My 50 pontiac has very heavy undercoating. I started removing it and I havent found a single spot of rust under it. The fenderwells and frame look brand new. And the frame is bare metal underneath! I cant believe it. It almost seems to have fiber filler, probably asbestos. While it looks horrible, is very hard, and can be 3/8” in places…I may have left it on knowing it protects so well. This spent its whole life in western PA. What did they use?
Hard to say, factory stuff was pretty decent back then but would be odd to have it on the frame if the frame was bare metal underneath. I've heard stories of guys changing their oil, then brushing the waste oil all over the underside of the car and then driving around on dirt roads to mix the oil with dirt/dust to help it cling. Think about how a car with an oil leak will gunk up areas and how well those areas are preserved. That doesn't typically get rock hard though. The factory stuff is pretty hard but I never saw it 3/8" thick either. Got pics?
My Lincoln has something like that on it. It may have been pliable at one time, but now it is peeling in a few spots. Like you, I found new looking paint underneath it. I had to chip and peel a little off to do some welding on the frame, it was pretty thick in spots. For sure not oil and dirt mixed up, could have been some kind of roofing tar I guess. Whatever it is, it protected the metal. I don't have any history on the car, so it may have been here it's whole life, or not.
The thickest area is in rear corners of the wheelwell. Since the front of the well is wider than the rear I ***ume they had too much overlap then overlapped again when doing the sides. The frame is about 1/8” thick. The front wheelwells I have not done yet but they are bad. Especially the air ducts. Reminds of an amateur’s first time paint job where he runs the top of the fenders and rear quarters due to over lap. The stinking spare tire well was 1/4”! I think it was dealer applied by the owners 5 year old son. But….there is no rust anywhere there was coating. On second thought that might mean the pic***o of undercoat or Von Dutch might have done it. Probably was so rare the value dropped $50k now that I took it off.
I had a ‘59 Chevy pickup I got started on in the early 90’s with thick stuff too. When I was under it there was an decent area that I could push up, like it was hanging. So I started s****ing, perfect paint under it. I too wish I’d have just left it alone.
My 56 Golden Hawk had under coating , where there was none it rotted through but where the under coating was still there the paint still had a shine when I peeled it off .
My 55 Tbird has the same undercoating. I'm doing a body-on restoration and have no intention of removing the undercoating. However, I've seen body-off rotisserie restorations during which the undercoating was painstakingly s****ed off and the underside repainted. I doubt that removing the undercoating significantly increases the value of a car, certainly not a Tbird/w possible exception of a 57 F-code. My brother asked why I powder-coated suspension, steering, and rear-axle housing. He said, "No one will see it." I understood his point, but having spent a lot of time under the car, I will see it. My brother's comment also applies to whether or not it's undercoated.
Same deal, my '51 Pontiac had a thick plasticy-tarry concoction sprayed on. I removed it because engine/exhaust heat had caused it to crack and crumble and become porous. I bought a couple big spray cans of tarry rubberized underseal and it went on looking exactly like what came off. I painted over it to try seal it in a little (product says you can). Hopefully that'll last. But yeah, the welds on the frame looked like they were done last week. Phil
My 48 Ford coupe has that undercoating all under it too. After seeing how well it has worked, I have no intention of removing it except in places where I might need to replace something.
