The car in question is the 1930 Coupe in my avatar. I'm having a 354 Hemi built for it as we speak, and it's going to be fairly deeply torn apart over the upcoming winter. The guy who built it never did anything to paint or finish the underside of the car. It has steel flat panel floors and isn't real attractive. I know no one else can see it but it drives me nuts how sloppy the underside looks. He said that when he did the car he used something called "cosmoline" on the bare steel floor panels. I've heard of it but know nothing about this stuff. The cosmoline appears to have done little to prevent surface rust from just starting to form over the years. They're very solid and not rotting at all, but some surface rust has formed and it's light enough that some elbow grease should be sufficient to remove it. The question is what to do once the underside is clean enough for paint. I don't want to paint it body color because as with most cars the panels are surely not perfectly straight and will show every flaw. I was thinking either a satin flat ch***is paint like Eastwood makes, or even a medium grey spatter paint like they used to use in car trunks back in the day. Any ideas you guys have on cleaning up what's there now, easy ways to spray without destroying the garage, prep work, removing the cosmoline, (if that's an issue), colors, etc would be greatly appreciated. Second, the car has a Super Bell solid front axle with the usual transverse leaf, Vega steering, etc. It is all satin black painted right now, but it's all chipped up, and a small number of rust spots here and there are forming. Nothing major at all, it's just not clean and sanitary looking anymore. I wanted everything chrome, but that's crazy money around here to get done. I was thinking about one of those chrome look (not quite) powder coatings or I'll just redo it satin black paint again. I'd love to drill the axle but that seems like a whole lot of work. That thing is pretty beefy and thick. If I do the black again, I'll just remove the suspension and spray it at home rather than have it poweder coated, unless youy uys think that would be significantly more durable. Same with the rear differential housing. Any recommendations on a very durable paint to use so it doesn't get quickly all rock chipped as it is now? Do I just use regular paint on the spring or do I need to add some sort of agent to it so it doesn't crack when the spring flexes? Thanks guys.
I have a tie for my favorite color between satin black and flat black. I did the underside of my fendered Model A with Rustoleum Flat black. Axles, springs, radius rods, etc. all got satin black. You'll need to decide what you want. It's your car. What look do you like? Lynn
I agree that a black that's between flat and gloss looks best. Although if you don't do a good job applying a gloss black, and it gets normal dirty, then it ends up looking like a satin or semi gloss. Think about how often you'll want to clean it. If you paint the suspension parts a color that's close to the color of the metal, then when it chips, the chips won't be so noticeable....whatever you do, don't spray light gray primer on them then put black paint over it, the chips will be very easy to see. I can see wanting to powder coat parts that will get chipped easily, although I wouldn't go that far on my cars, I'm OK with chips on the black ch***is parts. Cosmoline is a substance that's sort of like heavy grease, and you need to do a good job cleaning it all off and then degreasing a few times, if you want the paint to stick. What a pain. I don't know for sure what color Ford used under their cars back then, but my guess is that it was probably black on the metal, and a different black on the wood parts. So black would probably look best.
Before any paint goes on every speck of cosmoline must be removed. It's a preservative that's half wax, half grease or something along those lines. If it were mine I'd coat it with satin black POR15. I know some don't like it, but I've had good results and if properly applied it lasts forever.
Is powder coating your suspension an option for you? If so it is really the way to go. As far as the floor panels and adjoining areas really look good using the same type of paint that the German cars typically use on rocker panels and behind the rear wheels. You can have it color matched and it can hide a lot of what you described
Dinitrol 447 Black Stone Chip Underseal Aerosol. After thorough drying, DINITROL 447 can be coated with all conventional paints.
