Undercarriage Clean Up and Marking
Posted: July 17th, 2017, 5:39 am
Each nice weekend I spend a couple of hours a day under the Chinook, cleaning up the undercarriage. I clean off oil with a degreaser, wire brush or sand off any surface rust, spray rust conversion treatment, then use high temperature / rust proofing paint to keep it protected.
I figure getting it cleaned up helps me keep an eye on things (like a new small trans fluid leak), plus I think it helps when taking something in for repair if it looks like it's been taken care of
---
It started with wanting to check and paint the propane tank, which looked like a rusted mess... but turned out to have just slight surface rust and was perfectly okay. Instead of white, it got painted silver, btw.
Then while working on the shocks, I started doing the same with the driveshaft, exhaust and frame. The driveshaft I painted engine light grey, the exhaust pipes and mufflers got a shiny aluminum, and the rest got a combination of shiny black for suspension, flat black for frame, and BBQ grill dark grey for thinner cross members.
--
This past couple of weekends, I've also done the fiberglass shell's bottom in beige, and started marking things like the water tank drains in blue, and the propane gas lines in yellow Plasti-Dip, using Navy / public service style pipe color coding. The next owner will find it very easy to trace out various parts of this Chinook!
And I've discovered a LOT about where important lines are routed underneath.
Next up, marking wires with a label maker! (Which I recently did inside the refrigerator access panel.).
I figure getting it cleaned up helps me keep an eye on things (like a new small trans fluid leak), plus I think it helps when taking something in for repair if it looks like it's been taken care of
---
It started with wanting to check and paint the propane tank, which looked like a rusted mess... but turned out to have just slight surface rust and was perfectly okay. Instead of white, it got painted silver, btw.
Then while working on the shocks, I started doing the same with the driveshaft, exhaust and frame. The driveshaft I painted engine light grey, the exhaust pipes and mufflers got a shiny aluminum, and the rest got a combination of shiny black for suspension, flat black for frame, and BBQ grill dark grey for thinner cross members.
--
This past couple of weekends, I've also done the fiberglass shell's bottom in beige, and started marking things like the water tank drains in blue, and the propane gas lines in yellow Plasti-Dip, using Navy / public service style pipe color coding. The next owner will find it very easy to trace out various parts of this Chinook!
And I've discovered a LOT about where important lines are routed underneath.
Next up, marking wires with a label maker! (Which I recently did inside the refrigerator access panel.).