Undercoating Removal

["B Shuler" <ypp86w@domain.elided>]

As to the question of removing the factory undercoating on a Spider to 
root out rust, yes it is a very good idea.  I recently had the honor of 
scraping the underside of a '81 Spider and to my great relief I found 
(mostly) pristine factory black enamel.  Sound undercoating is a bear to 
remove, but the project got started because any place oil soaked the 
coating it had loosened to the point it could be pulled off in flakes of 
two to five square inches at a time. This was mostly in the tunnel and 
rear cab bulkhead area.  With either condition the method was the the 
same: lying under the car on a flattened refrigerator box with an 
assortment of putty knives, patiently scraping  every crevice and 
surface.  We considered sandblasting the underside instead but the 
logistics were daunting and in retrospect I'm glad I did what I did.  
Most of the factory enamel is still there and for the few rusty spots 
wire brushing, phosphate and POR treatment should do the job for the 
next twenty years or so.  On top of it all we applied a coat of PPG DP 
epoxy primer and will later undercoat  with Spies-Hecker undercoat.

We also messed with the tarry material applied to the inside of the cab 
in order to attach a roll bar.  That stuff is solid! I wouldn't fool 
with it unless I knew rust was lurking there.

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