Rate my undercarriage?
 

:lookhere:

Hey Guys,

My cars undercarriage seems to be the worst part, its an 85 Trans Am.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/113572...7651553173808/

This is my first Trans Am, and i haven't owned a car with this kind of problem since the 90's, so i forget what to look for.

What do you think?

Anything serious you can see under there?

Its at a mechanics right now, so i am sure he'll let me know, but i'd love your opinions.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

No Cat??

OTT, don't look too bad. Exhaust system and maybe a cleanup, Oil Pan, Rear Main Seal, Timing Cover Gaskets...

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Don't look bad to me

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

I don't see anything wrong with the undercarriage. Take a wire brush to get some of the surface rust off, then get some undercoating on it. Looks pretty great floorpan wise, honestly. The thing I would do is redo the exhaust, it's looking kind of meh.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Thanks for the replies guys - yep no CAT - its a WA car, i'm getting CAT installed as i am in CA.

Glad to be part of the 3rd Gen community :-)

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

It would be bad for a CA car but being where you got it from, looks fine. I've seen WAY WAY worse over the years on here from people who's cars have lived in the rust belt.

Get all that surface rust off there properly instead of just painting over it, and get it sealed so it doesn't get worse. Even in CA, once rust starts, it will still keep going.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Looks 1000% better than anything around here. Clean the scale and hit it with POR15 or Rust bullet.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Cool thanks for the advice guys! ThirdGen helps me yet again :-)

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Around here we douse it with diesel then power wash it with hot water - cleans just about everything off but expect to get dirty.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

That actually works? I was thinking more something like they have here

http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/paint-b...removal-guide/

Might try it though :-)

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Yeah, I was going to say, Lookslike a down south kind of rust. That is nothing. come up to MN and I will show you what rust/rot looks like!! lol. not too bad!

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

The diesel won't get rid of the rust but it will get rid of all of the oils, road tar, etc. that has accumulated over the years - even in some cases the undercoating!

For the rust use the Evapo rust & keep it moist - it DOES work.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Ditto. I used Evaporust on the frame of my 56 Corvette and it was freakin awesome! I used it for a bunch of other parts well!

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

Thanks for the info guys, I'm wondering if i need to go with a gel solution or something though, its going to be really hard to keep the undercarriage wet.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

I've used Metal Rescue...same sort of product I think. But it's a liquid. Outside of a rotisserie, how would you keep a product like this wet for a 24hr. period, upside down, on the underside of a floor?

This customer used a spray bottle, and lots of constant effort. But to do the whole underside of a car...that would be a quite a task.

http://www.evaporust.com/chassis.html

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

:yup:
Exactly. If you look at the hot rod article there is one product that looks like a sticky gunk. That looks like what I need!

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

I soaked folded paper towels and they stuck and molded to the surfaces pretty well. Kept them wet with a spray bottle.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

looks pretty good, thinking of having mine undercoated.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

What was done with one of the low mileage GNX cars that was poorly stored and covered in surface rust underneath was the car was driven over one of those cheap inflatable pools that you can buy at Walmart and the pool was inflated. A grid of 1" pvc pipe drilled with small holes was placed underneath & the Evaporust was pumped through them with a cheap electric pump. The sprinkler system was set to hit every portion of the car underneath and left there for a week. When it came out and was cleaned off it looked like the day it left the line & got top dollar when it crossed the auction block a few months later!

This may be a more involved project than you want to get into but simply wrapping portions with soaked towels and cellophane should produce similar results without having to flip the car over.

Re: Rate my undercarriage?
 

That's a really excellent method, if you look at the hot rod article that is exactly what they did to the hood of the car. Thanks for the tip.