Hello, Living near the ocean for most of our lives creates a salt infused air that hits everyone’s cars and trucks. If one goes to the coastal drives and parking spaces for beach activities on a daily or weekly basis, one is going to run into high tide flooding and obviously, salt water splashing under the whole car or hot rod. From the time we went to the beach on a regular basis and drove over plenty of salt infused roads, We instantly hosed off the whole bottom of the car thoroughly with our garden hose or drove down the street to the power hose sprayer business, that helped tremendously. When my brother got his 1951 Oldsmobile Sedan, it had features that only came from the factory. That did almost nothing, but luckily, we lived near industrial complexes and there was one of those early hose sprayers for low cost usage on trucks and semi trailers. Does driving in a foot deep salt water flooded road count? On our King Tides, several So Cal roads near the beaches get flooded with the tides and surf rolling up/over the beach sand berms. Many So Cal residents have experienced the deep salt water flooding near the coast. Even those that launch their weekend boats from harbor ramps get total immersion in the deep salt water. So, salt is all around us, not just approximately 740 miles inland. Just about everything everyone else has said about salt getting on hot rod parts is supported by thousands that have gone there in the past. We are just people that have ordinary electricals, some chrome stuff on the motors plus other places. They are all metal that can/will rust without anything else to get that salt spray, chunks or total immersion in the deep salt water floods near us. On our new 1958 Impala, we were told to go to this old garage in the outskirts of the LA Downtown area by our dad’s mechanic expert. …”Just drive up and tell the guy that you need a full undercoat spray on the Impala.” This friend of our dad knew his stuff and when he said it was for the good of the car, we followed his suggestions. The location was on the seedy area of the downtown area and seemed a little shaky driving my brother’s new 58 Impala around. But, we did find the location. It was an old gas station that was converted to a mechanics garage only. It had the lifts on the outside of the main building, inside of the fenced in car port. We told the owner what we wanted and he said that our mechanic friend had already called and set everything up for us. The Impala was put on the lift and once up there, the bottom was cleaned and dried with a large heating fan. The Impala had its wheels removed and the whole car was covered for overspray. Then, when it was ready, the owner started spraying this black gooey stuff all over the inside of the wheel wells, and everything underneath the car. It was a smelly procedure and took a while. Luckily, it was walking distance to Phillipe’s Famous Sandwich Shop and that p***ed the time away. By the time we got back, the guy was going around the bottom of the door sills and edges of the body to clear out the drainage holes. He said that was one of the most important things to do as the factory sprays did little to none in total coverage. Also that those holes needed to be clear for total drainage to prevent rust inside of the doors and rear panels. The heavy duty industrial spray was the best thing going for daily usage in our salty air explorations. We lived about two miles from actual salt water from the back harbor areas. With the West winds blowing every day, there was always thick salt infused mist in the afternoons and late nights. As we drove farther south into Seal Beach/Huntington Beach area, one could just see the salt air lifting and moving across the highway as we blasted through it and down to the coastal parking areas. Jnaki Since that first application, while living in Long Beach, we had the next car, a 1965 El Camino sprayed just the second day off of the showroom floor. That was a life saver, not only for salt water, but kept the corrosive water and mud off of the factory bare metal underneath. Snow covered roads/salt infused roads? No problem with this heavy duty undercoating. We did have to go through plenty of high tide lots and streets all along the coast during our surf adventures. Miles of snowy mountain roads and locations, as well as dusty/sometimes muddy river washes, out in the desert environments. We kept the El Camino for 125k miles and the underneath looked brand new after a nice power spray cleaning. The thick application was not going anywhere and protected like no other. If anyone is using a ramp to lower the boat trailer into salt water or even lakes, this professional sprayed on undercoating helps keep your car/truck relatively rust free. But, cleaning with a power spray is still necessary. Our neighbor had a 1964 El Camino and never did the undercoating. By the time we had ours sprayed, his El Camino was so rusty that it looked like it came from the junkyard and not a Chevy dealer’s lot the previous year in 1964. He never went to high tide salt infused locations and was only on surface streets as a daily driver and work vehicle. YRMV From a person who has gone through plenty of cars in salt air situations, it works. It was not the spray can from the auto parts store, but a professional spray on thicker coating of the black undercoat material. The application does the best job and lasts for a long time. Extra insurance for your car's metal surfaces, helps in the long run. YRMV https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...bottom-of-floors.1149659/page-2#post-13084443
i inherited a 1st-gen camaro that had a dealer undercoat, and that's the only thing that didn't rust on it!
Working in a body shop in the late 60s we got under coating in a 5 gallon bucket. I believe it was thinned with enamel reducer and it was sprayed on. It was the worst and dirtiest job in the place. I think I still have some of it up my nose and it is keeping my hair from falling out.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was Creosote mixed with roofing tar! I s****ed all of it off the underside of my 56 Chevy, only to reveal pristine floorboard's and the factory Red Oxide primer applied by Fisher Body! Whatever it was, It was good stuff!!!
I hated to peel the undercoating off the Hawk but I could see where a lot of it was loose and I was thinking that it may end up causing more problems than doing good.
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