under carrage paint -vs-undercoating opinions & tranny paint color ?

Im in the process of cleaning my vans undercarriage, I am thinking of brush painting it with a rust proof hi gloss black enamel paint from the home depot, OR... should I spray it with an undercoating spray( from the can )  I don't plan on this being a show van, but I have the trans and engine out so why not.

Also, I just got the tranny back from rebuild.. any suggestions in color. The engine is going through a rebuild also and will be painted in the original ford blue .

Donivan65 used a product called Zero Rust to undercoat his van and it's held up great. I think it comes in different colors. I hope this link works ... https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t33254-has-anyone-undercoated-the-undercarriage-of-your-van?highlight=undercarriage

I like that painted look... any tricks on removing the original undercoating ? I just power washed it but ... lets just say it worked , " not to pretty good"

Por-15 can be either gun sprayed or brush painted and works wonder as long as it's protected from UV's (sun).

Being in Arizona and not too worried about rust especially since my van wouldn't be washed much or out in the rain, I just cleaned up the bottom of my van with an assortment of wire brushes and wheels along with a few tools like a 5 in 1 tool and putty knives etc.
Then just painted it with Rustoleum gloss black spray cans. It turned out pretty nice and it was cheap, maybe not what you want, but it works for me.

Here's a picture...unfortunately after the paint shop did the outside, I have to go back through and repaint some overspray areas.

Oh ya, I like the painted look for sure, I just bought some rusto. hi gloss black for the tranny. looks like its going to be a lot of elbow greese to clean up the underside. I was looking for a short cut. wire brushes and scrapers it is then. thanks folks, I'll try and post some pics soon. ive tried but posting seems a little harder than it should be.

Is the original undercoating you're dealing with a yellowish wax type material?

Mine was a lot of work, but it wasn't undercoated which made it easier perhaps. I did the same thing to my Torino which had some undercoating and I just removed the loose material and painted over the well bonded areas.

In case you're interested, my underneath adventure started about here on my thread. lol
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t39211p75-brent-s-van-uante

yea, everything looks great. my 66 was factory undercoated which is leaving me with a whole lot of scrapping to do. good thing the coating saved a hell of a lot of the body.

My 66 story is told that it was an ambulance for the town of Brewster Ma. It had modified switches for interior lights and I found the red paint applied after the factory glacier blue paint. I found it sitting on the side of a small dealership on flat tires.

its looking like I might do the POR-15 at this point

Old Ambulance, pretty cool!

hey Seth , the undercoating in a thick black spray on, I tried scrapping it but aint no way thats going to work. I just put my acetylene torch to it and it peeled off like old lead paint.

This is going to suck......

Holy!!!!! I finally got the pics to work. Putting the boy to work prepping the tranny for a high gloss black finish

Great to see you're teaching him early!!! Every vintage van needs a pit-crew...

Great sweatshirt he's wearing too!

This is a pic of the passenger side rear wheel well. you can see where the undercoating came off when I power washed it. the metal is like the day it was pressed but that undercoating is like tar when I heat it up .....UHG!!!!

Yes Sir Vanny, he calls it the party van, I don't know where he came up with that, must be instinctive .... GO PATS

The only way your going to get that UC off is by what your doing. Then you might have to use a wire wheel on a drill/grinder etc to get whatever else is left on.
Forget the POR-15 and try Rust Bullet Automotive. It dries to a hard shell finish and is uv resistant where POR-15 is not. I did the bed, inside cab and whole bottom of my truck including the wheel well and couldn't be happier. Look up their website and youtube for videos.
Good Luck

Hey thank's for the response and pictures, it helps my piece of mind knowing im not missing an easier way to do this. My more automotive knowledgeable friends keep telling me not to waste my time cleaning under the van, they think im wasting my time. But every time I see pics like yours I cant help but want my van to look like that.

Thanks again Cali

The 'best' way to do it is to pay someone to sandblast it. Obviously that may be impractical for many reasons not least of which is the cost. It does yield the best result though and best paint adhesion.

Now I'm just confused again.....

I was going to rent a sand blasting unit and compressor, but once again I have people telling me not to do that because the sand will get into the wiring and everywhere else. I'd be looking at about 300 to rent the equipment. I would just do it outside so I could just blow the sand away.

sand blast ? heat up the under coating with a torch and scrape & grind ? time -vs- money

Sorry, didn't mean to throw a doubt out there, what you're doing will work. I scraped/hot pressure washed etc. It worked ok but nothing preps metal for paint like mediablasting. I mean, once it's clean, you really need to go around with some 80-120 grit paper and sand everything if your not blasting it to ensure a good mechanical bond. But blasting is one of those things, if you're going to do it you may as well set it up high as you can on the frame, drop the axles and springs, pull the lines, maybe even yank the motor/rad/trans, pull the harness back into the cab, drop the fuel tank, protect the few wires left in the rear....basically strip the undercarriage.

I know this doesn't sound like it would work, but I've had great luck with a needle scaler. It's not a fast method, but it is effective and loud.

-Brian

Thanks Brian, someone told me to try that as well but im concerned because the undercoating is like tar . do you think the tool will work on that type of material ? I herd it works great on paint and rust but that undercoating is baked on .

I more coat then on to the next thing

Looking good