Im about to start a makeover on my Firehawk. I plan on Painting the engine bay and undercarriage. Looking for some advice on the best outcome.

Whats a good strategy to take the factory undercoating off? As well as the paint? Anything to watch out for?
What type of primer is the best?
Im going to be using factory Red 81U - WA8774
Any harder clear coats for protection?

Thanks

 

well this is what i did to mine. i had a guy come out and sandblast it down to the bare metal using "handy sand". it can be found at your local menards. its like a fine grade white sand. i really didnt bother trying to get the undercoating off because then your probablly have to use slag when getting it blasted which then will require a lot of sanding before primer. so what i did was is use a product by worths to re-undercoat everything but giving it a little smoother texture and a lot cleaner looking. also my car is getting tubed so i have to redo the wheel housing. i only use standox or spies and hekker paints. being that im currently in a spies shop i went with 1 coat of standox epoxy primer(spies doesnt make one) followed by 3 coats of 5310 primer. this is how it currently sits being that im putting a motor plate and mid plate setup and we had to notch my firewall and grind off some primer for the motor plate mounts. but to finish the job im going to sand all the primer lightly with 220 then throughly with 400 and to be on the safe side finish it with 600. im going to use spies and hekker spectro surfacer 5400(165 black) to seal the engine bay to cover any scratches. let it flash for 15-20minutes. after im finished im going to sand and knibs or imperfections out of the sealer. then i will be using spies and hekker basecoat and ill use 3 coats, let it flash, then go back and sand any imperfections in the basecoat and then apply 2 more coats to ensure total coverage on the color. after ive done that ill let the basecoat flash off and i will be using a low voc clear by spies and hekker called optimum clear to clear the engine bay. ill be applying 3 coats of that. when its all said and done if theres any dirt knibs or anything ill be using 1500 and 3000 to wetsand the clear and 3m products and a little rotary i have to buff it up nice and shiney.

i noticed you said you wanted really hard clear coats. what i recommend is using spies and hekker diamond clear or standox's platinum clear. both are low voc scratch resistant clears. the only tip i strongly advise using these clears is buff the next day or your going to have a hell of time buffing it if you wait. for me the best finish ive found is using slow reducers and hardeners but depending on the temprature if you dont know what your doing you will run it all over so your best bet is if its around 70-75 degrees use medium reducers and hardeners.

another thing i thought about was just using a light coat of sprayable bedliner on the hole underneath of the car and cutting it off in the trans tunnel this way my engine bay looks beautiful and under the car will look nice but will be extremely durable where as with paints sometimes you can get chips and stuff which if they are bad enough and go to the metal could cause rusting when water gets to them. let me know if i can be of anymore assistants.

 

Nice! Thanks for the information! Thats exactly what i needed to hear!
Hopefully mine comes out like i want it too!
Thanks again!