Since you are doing the underside, I would brush paint it and I will be honest, if you do all the prep work, and apply it pretty good, this is probably a one coat and done job (especially if using a brush). Keep in mind, gloss can also be tough to get other paints to adhere to it.

As for how much, I am guessing 1-2 quarts. Take time to mask things off that you don't want POR15 dripping on. One trick I have seen (and I think Zippy02 was the one to do this), use aluminum foil and temporarily wrap things like the exhaust.

And good luck. You will need to show some before, during and after pics.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah i plan on brushing the por 15 on, I already bought a bunch of cheap brushes to use. I dont plan on painting it with any other paint on top of it. I was thinking of painting the cleaned out rusted spots with por 15 before I bondo them like you suggested so they do re rust. I believe thats what happened to those spots on the wheel well, the stuff coming off looks like bondo. My dad must have bondod them years ago and they rusted underneath and the bondo fell off. I will buy 2 quarts just to be safe. The aluminum foil trick is good, i'll iuse that, I have a ton of it laying around that I never use. Is there anything under the car other than the exhaust, the transmission and the engine i shouldnt get it on? I was thinking of painting the trailing arms and other suspension components after i de rust them, but those arent as important as they can be easily replaced, the body of the car cannot so thats my top priority

Thanks again for all the replies and advice..

 

Definitely remove bondo before POR15. I will be honest, if you are going to use POR15 in spots people see, brush painting might not be the best approach. My experience has been that POR15 is very resilient to sanding, so getting that proper final sand before paint can be a challenge). I never worked with spraying it on, but I know that is an option and one I would probably consider if I was doing this on a surface that would need finish paint. You will have to research that when you decide you want to take that on.

 

Yeah I'll try to scrape off as much as i possibly can before doing that, I've watched a bunch of videos on how to properly mix the bondo putty with the hardening agent and what kind of surface i need to use for it. As for painting the spots people see, I may just straight up paint it without por-15 and see how that holds up. I want to have the whole car professionally resprayed and have little dents and dings removed. I hit a telephone pole a few years ago and 2 weeks after having the whole front end replace and a new hood put on, i hit a deer going about 25 mph. he bounced onto the hood and dented it and his antlers scratched it in a few spots but you can barely tell when looking at it.

The paint itself is faded in some spots, and the clearcoat has worn off in places too, so idk. Cosmetic stuff is last on the list, i need to make sure i can save the car before investing heavily in making it look nice. I plan to clean out the interior really good, take the seats all out, vacuum it out with a shop vac, scrub the carpets, steam clean them, then scotchgard them and the seats too, make it look and smell nice in there. I will definitely take before and after pics of everything and post them on here, I cant wait to get it all fixed up. I hope to keep this car forever if i can. I'm willing to put in the work and money to do it. I just wish it would hurry up and get warm so I can start haha.

EDIT: I was also wondering something. I know its pretty much impossible to find window sweeps for these cars, is there any alternative to them? Other than buying a whole new door from gm haha?

 

I came across this today. Might be helpful.

 

Hmm, I watched that entire thing, it was pretty helpful and informative. I am wondering if i should not apply the por 15 now. I'm wondering if i should just scrape all the rust off and paint the underside and then have a coating applied by ziebarts or something. If I have to keep applying it all the time thats going to not only be a pain in the *** but its going to get expensive.

 

If done right, POR15 is a one-and-done coating. You are NOT going to be re-coating POR15 is supposed to bond into the pores of the metal and creates a strong shell coating. It is very difficult to chip, scratch, sand or otherwise damage. The guy mentioned "when POR15 fails", your failure is typically when the prep was not proper. He even mentioned "how do you coat the inside of the frame with POR15", there are ways to use adapters and spray the POR15 on the inside of those locations just like he can do with his product. The problem you have, how well can you prep the inside of a frame and rocker?
Remember, that video is to push those lanalin products (and I have never worked with them, but I have worked with POR15).

My Monte has not seen winter since I bought it in 2008. But when I changed my trailing arms, I had my brackets sand blasted and I coated them in POR15. They still look like I did when I put them on in 2010.
http://crzyz28/mycars/2004montess/pr...trl_arms2.html

Bottom line, there is a chance NOTHING you will do is going to be perfect. You are not stripping the car (such as all the suspension, exhaust, heat shields, etc) to be 100% bare and bare steel, so there are going to be spots that at just going to to have issues.

Another item I used POR15 on are parts of my mom's 2005 LeSabre on the doors. I top coated it with the same color as her car. That top coat in some spots has chipped away due to hits from road debris, but guess what is unharmed? That's right, the POR15. I will try and see if I can get some pics (probably won't be until this weekend).

 

I'll second that. The only time I've personally seen it fail is when there was deeper than expected substrate rust on a thick metal sub frame part. The person didn't do a good enough job removing the loose stuff first, and some chunks of POR'd rust broke off over time. But as long as you follow the prep instructions, you likely won't ever have to worry about it again.