Diff Bridge Prep and Painting August 08

On my continuing saga to refinish the underside or the belly, if you like, of this beast I attacked the diff bridge area. This was the last remaining section and wasn't all that bad except that I had to work around the 4x4 beam and piece of plywood that was supporting the rear of the body. Basically I cleaned the front section first using simple green and a whole lot of elbow grease. I then lightly sanded the area going after any rust and there was virtually none. I used the same Permatex rust killer as before followed by a coat of primer and finally a top coat. I wasn't after aesthetics here just wanted good coverage and I knew that the whole thing would be finished off the a nice thick coat of spray on 3M rock guard undercoat.

Here's a look at the before condition. Not too bad, a lot of dirt and some oil slung up from a leaky diff.

This is how it looked after the initial cleaning, again not bad just a tiny bit of surface rust in a couple of spots.

A wider shot showing the entire area, a little bit of surface rust can be seen just at the bottom left of the drive shaft tunnel.

This is after treatment with the rust killer. There was some rust on the body mount bracket.

Another shot after the rust treatment showing the drive shaft tunnel. There was some rust all the way around the opening of the tunnel too.

Here I am beginning to apply the primer coat after a light scuffing with a scotch bright pad. All of the coats were brushed on, the point was good coverage.

The center shot again, after 2 coats of red lead primer.

This shot shows the left side after the first top coat.

And here the center shot once more. After I was finished here and the paint had plenty time to dry, I moved the support beam to the front area of the diff bridge and finished the rear section of the diff bridge using the same procedure. So was completed the dirty work, all that remained was to spray on the final under coat.