1992 Kansas Highway Patrol SSP

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

The only thing I have heard about the soda blasting system is that you need to be sure and flush everything very well and not leave any of the soda residue in the cracks and crevices anywhere.

Yeah, that is the same thing I heard. All body plugs had already been removed and some of the seam sealer to let all of the body and bracing drain just like if it where being e-coated. I had washed the shell previously, then I did the following to clean and prep the shell this time:

Air blow at the soda blasting shop, he had a 200 psi 1 inch air hose that blew away (literally) any air blower I had, lol. We blew out every nook and cranny including the frame rails, wheel arches, roof braces, cowl, floors, etc.

It then when for a 50 mile cruise on an open trailer down the highway at 70-75mph. Saturday I shop-vac’ed any little piles of soda I could find and blew everything out again with my puny 120psi air gun.

Then I had a buddy come over that owed me a favor and we got the hose out and washed everything, flooded the rear quarters, washed out the roof rails, floor pans, bracing, frame rails, rockers, doors, etc. We then scuffed the whole car with scotchbrite red scuff pads and 320 sand paper. Then washed everything above again with hot dish soap saturated water. After the final rinse we towel dried everything, and blew air into every pinch weld, brace, and nook to get any remaining water out, then set it in the 90 degree sun for 5 hours (perfect day to wash a shell)

Then I rolled the car back in the shop, scuffed a few small spots that flash rusted on me and wiped the whole car down with Dupont Final clean. Pictures are worth a thousand words but they definitely did not show all the steps between blasting and priming.

[1988Bullitt]

Started on round 1 of blocking, thanks to the previous jackwagon that owned it he added a few divots to the metal on that last repaint. Laid the guide coat Saturday and started blocking that afternoon.

[1988Bullitt]

Started some work on the under body. The rear section of the car was a little rusty, from the rear seat forward the floor boards are perfect though. Kinda odd how the engine bay and rear floor area were the only sections that rusted. Anyway the engine bay is all new and now the rear pan under the seat, rear frame rails and underside of the trunk are like new.

If you don't remember this is what it looked like when I picked the car up:



Then I had the rear section of the underbody sandblasted. This is after the blasting and after I scrubbed it down thoroughly with soap and water and let it dry for 2 days in the 100 degree heat/sun:





After the sand blasting, cleaning and prep I used POR15 Gray to coat the rear underbody including the inside of every nook and cranny. I will also be painting the main floorboards but will be using a different type of paint (same color though) very close to e-coat gray.

[NoDrama43]

hey Aaron......don't you miss the days of laying on your back on a hard concrete floor working on the bottom of a car???

bottom of the car looks great. The stuff I used on the bottom of the 92 CHP car had a little more greenish/gray tint to it. You may already have some but the product was a PPG DP40LF and the catalyst number is DP402LF.

[28HopUp]

Looking GREAT, Aaron! That car will be stunning when you're done.

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

hey Aaron......don't you miss the days of laying on your back on a hard concrete floor working on the bottom of a car???

bottom of the car looks great. The stuff I used on the bottom of the 92 CHP car had a little more greenish/gray tint to it. You may already have some but the product was a PPG DP40LF and the catalyst number is DP402LF.

Lol, not at all the lift is the best tool I ever bought. I am actually thinking about getting another one.

I have some DuPont Chromobase that I had color matched to the ecoat. I did a friends 90 GT underbody with it and its what I plan to use on the floor boards. The POR15 Gray is pretty close and once it gets exposed to UV light it seems to tint more to the green/gray of ecoat.

Here is a pic of the DuPont paint I used to do the complete underbody of the 90GT, the gloss is not correct but it's what the owner wanted.

[NoDrama43]

ohhh yeh I like that.... Do you think some sort of flattening agent would take away some of that gloss? That color is spot on !

[1988Bullitt]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

ohhh yeh I like that.... Do you think some sort of flattening agent would take away some of that gloss? That color is spot on !

I have seen clear flattening additives but never used them. I know DuPont has a line of semi-gloss and flat clear coats. I think the flat would probably be the way to go for a 100% correct resto. That 90GT underbody was straight auto clearcoat Nason 496-00 it’s a lot glossier then the picture makes it seem, but like I said that’s what the owner wanted. The POR15 I sprayed came out as a semi-gloss, it’s probably a little to shiny to be OEM but I wanted a really good coating on that rear section of the car. I am going to use a semi-gloss clear on the floor pans so it matches the rear section of the under body.