Undercoating with PB Surface Shield, Shiny Frame!

Yay, my frame is now shiny-looking! haha. My fall was swamped so this was a bit of a rush job and we're into December so it's less than ideal, but we've only had one light snow in Kansas and I never saw a salt truck so I feel clear. In the end, with the busy fall I definitely didn't do this perfectly, but maybe next year I'll remove & redo, we'll see.

• Stinkin' mess: Surface Shield seemed unscented compared to many remarks I've read from other folks about other undercoating options. My clothes washed easily, and also I laid tarp out preparing for a mess, but there really wasn't much mess even with overspraying certain sections and slight dripping.
• Bad aerosol reviews? Heat the cans in a bowl of water and shake often. If a can cools down while using it swap cans. It makes an enormous difference and solves almost all the problems in the negative reviews.
• Indoors/outdoors: Because there wasn't much mess or scent I honestly think you could use SS indoors. Plus then you could easily light up the underside of the truck. If you do it outdoors pick a cool & less windy day.
• Visibility: I did mine close to sunset so it made visibility difficult laying under the truck looking in that direction. Now knowing that it's not a stinkin' mess I'll opt for indoors and I'll use a bunch of shop lights for better visibility.
• Frame interior nozzle: below is the specific 360 spray nozzle and it worked well enough. There was a fair amount of "gooping" that would bleed out from under the nozzle top, but warming the cans back up helped. This was the messiest part but still not bad. However, I made one big dumb mistake was that you need to make sure the SS cans you buy are compatible with it. The nozzle is made for cans with no stem, but some SS cans I think are still sold with a top stem. You'll understand what I mean when you see it. (BS Coatings 75015 36" Cavity Wand with 360 Degree Spray Tip)
• Damaging rubber: B'Laster says SS is safe on rubbers/plastics, the internet seems to agree. It's my first coating so I don't know, but I didn't try to seriously avoid anything. Naturally wasn't trying to waste product so I was aiming just for metal.
• Paint/rust reform: ideally I would've had the time to go through with a fine tooth comb and reform any rusty patches, but that's not reality this year. Maybe next year I'll knock this coating off and redo with more time and make sure to take care of the rust.
• Tricky/missed spots: there are a few parts where there's very tight gaps, I found around the gas tank to be tricky. But between spray-straws and the 360 nozzle it seemed easy enough to get most everywhere. I haven't hit inside the doors or fender wells or anything like that yet, but I'll be exploring that maybe get to it this winter or next year.
• Lift it or no? I did my surface coat with a tire rotation so I lifted the whole truck and removed all wheels. Maximum visibility and freedom for movement. If I had access to a post-lift that would've been a dream. Definitely should drop the spare tire of course. I currently only have an oil pan skid plate which I didn't remove for this rush job, but next year hopefully I'll put on RCI skids and I will be taking off all skids for the next round.
• How many cans? I think I used 5 aerosol cans and I wasn't very careful, overspraying at times and running a long time inside the frame, etc.
• Time: probably took about 3ish hours moving safely & slowly to lift it up, remove the tires, look for every corner I missed, etc.

All in all, with a 10-year-old truck in the Midwest I'm shocked at the cleanliness of the frame, thankful to whoever the previous 7-year owner was, and this now makes me sleep all the better.

Would love to hear any tips from anybody else!

 

Nice write-up, thanks!

 

Definitely looks better, and you're right it didnt look that bad to begin with honestly. How did you get inside the frame rails?

 

The frame interior nozzle part is the answer to this!

 

hopefully it helps!

 

Update advice: keep a can or two laying around and get it warmed up every time you plan to wrench! Seriously. Between oil changes, doing my diy rear diff breather, etc. I continue to find spots that I missed. Originally I had not done anything inside body panels either. Since then, I’ve now removed kick panels inside the door and added some and I added a light bit inside the doors at the lower drain holes too. Not too much but enough hopefully to avoid rust in the corners. Still haven’t done inside the fender wells technically, but I’m sure I’ll get around to that eventually.

 

Bump in case it helps anyone this time of year!