finish and paint bottom before bodywork?
 

My car is on a rotisserie and I am currently finishing the floorpan metalwork, mini tubs, and a Speedtech torque arm install.

I am curious if the process is to completely finish the metalwork on the bottom and then paint and spray Bedliner?

The rest of the car would still need quarter panel patches, trunk weatherstrip area patched, etc.

Thanks!

not that im an expert in anything but i dont see a problem with it ,as long as all the rest of the panels are good ...rockers inner rockers trunk drop offs wheel wells etc

This is how I did my current project, epoxy prime and Raptor on the bottom before starting bodywork on the top...give me another two years and Ill know if it was a mistake :rofl:



Jeff-

I have a somewhat different process. All metal work done, then rotisserie, then media blast all non exterior flat panels which I strip by sanding, then 3 coats epoxy primer whole shell, then bedliner, then filler work within epoxy recoat window, then epoxy, then poly primer, then block entire car, then urethane primer, then block whole car 180 through 400 then ready for epoxy sealer and paint.

Your method will work, it’s just that some metal work is best done with the car properly supported and not on a rotisserie. It is also a bit tougher to keep the bedliner looking good.

Don

did my underneath first

Thanks all.

Don, thanks, I've been wondering about removing from rotisserie to complete. You may have seen my car on IG (jarhead1017). Working on the Speedtech install now, had to remove part of the trunk.

Hi Joe. I’ve been following your build and Gunny. :D Sometimes depending on the build I’ll put a shell on the rotisserie twice. Once you do it the first time it doesn’t take too long to put it on the rotisserie a second time.

Don

My process:

1. Media blast to strip and see all the issues
2. Epoxy primer bomb entire car
3. Metal work
4. Finish rest of the custom changes/do full mock-up
5. Body work entire car, starting with bottom and secondary areas like inner finders, etc.
6. Final paint bottom, secondary areas, interior, jams
7. Final paint top

This way you don't have to stress about any finished paint while you are doing mock up and it makes the paint setup/prep grouped together.

If you live in a low humidity climate, then I would leave bare metal until all metal work is completed. If not, I would finish floor, then epoxy prime only. Then finish all other metal work and then prime, followed by seam seal and bed liner on floor.

joe .. my two cents.. I wish I had done my Differently.. wish I had done the entire mock up .. console... seats, seat belts exhaust all of if..

i pained and then rhino linered my floor bottom.. then has to work around it to weld in bungs and brackets..

My approach was more or less the same as Rduke. The one exception was that I raptor lined the interior floor panel before bodywork. It is next to impossible to get it as clean as it was when it was first done thanks to the filler/poly dust. I suspect the same would happen to the underbody if you raptor lined(or similar) before the weeks/months of making things dusty.

Thanks all,
I will wait. I live in northern Colorado so we don't get much humidity.

We do it in the opposite fashion. We do all of our floor prep and repair as well as our upper repairs, then go to epoxy. After epoxy , we seam seal all of our panels and complete our upper end and lower end bodywork. We perform all of the subsequent primer layers and blocking, go to paint, then Raptor line the bottom, then cut and rub the top. The reason we do this is twofold. 1- you can't tape on undercoating for a damn but you can mask on cured paint perfectly, and 2- you can't get overspray off of Raptor liner to save your life- you can only reapply it and spot it in. We paint about 15 Bronco bodies a year and ship them worldwide and this is how each is done. I have one customer who insisted he Raptor the bottom first, then did his body and paint and he regretted it. You just can't get all of that dust and overspray off of that high texture finish. Just my 2 cents. I'll be doing all three of my cars in this manor as well.

The SEM urethane bedliner I use has a gloss finish. Tape sticks and it cleans up easily. A little different than conventional bedliner but great for what I use it for.

Not a fan of Raptor for just the reasons you listed. Attracts and holds dirt.
Don

To each his own I suppose. I like their seam sealer but not their bedliner stuff in this application. Just not as durable and crisp looking as Raptor IMO. The point is that it's applied after paint at our shop. We feel it gives us the best results and the most crisp lines and edges.