Fenderwells, paint or undercoating

[coffeedart67]

the body shop I'm taking the Dart to, mentioned blasting the undercoating out of the fenderwells and painting the fenderwells body color. Kind of on the fence on this, the undercoating is sold and seems to be holding. Just seems to me that paint would be more prone to chip in that area, leading to rust. Thoughts, opinions, which would be more original and how are yur fenderwells finished?
thanks
Aaron

 

[HemiPar]

Well I was thinking of the same thing with the paint. I was afraid of the old undercoating being to hard and there may be loose spots. So I scrapped off the old undercoating and applied new. If your car will be driven I would not just paint it. I think the factory, they painted then applied undercoating to certain areas. Just my .02 worth.

 

[RedFish]

If I had plastic wheel well linners paint would be fine. Rubberized undercoating protects, insulates a litle, and kills tire noise a little.

 

[Burntorange70]

I would never paint that area. It looks bad and will chip bad. Undercoating only there. But that just me.

 

[72ScampTramp]

What products are you guys using?

 

[4flats]

Mostly dirt and old road tar.

 

[FISHBREATH]

Definitely use a modern undercoating there. The old stuff has likely become hard and cracked in some areas. Undercoating also protects the wheelwell paint from stone nicks, which will eventually rust. A lot of people have been using pick-em-up truck bedliner material - seems to stay pliable much longer than the OEM stuff.

 

[WymanV]

Undercoating is also a lot quieter... :thumbrig:

Ken <---forgot to insulate his headliner

 

[C130 Chief]

So lemme get this right, the original undercoating lasted 40+ years, and you wonder what to use?

I would either leave it alone, and apply another coat to spiff it up, or strip, prime paint and reapply. The factory didn't exactly put a heavy coat of paint under this stuff, knowing undercoating would be applied. Same with the inner surfaces of the fenders themselves. If you have the fenders off, you can certainly make it "better than new".

 

[Rengo]

rhino liner or truck bed liner.

 

[clifftt]

So lemme get this right, the original undercoating lasted 40+ years, and you wonder what to use?

I would either leave it alone, and apply another coat to spiff it up, or strip, prime paint and reapply. The factory didn't exactly put a heavy coat of paint under this stuff, knowing undercoating would be applied. Same with the inner surfaces of the fenders themselves. If you have the fenders off, you can certainly make it "better than new".

Exactly what I did ... easy and looks good.

 

[bamacuda]

Duplicolor undercating in a rattle can has worked well with me. It sprays really nice, and has an original look when dried.

 

[ramenth]

So lemme get this right, the original undercoating lasted 40+ years, and you wonder what to use?

I would either leave it alone, and apply another coat to spiff it up, or strip, prime paint and reapply. The factory didn't exactly put a heavy coat of paint under this stuff, knowing undercoating would be applied. Same with the inner surfaces of the fenders themselves. If you have the fenders off, you can certainly make it "better than new".

Right. ^

And the body shop who mentioned this needs to do some research on the whys and wherefores of the factory doing such things. If they want to take on restoration work, then details count.

The trend continues today of "blacking out" the wheel wells for aesthetic purposes, usually done with plastic wheel liners in modern cars.

Even if the car didn't have the full undercoating option, the factory applied undercoating at the the wheel wells. A lot of it had to do with the way the paint was applied at the factory: fenders on, doors off. Not a lot of paint was getting into the area. Something had to cover the primer and thin layer of overspray.

But it's a functional purpose also. As everyone mentioned here, especially the Chief, the factory knew they were going to be painting the car in this manner, so they needed something on for protection. And since the tires will sling everything towards the body: rocks, salt, water spray, etc, undercoating was the best option to protect the sheetmetal. So, even if you paint it with good paint, how are you going to treat it and take care of it from stone chips, etc?

Black it out, in my opinion, and get some protection in there, rather it's undercoating or bedliner.

 

[coffeedart67]

So lemme get this right, the original undercoating lasted 40+ years, and you wonder what to use?

I would either leave it alone, and apply another coat to spiff it up, or strip, prime paint and reapply. The factory didn't exactly put a heavy coat of paint under this stuff, knowing undercoating would be applied. Same with the inner surfaces of the fenders themselves. If you have the fenders off, you can certainly make it "better than new".

Not sure if it is the factory undercoating or if it was done when the previous owner repainted it in the late 80's early 90's, haven't seen any areas yet where it is coming off.

 

[3404speed]

If there are no rust issues in the area, leave it. Otherwise, do as needed to cure the rust and reapply a coating to prevent road noise and chips if you are going to drive the car.