Does anyone know of a "how to" book or any other literature about cleaning and painting some of the undercarrige parts of an 86 Camaro just to pretty up the underside of the car?

I am in a hold mode for spending any more money rebuilding my wives 86 Camaro until after the holidays and I thought I would use the time to clean and pretty things up underneath the car.

Thanks gang,
Michael

 

A Haynes manual will give you a good idea about disassembling and re-assembling the undercarriage of the car. You will need to do this to properly clean and re-paint the items. The best way to do it would be to de-grease, sandblast, epoxy prime, and epoxy paint all the parts. DuPont IMRON is about the best epoxy paint available.

Now, this is the best way to do this possible, and it will last forever. I've used this method on airplanes. You can do some work on the car to save time. You can use easier to use paints, as well as standard spray can paints (IMRON must be mixed and sprayed with a gun, and cost about $60 a pint when last I bought it several years ago). You can wire wheel and/or hand sand parts before priming instead of blasting, though IMO best adhesion is gained by media blasting because it gives the surface a "tooth" that promotes primer adhesion, which determines topcoat adhesion. Cost, time, and longevity of the finished product will determine how exactly you want to go about the process.

As far as a book dedicated to this information I've yet to find one. My knowledge of the subject is hard won empirical (trial and error) information gained from years of restoration work on cars, boats, and planes.