Page Thirty-Three - Belly Pain

 

Before we start, many of you will say, “That’s Bloody Orange”.  Well, it’s not bloody orange -  it’s red bloody oxide, and as far as I can gather, that’s the color Rootes painted the bellies of Alpines.  Of course, then they slathered on a lumpy layer of asphalt undercoating, which did little to stave off the rust as Alpines tend to (make that, always) rust from the inside out.

Be that as it may, I finally painted Alphie’s undercarriage.  And for the record, it’s red oxide primer covered with a clear coat to make it all shiny.  I could spray on an undercoating to make it look more like it did when it sat in some dealership somewhere, and I still might.  Right now I’m enjoying the sheer cleanness of it!

I really am the one doing the work!

Last Minute Odds and Sods

Anyone who has ever painted anything on a car knows that when you think you’re ready for the paint, you’re not.  At about 3:00 am they day I was set to paint, I remembered that I had not mounted the seat belt anchors.

Seat belt anchors in the raw.

The original anchor eyebolts came out with the rotten floor pans.  Two of them, the ones next to the doors, clung stubbornly affixed to the floor pans.  They had rusted in so permanently, I quit fighting them and just left them in place.  Only a solid accident would dislodge them.  The other two, the ones next to the transmission tunnel, practically fell out.  These two had to be replaced.

I cut some 3/16” flat stock, drilled 7/16” holes in them, welded in 7/16” X 14 nuts and ordered two 7/16” X 14 eyebolts from Bolt Depot.  (The eyebolts were $8.45 each but they are shouldered and look almost identical to the original.  It’s only money, right?)

Anchors installed.  I forgot to take
a pic during the welding part

I drilled the holes in the floor pans and welded the anchors in place.  An easy job, but it ate up some of my painting time.

Clean Up

With the seat belt anchor job done, I wiped down Alphie’s tummy with denatured alcohol for the paint.  I started the “clean-up” about a week earlier.  The pics show some bright metal in the camera’s flash where I had ground off some rust spots.  The pics don’t show how much work it takes to get everything clean.  Truth is, I started the clean-up when I first skewered Alphie on the rotisserie. 

Red Oxide – I Swear

It’s not orange, I swear by Grabthar's Hammer, by the Sons of Warvan.  (Look up that reference!)  I did me research, which didn’t come to much.  I asked as many Alpine folks as I could.  I even posted a question on The Sunbeam Experience forums, but no one answered, what color did Rootes paint Alpine’s bellies?  Silence from the abyss, and the best evidence I had was the red oxide with clotty asphalt undercoating bit.  So that’s what I did.

OK, I admit, it looks pretty bloody orange.  The pics make it look
more orange than it is, I swear!

The red oxide was easy to spray – straight from the can, no reducer, no hardener, just pour and spray.  I was using a cheap Harbor Freight HVLP gravity feed spray gun, and it work pretty damn well, not Pebble Beach standards but who cares.  The primer was a bit thick and resisted running, but it did show me, that although I’m a passable spray gun guy, a professional somewhere will spray Alphie’s body.

Before the clear coat

Close up before clear coat

Because of all the horsing around with seat belt anchors, a spot I found that still had oily engine/transmission residue and a couple of other fiddly aggravations, I ran out of time before I could spray the clear coat. 

Clear Coat

Since everything was clean and ready to go, spraying the clear coat didn’t take very long.  In fact, cleaning the gun took more time.  The clear coat was also dead easy peasy.  Straight from the can, no reducer only 4:1 ratio clear coat to hardener.  This stuff was thinner so there are some runs, which you are welcome to scuttle under Alphie to find should you ever get the chance.  Besides we garage car painters call runs “signing our canvass.”

Clear Coated "BLING"

Big Step

With the undercarriage sorted, Alphie is ready for the next step – final body work.  Soon he’ll come off the rotisserie and onto a rolling pallet that will make fitting the doors, and bonnet and boot lids easier.  The goal is to have him in a paint booth somewhere by spring of 2023.