So we took the rear end and leaf  springs out of our project car and rolled it outside in order to place it under  the  parts car in the near future.  The undercarriage of the project car needs to be steam cleaned before undercoating can be applied.  I am just concerned with the area near the rear end and towards the back of the car.  It is hard enough spraying that area without a face and body full of water.  I had the car lifted on jack stands to give me some room but it wasn’t going to be easy.  I am doing this inside my shop so I had large carpet drying fans blowing the excess water into the pit.  The heated pressure washer was placed outside since it runs on diesel and would fumigate the building if left inside.  After this process is done I will let it dry overnight and apply the undercoating the next day to prepare for placing the newly painted rear end underneath.  It is always a concern plugging up bays with immovable vehicles for too long.  According to Murphy’s Law I will likely need to use a bay for something else that is important but won’t be able to get to it due to a car or cards  with no way of moving out of the way.  The photos below show just how much fun this it for just one man.  The plastic poncho didn’t last thirty seconds with the air from the fans blowing it in front of my face.   Notice the shirt color has changed from one photo to the next.  Shirt number one didn’t last once the poncho was removed.   I took one for the team and got drenched.

 

I have had to do this process to several vehicles and I am not sure there is an easier way.  Some guys tear their car apart to the point that it can be placed on a rotisserie to make this job simpler.  This takes a shop with considerable room, let alone purchasing a rotisserie which is an added expense.  The problem is that the vehicle has to be stipped of mostly everything bolted down to be light enough to use this machine.  I don’t want to tear a vehicle down this far due to time, money and energy.   If you are only doing one car in you life and you want it done to this degree than all the power to you.  I would suggest you look on Facebook Marketplace at all the projects for sale that come with their own rotisserie and are already attached to this device.  Good luck moving this from one shop to another.  Good luck figuring where all the parts and pieces go that were removed to place this vehicle on the rotisserie.  Hopefully parts weren’t misplaced in the process because you will need a parts car to reconstruct.  The rotisserie allows you to work on the underside of the car while standing or sitting.  You aren’t crawling underneath the car and looking up to wire wheel old rust and getting it all over yourself.  I don’t want my car to be that clean underneath.  If that is what you want then fill your boots but remember to clean those areas as well when you drive over road construction areas and gravel leaves a mess with dust.  I admit it looks clean.  You get a chance to seam seal every crevice and make it look neat and tidy.  This would be advantageous for the owner who wants to have this quality of build.  For me, I wish to drive my cars and keep them looking as good as when I built them.  If over time my undercoating lifts and peels from the undercarriage because the surface wasn’t sanded to clean metal and epoxy primed before paint…….then I will invest in another can of undercoating or rocker guard and give it a fresh coat.  Since I wrote the above description I went and undercoated the back half of the car that I steam cleaned off and let dry overnight.  I will do the other half once the floor work is complete.  Now the rear end will go into place and all is well.  It is a bit more challenging to spray undercoating with the rear end in place.   It can be done but masking is needed on the rear end unless you wanted it gravel guarded.