Undercoat or NOT?

I am getting my 1950 Ford F1 ready for paint. I had thought I wouldn't undercoat the fenders or body, but I have had a couple of people at work tell me that they undercoat their fenders.

What's your choice?

John

 

Personally, I'd use a truck bedliner type-product on the undersides of the fenders, both for rust protection, and stone (reverse dent) protection.

 

I will soon come to the same dilema on my '49 F-1. My truck was a Georgia truck, and it has Georgia "undercoating". Basically, it is a tar/oil mix with dirt and sand packed into it. It has worked GREAT so far because there is not one spot of rust under my truck. OTOH, I will probably pull the fenders and wheel them down before I paint to get the crap off. It is starting to flake off in certain spots and I don't think spraying undercoat over that shit is going to hold.

 

put down some corrosion protection first, but it does help for sound deadning and stone damaage from inside the fenders.

for a street driver i'd undercoat them. show guys tend not to these days



skull

 

I had undercoating on my fenders some time ago. It didn't seem to hurt anything, but after it gets grunged up, there is no way to get it really looking good again. If you are very particular about how the car looks from underneath, this might be a problem. At the current stage of my hot rodding life, I don't worry about that any more, but haven't had undercoat in some time.

 

Rods & Relics recommends undercoating for daily driven cars.

 

Sounds like undercoat of some type. It will be an everyday truck.

Thanks, John

 

I've used the brush on stuff from JC Whitney with success but I rather have a spray on solution.

Any ideas for a DIY at home spray solution?

 

at my shop we first paint the surface to be uncercoated (for corrosion protection) then we spray on a bed liner type product called raptor, from a company called U-POL. its a catylised coating so it will harden and it is tintable, so if you want a color other than black it is possible.

 

IMO asphalt based, bed liner, lizard skin, etc is good depending on your needs, but,

I would not use a RUBERIZED undercoating, that stuff makes a very durable skin over your vehicle that will trap water and guarantee serious rust over the long term.

 

I second that!!

 

39 All ford has a good point. I just scraped rubberized undercoat from my 60 wagon inner fenders. More rust than metal left under them.

 

I use paint + lots of it. RUBERIZED undercoating is the worst.

 

I epoxy prime (tough stuff) then use stone chip coating and overcoat with colour, kept the underneath of my F100 perfect for the 12 years i had it.

 

I've been using bedliner for a couple of years. I thought all was good. Now I'm starting to get some comebacks for rock dents....seems the 'liner is too hard. I suppose if I put it on an inch thick it would deflect rocks better.....or if I lived somewhere with better roads. Anyway, I'm experimenting with a few different things...rocker shutz, undercoating, etc. Keep the ideas coming....

 

A rubberized undercoating would probably protect well on a brand-new car still on the dealer's lot. Once it's been on the road a while, I think a creeping rust-proofing would work best. The skill & experience of the guy applying the coating is more important than the coating itself.

 

Well after using the search feature , I noticed that most people using undercoating lived in an area that have harsh winters. Most people seem to think that the asphalt based products are the better choices also. The asphalt based seals the areas better, keeping water out and not trapping it behind the product.

Being that I live in Raleigh, NC and the winters are not that bad (not as much sand and salt). I think that I will just give the under sides a couple extra coats of epoxy and paint. I had to remove what I thought was pure tar from a few fenders which seems to have been the asphalt based type of undercoating. I don't think I want to do that again.

Thanks for the info and help, John