Ive used Rustoleum 'Semi Gloss Black' for frames, axles, fender wells, etc etc . It holds up excellent . Some stuff Ive done over 30 years ago. Even slightly rusted parts it works great. I scrub with detergent , scrub brush and those super course scotch bright type big pads to prep before paint with Semi Gloss Black Rustoleum
I'd never advise to powdercoat ANY suspension components, at best it can chip and let water sit behind it and rot parts from the inside out, at worst it can hide stress cracks or weld failures until its too late. A good example here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ZWHmhMBgaeW2fYvuobJStKCLAxq1E3nPPUw53eGZmrkm2E3KQZfq9Ws8vKgWT7dBl&id=100075979595613
Cosmoline is what others say it is. It was used frequently by the military to preserve firearms. That said the only old military trick to getting rid of it is to use GASOLINE at your peril. Soak rags in gas work pretty good but it is a long, messy, dangerous task but it's the only stuff that will remove cosmoline efficiently. Good luck
I like Rust-Oleum spray paint. -It's easily available -available in several colors -easy to apply -easy to touch up. -Looks good! We do our own Powder Coating in the fab. shop where I work, after seeing powder coating it is highly overrated. It can be starched with a fingernail, fades and flakes off in big piece When it is damaged there is no touching it up it means taking everything apart and having it redone.
Since your car is fenderless, it is the car equivalent of a chopper motorcycle where everything is exposed, I would take the whole thing apart, paint everything individually and put it back together.
I just finished redoing the bottom of my 55 Thunderbird. It's a black car and originally was painted black to match the body color. I also removed a **** ton of heavy 1950's undercoat. What a PITA!. I chose (after several sample tries of shades and colors) to use Rustoleum Smoke gray. I had to prime a few bare metal area with Rustoleum spry primer. But I chose to brush on the Finish paint. 2 coats sometime a third touch-up. Dries quickly and levels out very well. I used up almost an entire box of 36 chip brushes fromHobo freight, super cheap and well worth it. I also used them, cut short to occasionally clean with. Never clean them just tossed them away. I am very happy with the look of the way it turned out. Much better visibilty underneath when you slide back under to work on something. I don't own a lift or a rotisserire so it was simply tall safely positioned jack stands. The wheels wells are gloss black. Keep in mind Shiny, gloss paint will shed dirt and crud easier than flat or satin or semi gloss when you try to clean it. Masking off and covering all these intricate areas is on a vehicle in this position is madness. If you are building a car OR rebuilding sections like brakes for example I always try to separate parts and powdercoat them, but for this type of operation this was a better way. My car is an everyday driver, no show car. Looks to me like you could just go ahead and pull the body off your yours and clean it and spray it. That's what I would do. Especially if you're in Houston,-it's gonna rust. The Cosmoline will come off with mineral spirits and soap an water scrubbing, easy if you have the body off. Here's an example, not quite done yet, but close.The frames rails and other stuff is also brushed with Gloss Rust-oleum Black.
I vote for the Rustoleum Satin Black, I've done the last two frames that way, easy to touch up when you find that you need a bracket welded to the frame that you didn't realize you would need. After I mounted the body and had it running my 230 cousin got in and sat down, it moved the body enough that the door wouldn't close I had to add a front seat mount brace to the frame........easy touch up...that picture was in February.
I got a little carried away on my roadster, I admit. Everything is base/clear or polished, and a bit of chrome. My PU truck is more utilitarian. Base/clear again but semi-gloss on the frame, gloss on the suspension, rhinoliner on cab floor, running boards and bottoms of fenders.
I use Rustoleum hammer tone on all my suspension pieces, available in a number of colors and doesn’t need to be primed. Holds up great.
On every car I've built for decades I've used Rustoleum in either gloss black, or satin black. Gloss is actually easier to keep clean, as satin tends to show dirt easier. My method for applying it is to use a small 1" wide paint brush to get into all the tight areas first, and then use either a wide brush, or 3" rollers to do the open areas. With a little care the finish looks very good, and no heavy brush strokes showing. Occasionally there are areas that even the small 1" brush wont get paint into. For those areas I buy a spray can of Rustoleum, and simply spray it into hard to get to recesses.
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