underbody advice

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Dart_Guy

Dart_Guy

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I have my whole car stripped down and ready to begin body. (probably next spring now) The car is very rust free and any little surface rust that started is getting fixed.
the inderbody is still very intact and the original coating is in good condition.
the rest of the car will be all replaced or repainted, but i think leaving the underbody alone may be best for the car? MY only concern is it will be the ugliest part of the car after it is finished.

So shoould I leave it be?
OR clean it up but not remove it and put a fresh coat over it?
OR try to strip it all down and replace it?

Thanks!
 
I would say leave it as is, they are only original once.... unless you are changing the color of the car, then you have no choice.
It will cost a lot more time and money to refinish the underside, and from experience, if you are going to drive it a lot, the undercarriage will look a little shabby in a few years anyway.:poke:
just my 2 cents.

Tom.
 
You can spend 100+ hours removing the factory undercoating. You wont find anything better to replace it.
 
Unless your car is a 1 of 1 or 1 or 5, we just water blaster the underbelly and paint it black. This makes everything look clean & fresh as you can see from the pics.

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I had wanted to strip it all down, but then realized it was there for 39 years, it most likely will be there in another 39.

And spraying it then painting it will be far easier and cheaper.

Thanks for the advice and pics too!
 
Yeah, as you can see some of it comes off and some of it stays. The stuff that stays will be there forever, unless you take off by hand.
 
If your floors look good from the inside chances are it will look good under the factory undercoating. Just feel or tap around in the inside and look for soft spots. I had a car that looked good from underneath but when I took the carpet out there was another sotry. Some how the rust got between the undercoating and the metal.
 
I'll go against the grain here. I thought I only needed to replace the passenger side front floor due to a leaky heater core at some time. I put the car up on the Roto and took the undercoating off and I was I surprised. Three frame rails will need to be replaced. One rear rail was completely coated and completely toast. The only thing holding it in shape was the undercoating. It is up to each individual but I would go the whole mile on this car if you plan on keeping it. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised and sometimes the surprises are just plain scary.
 
HemiPar said:
If your floors look good from the inside chances are it will look good under the factory undercoating. Just feel or tap around in the inside and look for soft spots. I had a car that looked good from underneath but when I took the carpet out there was another sotry. Some how the rust got between the undercoating and the metal.
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I have the carpet out and the floors almost perfect. The low spots that would typically rust had some wierd bubbling in the paint but it came right off and exposed clean metal. Not pitting or anything. Been pretty lucky with car and rust. So far the only damage is is the rear passenger quater in the typical spot behind the tire.
 
klunick said:
I'll go against the grain here. I thought I only needed to replace the passenger side front floor due to a leaky heater core at some time. I put the car up on the Roto and took the undercoating off and I was I surprised. Three frame rails will need to be replaced. One rear rail was completely coated and completely toast. The only thing holding it in shape was the undercoating. It is up to each individual but I would go the whole mile on this car if you plan on keeping it. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised and sometimes the surprises are just plain scary.
Click to expand...

I found that with my last Dart... I thought it was pretty solid but when I started working on the front end, pieces of under body were falling off...

I do intend to keep the car, so I will double check it as best I can. if it takes redoing the underbody then i will... But I also don't want to destroy the integrity of the original coating.
 
I agree that it depends on what your goals and intention are. Problems can be hidden behind coatings just as they can behind paint. I removed the undercoating on mine and then sprayed Zero Rust for a satin black finish. It makes for a nice, uniform, "clean" look. I planned to reapply undercoat over this but haven't.
 
i did that this summer listen while it is fresh in my mind

disclamer beshure you are in a well ventalated area for this

1.my duster had a bunch of grease on the bottem of the floor pans (the only reason they survived) so i used varisal (mineral spirits) but grease remover works fine to

1 1/2. forgot about the cleaning the underside with good paint thiner and let it dry

2. then i cleaned eny rusty spots and used a good metal primer rustolem

3. then i went over the whole underside with John Deere blitz black a flat black that is very strong when it drys
during this time i was very high and seeing danceing monkeys:munky2:
:rolleyes:
and it looks buitiful

good luck
josh
 
Thanks for all the great advice. I will have to decide what I am doing over the winter now. I really want to work on it now, but work and school are crazy. I hate being a part time student.
 
I am in the same stage. Should I remove under coating or should I leave it. The guy doing the work to my car mentioned that if there are cracks in the undercoating then moisture could get in and rust the care from the inside out.

If you paint the undercoating will it seal the cracks? How well does paint stick to undercoating?

I am going to have the car media blasted. The body guy said I should do the underside done as well. Then we could just paint it black with Chassis Black.
 
i just painted over it but i had no craks but if oyu ar lator on gonna put on some sway bars you would need to take it off for 2 reasons easyer to drill the holes and i need to make some chassis stiffening brackets so the then chassis wouldnt rip and welded them on
 
Personally, I would take the undercoating off. Anyplace on the body that was undercoated looked like new metal, with the exception of the rails. The rails have holes in them and moisture and dirt get in there. The rails rusted out from the inside and the undercoating hid the problem. My wife was PO'd because, "You took a perfectly good running car apart and now it is all in pieces." Well, I showed her the rails. I suppose with the /6 in the car, it would have survived for some time. But with a torque monster in it???
 
Take it off! You can use a propane torch to heat it up and a putty knife to
scrap it off! Then you will know what is under it! See the pin holes in the pictures?
It looked good from the in side,but as you can see there is pin holes all over the floors of the car.
Good luck!
 
Well, I think i have been talked back into removing it.

I plan to keep the car for many years and removing it will give me the piece of mind knowing that I took care of any potential problems. If they exsit.
 
this is what i did.Got out the preasure washer, sprayed degreaser than rinced it all off for no sand blasting was needed.Primed it than got 7 cans of the same colour that the body was going to be and painted all under trust me it adds value to the car.

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Hey Snake, that looks good. Didn't yours have the chuncky underbody coating?
 
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